The Morgan Goes Modern

NEW YORK—It is my intention in this column to look closely at the nature of present day collecting. I shall be looking at all sorts of collections—at private collections of all sizes and vintages; at gallerists and dealers’ collections; and starting this week, at institutional collections.

Of course, the deep and intimate relationship between private and institutional collections in this country is a fascinating subject in itself, and, to an Englishman like me, its vitality is one of the more remarkable characteristics of the U.S. arts world. It is a subject that I shall be returning to regularly.

One of New York’s best recent exhibitions, the stunning Egon Schiele show at the Neue Galerie, drew its works from the extensive collections of the two men who founded the institution and defined its mission: Ronald S. Lauder (billionaire, philanthropist, chairman emeritus of MoMA) and the late Serge Sabarsky (native of Vienna, collector, Madison Avenue dealer from 1968 to 1985, curator and Lauder’s mentor).

And the current exhibition at the Asia Society pays homage to its founder, John D. Rockefeller III, and his family, with "A Passion for Asia: The Rockefellers Collect."

But in this first column, I want to examine in depth another of New York’s premier museums that is based upon a great personal collection: the Pierpont Morgan Library, whose reopening at the end of next month, after extensive expansion and refurbishment, we eagerly await. (Indeed, having visited the almost-completed ‘campus’ this week, I can predict that people will find the Renzo Piano buildings well worth the wait.)

The Morgan Library and Museum, as it will be called on its reopening, began its life—as many a New York school child knows—as financier Pierpont Morgan’s private library. Morgan began collecting manuscripts, books, drawings and prints in the late 1880s, and the building that housed them was built next door to his townhouse between 1902 and 1906.

In 1924, 11 years after the old man’s death, J. P. Morgan Jr. turned what had been known as ‘Mr. Morgan’s Library’ into a public institution. This “constituted one of the most momentous cultural gifts in U.S. history,” the Morgan claims, with justification. The Morgan Library expanded its collections throughout the 20th century before closing for its current transformation in 2003.

In addition to this expansion, the Morgan has another exciting development which shall cause me to return to it on a regular basis in these columns. Last September, the Morgan appointed Isabelle Dervaux (formerly of the National Academy Museum and the National Gallery of Art) as its first curator of modern and contemporary drawings. “With the purpose,” in her words, “of expanding both the collection and the exhibitions into the field of the modern and contemporary.”

Currently, the Morgan’s holdings in this area are relatively modest. It has extensive gifts from Eugene V. and Claire E. Thaw of classic modern works up to and including Pollock. And they have the late lyricist Fred Ebb’s bequest of 43 early 20th-century German and Austrian drawings. (Am I alone in finding it slightly jarring to realize that the man who wrote the words to “Santa Baby” also collected Schiele and Grosz?) They have the Pierre Matisse Archives, and they have a range of other gifts.

But the Morgan is not primarily known for its modern and contemporary endeavors. It staged "New York Collects" in 1999 (a show borrowed entirely from private collections in New York) and "Pierre Matisse and his Artists" in 2002 (based upon the archives), but really, as an acquiring curator, Dervaux is starting pretty much from scratch.

“We haven’t acquired anything yet,” she told me, “because first we need to have a budget for it.” And when I ask where the budget will come from, she says with a smile, “That’s what we’re working on.”

If her situation seems a little daunting, she makes it plain that she regards it as exciting as well: “The nice thing here is it’s all open. There is no real limit to what we are going to collect.”

So what does that mean that she’ll be buying? She tells me that she’ll be “trying to get masterpieces, really wonderful pieces.” But that, on the other hand, “we are also a research collection,” so she’ll want to acquire, “works by artists that are less well known but that are important in some way, because they give a context for other works, or they represent something that was in favor at a particular time. So,” and here she laughs out loud, “it’s about everything! Everything that has significance if you want to look at the history of drawing from 1900 to today.”

An exciting prospect indeed. But Dervaux is well aware of the practicalities of her endeavor. “It’s really based on what’s going to be available. You have to strike a balance between having an ideal list of the great draftsmen or draftswomen of the century that we would like to represent on the one hand, and then on the other hand, what’s available and what we can get.”

And she also understands that this can’t be a single-handed—or even a single-institution—effort. “Of course, every museum establishes relationships with private collectors,” she says, “and collectors who are really interested in art are also interested in participating in the life of museums. So we are cultivating collectors. I’m also working with dealers, because they can help in their relationships with collectors.”

The Morgan will declare its intentions in this regard gradually. When the museum reopens, a huge survey show of 150 drawings will include six 20th-century pieces. In December, it will stage "Steinberg at the New Yorker," curated by Joel Smith, who wrote the wonderful 2005 book of the same name. Then in March 2007, it will present an exhibition of the "Fred Ebb Bequest." Ms Dervaux sees an important part of her role as simply, “letting it be known that we are collecting 20th-century work.”

So, I hereby anoint Isabelle Dervaux at the Morgan Library and Museum this column’s first “featured collector,” because I, too, am interested in the practicalities of her situation—and believe that we might all learn a good deal from how she develops the Morgan’s modern and contemporary holdings.

I shall be coming back to talk to her every few months, though she smiles and warns me not to be in too much of a hurry. “It will take a little time. This is a long-term thing. You know when you start as a curator that it will take a few years …”