Q&A: John Stuart Gordon – Antiques And The Arts Weekly

John Stuart Gordon, the Benjamin Attmore Hewitt curator of American decorative arts at the Yale University Art Gallery (YUAG), was one of three curatorial voices that contributed to YUAG’s most recent collections publications: American Art: Selections from the Yale University Art Gallery (2023). When a copy landed on Antiques and The Arts Weekly’s editorial desk, we couldn’t resist the urge to speak with Gordon about some of the behind-the-scenes insights behind its production, what’s notable about this particular volume, forthcoming titles that are presently in-the-works and what made it into the book.

For readers not in the know, is American Art: Selections from the Yale University Art Gallery part of a regular series or does it stand alone as a Yale University Press publication?

The Yale University Art Gallery is well known for its American collections yet there has never been a general introduction. This volume is intended to complement the existing books that focus on particular themes or areas of the collection. The idea for this new publication originated with the Friends of American Arts at Yale, the donor group that supports the gallery’s departments of American Decorative Arts and American Paintings and Sculpture. It was founded in 1973 and for the 50th anniversary in 2023 the group wanted to commemorate the milestone in some tangible way. The gallery’s leadership proposed an introduction to the American art holdings; something that would appeal to loyal fans of the museum as well as to casual visitors who want to learn more about the collections. It was the perfect solution for honoring the legacy of the Friends of American Arts at Yale and addressing the needs of the museum. It is a standalone volume, but we hope that eventually similar books covering other aspects of the collection will appear.

Nearly 150 works are featured. What was the criteria for inclusion?

Identifying the featured objects was the hardest part. Although the project originated within the departments of American Decorative Arts and American Paintings and Sculpture, we knew immediately that we wanted to involve our colleagues from across the museum and tell a story that is as expansive as the American experience. When we pooled every object cataloged as “American,” there were more than 62,000 pieces from which to choose, ranging in date from the Seventeenth to the Twentieth-First Centuries and encompassing coins, drawings, photographs, prints, paintings, sculpture, furniture and decorative arts. Each curator assembled a list of their “must include” pieces and the negotiations began.

The conversations were passionate and informative as we discussed the art historical merits of the finalists and thought about the narrative flow of the book. The designer, Margaret Bauer, did an amazing job bringing a visual rhythm to the entries. We promised our editor we would keep it to 100 highlight objects, and the fact we ended up with 146 underscores how difficult the process was. For those who are sad they don’t see a favorite work included, I offer up a comparison: Yale’s current undergraduate admission rate is 4.5 percent, while less than 1 percent of the gallery’s American collection is in the book. Talk about a rigorous selection process!

The book opens with an essay on the history of American art at Yale, jointly authored by Patricia E. Kane, Friends of American Arts at Yale curator of American decorative art, Mark D. Mitchell, Holcombe T. Green curator of American paintings and sculpture, and me. It is a remarkable story, especially for anyone interested in the history of museums. The Yale University Art Gallery is one of the oldest museums in the country — founded through the acquisition of painter John Trumbull’s collection in 1832 — but art had been a part of college life from its founding in 1701. The museum was also central to the establishment of the Yale School of the Fine Arts in 1869 as the nation’s first art school associated with an institute of higher education. As the museum continued to grow during the first half of the Twentieth Century, many of the key moments involved American art, including the transformative gift of the Mabel Brady Garvan Collection beginning in 1930 and the arrival of the Société Anonyme collection in 1941, formed in part by the American artist and collector Katherine S. Dreier. Many familiar names in the history of American art and collecting make appearances in this history of this collection.

Some of the works in the catalog may be well-known to readers. For those that are previously published examples, does American Art: Selections… offer new scholarship?

We wanted to strike a balance between the objects for which Yale is best-known and more unexpected choices. Yet even for the “old chestnuts” we wanted to say something new, and thus we turned to current and former fellows and colleagues — the people who know these works of art the best and could write about them with insight. For example, Jennifer Farrell, now curator of Modern and Contemporary Prints and Illustrated Books at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, wrote about midcentury works on paper; Susan P. Schoelwer, now Robert H. Smith senior curator at George Washington’s Mount Vernon, wrote about a Nineteenth Century embroidered picture; Diane Wright, now curator of Glass and Decorative Arts at the Toledo Museum of Art, wrote about glass; and Yechen Zhao, now assistant curator of Photography and Media at the Art Institute of Chicago, wrote about modernist photography. We found that some of our iconic objects had not been reresearched in decades, and not since the internet expanded access to original sources. As a result, I was able to uncover more context around John Coney’s famous monteith bowl owned by John Colman and correct the date on a widely published textile by Ruth Reeves. Each contributor has similar stories. It is a reminder that one is never done thinking through great and complex objects.

Several of the modern works appear to have been acquired since 2000. Is this the first time some of these have been published?

The selection shows how Yale’s collection is evolving, and not just in terms of modern art. Over the past few decades, we have continued to broaden the collection in terms of cultural and geographic representation. For example, the book features a tin-glazed earthenware jar made in Puebla, Mexico, a French-inflected silver pitcher from the Missouri River Valley and a horn chair from Texas. Readers will also see how we continue to build upon areas of existing strength, such as the recent acquisitions of Martin Johnson Heade’s “Two Hummingbirds with Their Young,” circa 1865, and a coffeepot made in 1769 by silversmith Paul Revere. The growth of the collection may be more apparent in the Twentieth and Twenty-First Centuries, with new arrivals to the collection, including a bedstead from 1912-15 by Lucia and Arthur Mathews, the 1958 painting “Card Players” by Hale Woodruff and Sol LeWitt’s “Wall Drawing #681 E.” This is the first time many of these pieces have been published, although other new acquisitions have already developed their own followings. For example, designs from the Swid Powell collection and Kerry James Marshall’s 2009 canvas “Untitled” are regularly loaned to exhibitions. Museum collections are rarely static and it is exciting to see how a collection that is more than 190-years-old keeps changing.

Does the Yale University Art Gallery press have other titles in production we can look forward to? When might those be published?

The gallery’s most recent publication accompanies our current exhibition “Munch and Kirchner: Anxiety and Expression.” Featuring never-before-published prints from the collection of Nelson Blitz Jr, and Catherine Woodard, as well as etchings, lithographs, and hand-colored woodcuts from select public and private collections across the United States, this volume puts these two giants of Expressionism in a dialogue that foregrounds issues of mental health and offers a fresh approach that blends art history and the history of medical treatment.

This autumn, the publication The Dance of Life: Figure and Imagination in American Art, 1876-1917 will come out to accompany the exhibition of the same name that will be at the gallery in New Haven before traveling to the National Gallery of Art in London. It focuses on two of the main artists of the American Renaissance, John Singer Sargent and Edwin Austin Abbey, and their use of the human figure to convey narrative and emotion.

The gallery has launched a series of books that explore one spectacular object from the collections. The first installment is: The Naseby Cup: Coins and Medals of the English Civil War. This remarkably complex silver trophy is inset with 72 coins and medals from the time of the English Civil War (1642-51), many of them rarities in their own right. The book unpacks the stories of the coins and how they came to be gathered together in this single, exceptional work of art.

—Madelia Hickman Ring