Health&Lifestyle

Hang ‘Em High! Art Hounds

  • The Delta Shuttle Sheet
  • |
  • March 01, 2004

by Karen Feld

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Within a stable of star curators at the Smithsonian, Philip Conisbee, senior curator of European paintings and curator of French paintings at the National Gallery of Art, is D.C.’s hot curator at the moment.

That’s saying a lot. Washington is not just the nation’s capital, it could also be considered the nation’s museum capital, thanks to the legacy of James Smithson, and the numerous other fine galleries and collections thriving in the city. Conisbee works in a town full of top experts in museum work. Indeed, he faces competition for acclaim from his own colleagues at the National Gallery of Art — Andrew Robison and Nicholas Penny, to name two.

But the British-born former academician scored with two hit shows last fall — The Age of Watteau, Chardin, and Fragonard: Masterpieces of French Genre Painting and Christopher Willhelm Eckersberg, 1783-1853. And he’s already lining up works for a potential blockbuster in 2006: a major exhibition highlighting the work of Paul Cézanne in Provence, timed to mark the centennial of the French painter’s death.

arthounds2CONISBEE’S FAVORITE PIECE FROM THE COLLECTION: “Paul Cézanne’s Château Noir, 1900-04: for the extraordinary sensuality of its rich color and densely worked paint, which expresses the artist’s intense engagement with this motif in the hills of Provence.”

THE EXHIBIT HE WISHES HE COULD CURATE: “A great exhibition of German Romantic art of the early 19th century, centering on the work of Caspar David Friedrich [1774-1840], to show these artists’ pasionate engagement with nature, and to make their work better known in this country, where our view of the 19th century is still too exclusively dominated by French art — great as it is.”

HIS DREAM ACQUISITION: “A great altarpiece by Caravaggio, for its intense visual drama and deep, empathetic humanity.”

Conisbee’s “hot” status, however, contrasts with his personal style. He’s low-key and thoughtful. “A great exhibition is one that is carefully conceived and focused, containing great works of art that ‘speak to each other’ in a meaningful way,” he says.

Nor does he believe that a great exhibition is the work of one person. He compares the role of a curator to that of a movie director. “it’s a team effort,” he says. “the director’s name may be the biggest, but when you look at the credits, you see many other people who have contributed.”

Conisbee’s modesty was one of the qualities that French Ambassador to the United States Jean-David Levitte noted when presenting the curator with the Legion d’honneur on behalf of the French government for his service in promoting French culture in 2003.

Conisbee, 58, was an author and academic in England before moving to the United States in 1986 to become curator of French paintings at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. He next moved to the West Coast, spending five years as curator of European painting and sculpture at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. While in Los Angeles, Conisbee met his wife, Faya Causey, a specialist in ancient art. He took his present position at the National Gallery of Art in 1993, and Causey works with him, heading academic programs at the museum.

“What I enjoy about museum life is to really engage with works of art on a day-to-day basis,” says Conisbee. “when you’re an academic, you spend more time in the library and you tend to get a bit removed from the work of art.”

Part of that hands-on work includes shopping for art for the permanent collection — working within budget and hunting down unheralded masterpieces. “[I] get involved in the art market, the auctions, to meet with art dealers, collectors and other sources for acquisitions,” he says. “Our founding donors gave us a great collection of art. The challenge is how to build the collection.” Notably, he’s bought several Italian Baroque paintings for the collection, filling a historical gap in the collection for a moderate price (millions, rather than tens of millions).

Conisbee feels that seeking out less fashionable schools of art, like Italian Baroque, is beneficial, not only financially, but also culturally. “With research and greater historical understanding, we can ‘rediscover’ forgotten artists from the past and reconsider them for our own time,” he says. The Dutch painter Johannes Vermeer, he points out as an example, was forgotten from after his death in 1675 until the late 19th century. “That’s why I take more pleasure in doing an exhibition of Eckersberg than I might in van Gogh. It’s breaking new ground, leading public taste.”

Art patrons can be sure that Consibee is seeking out the next artist whom he can introduce to a contemporary audience. It’s what will keep him a hot curator.

-KAREN FELD

National Gallery of Art, between Third and Ninth streets at Constitution Avenue NW; 202-737-4215; www.nga.gov

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