Council for Artists' Rights

Why was Dallas Museum of Art Director

Bonnie Pitman's Book
Release Canceled?
Will the topic of recent DMA taxpayer-artists' rights
"incidents" be discussed by the public at her talks at the
Museum of Modern Art and Metropolitan Museum of Art?

August 20, 2010

Dear ally of artists' rights:

After being interviewed in March by Hilarie M. Sheets of the New York Times
about her forthcoming book "Igniting the Power of Art: Advancing Visitor
Engagement in Museum Experiences," one would think Dallas Museum of Art
director Bonnie Pitman was on a roll. Sheets says Pitman was scheduled
to release her book in June. However, no reason has been given for
the stalled release. Once given the blessing to proceed, the book publishing
industry is a well-oiled machine with release dates being determined well in
advance. This indefinite postponement of "Igniting" naturally raises
some questions. Is the book unfinished? Are there no glowing
recommendation blurbs for it? Is someone having second thoughts about the
entire project? Is Pitman wondering how she will be perceived by the DMA's
fiduciary arm--its board of directors, trustees--and the museum-going
public, after she gains personal monetary enrichment from the book's
proceeds, especially if it is later determined that she used precious museum
resources to plan, write and sell it at taxpayer's expense?

So, it is approaching 90 days since "Ignite" was supposed to have hit the
stands. Perhaps the delay is instead the result of the last spring's barrage of
emails, newspaper and magazine articles and blogger exchanges
questioning the proper management of the DMA. For instance, was the May/
June flurry of unflattering stories by the Dallas Morning News, D Magazine and
bloggers about the DMA's "secret sale" of the $31.4M Mark Rothko painting--an
irrevocably promised museum gift--by museum trustee Marguerite Hoffman
a factor?

In the wake of the NYT Sheets interview, D Magazine arts writer

Peter Simek reported that Pitman was invited to speak at the Museum
of Modern Art and the Metropolitan Museum of Art. At the time of this
email the press office of the Met has not confirmed a Pitman speaking
date and MoMA has not answered us at all.

One has to wonder how damaging to the reputations of the DMA and Pitman
was Dallas wildflower artist Chapman Kelley's June 1, 2010 artists' rights
request for her to remove his painting "Sand Dune" (1960) from the current
"Coastlines: Images of Land and Sea" exhibition. That display modified Kelley's
work by adding sound to it--without his permission or collaboration--and is
perceived to be a violation of Kelley's moral and personality rights as set
forth in the Visual Artists Rights Act of 1990. When asked a few days ago about
Pitman's ongoing refusal to remove his work from the exhibition, Chapman
Kelley replied "She did not have the basic decency to quietly remove my
painting."

The Kelley "remove my painting" request is a dagger in the heart of a major

premise of Pitman's book. One of the conclusions to be drawn from "Ignite" is
that museum visitors need to be bathed in added-on sound effects and
subjected to poetry while they view artwork. The concept is not new. In 1993
former Metropolitan Museum of Art director Thomas Hoving authored "Making
the Mummies Dance : Inside the Metropolitan Museum of Art" about his
experience and after being urged by a New York City mayor to make the Met
more attractive to the public. In Russell Lynes 1973 book "Good old Modern;:
An intimate portrait of the Museum of Modern Art" Lynes wrote about long time
MoMA director and expert exhibit installer Rene d'Harnoncourt, who said "Who
comes first, the installer or the guy who's being installed?...A museum director
shouldn't add to a work of art, he must not prostitute the whole thing and finally
make a peepshow of it....If some museum directors like to do that sort of thing,
painting."

The Kelley "remove my painting" request is a dagger in the heart of a major

premise of Pitman's book. One of the conclusions to be drawn from "Ignite" is
that museum visitors need to be bathed in added-on sound effects and
subjected to poetry while they view artwork. The concept is not new. In 1993
former Metropolitan Museum of Art director Thomas Hoving authored "Making
the Mummies Dance : Inside the Metropolitan Museum of Art" about his
experience and after being urged by a New York City mayor to make the Met
more attractive to the public. In Russell Lynes 1973 book "Good old Modern;:
An intimate portrait of the Museum of Modern Art" Lynes wrote about long time
MoMA director and expert exhibit installer Rene d'Harnoncourt, who said "Who
comes first, the installer or the guy who's being installed?...A museum director
shouldn't add to a work of art, he must not prostitute the whole thing and finally
make a peepshow of it....If some museum directors like to do that sort of thing,
let them use eggs, not works of art." Another example can be found
in editor Brian O'Doherty's 1972 book "Museums in Crisis." Bryan Robertson
wrote a chapter for it entitled "The Museum and the Democratic Fallacy" and
says "...the public, conditioned by the strenuous and massively simple slogans
of advertising and the super-realistic giantism of cinemascope, now expects to
find a commensurate spectacle at the museum and is dismayed not to find
some semblance of showbiz glitter in the permanent collections as well as
temporary installations. But it is absurd that the size of an audience should
take precedence over what happens to visitors inside a museum. Numbers
may relate to a democracy but not to art." Finally, in Harold Rosenberg's 1983
book "Art on the Edge: Creators and Situations" chapters 25 and 26 zero in
on what has become of the art world in the U.S., essentially saying the artist
had been demoted, that what art critics had to say about art had become more
important than either the artist or the work itself. And that art
museum trustees are guilty of art market speculation. Fast forward to
2010, does it sound familiar?

So, was it terribly bad timing for Pitman to crow last June about a book
accomplishment while struggling in the vortex of so many unanswered
questions about her ignoring living artists' moral rights--of attribution, integrity
and personality--the flaunting of museum ethics and lack of museum
transparency?

Here is a 2009 - 2010 recap of communications and exchanges

about taxpayer and artists' rights issues:

August 6, 2010, by Council for Artists' Rights or CFAR, "Art Dealer

Larry Salander Cheats Artists' Heirs, Faces 6 to 18 Years in
Prison," raises questions about art museum transparency issues.

July 2010, D Magazine, "Dallas Museum of Art Director Aims For

'Growth,'" counterpoints that not everyone agrees with how "Coastlines" was
curated.

June 10, 2010, by CFAR, "Update: Dallas Museum of Art Ignores Kelley's
"Remove my painting," shows how living artists' rights are ignored.

June 10, 2010, by D Magazine, "

Dallas Museum of Art to Artist Chapman Kelley: 'Your Work is Not for
Sale,'" remarks on Pitman's letter to Kelley.

June 4, 2010, DMA director Bonnie Pitman replies to Kelley, here is a copy of
her letter.

June 2, 2010, by D Magazine,

"Chapman Kelley and the Dallas Museum of Art, Cont.," Kelley interviewed
about his artists' rights issue.

June 2, 2010, by D Magazine, "Artist Chapman Kelley to DMA: 'I'll Take My

Painting Back Now, Thank You,'" Kelley's artists' rights request is reported.

June 1, 2010, by CFAR, "Dallas, TX Arts Institutions Vs. Artists Claes

Oldenburg-Coosje van Bruggen, Kelley and Kraft," gives three examples of
Dallas artists' rights issues.
May 24, 2010, by CFAR, "Continued Cover Up by Dallas Morning News of
$56M "permanent collection" Sales by Dallas Museum of Art," points to
continued lack of vigorous reporting.
May 18, 2010, by CFAR, "$31M Secret Rothko Sale article in Dallas Morning
News fails to ask questions," comments on inadequate reporting.
May 16, 2010, by CFAR, "Collector Vs Collector Lawsuit After Secret Rothko
Sale - Now Valued at $31.4 Million - Exposes Dallas Museum of Art,"
reveals connection between a museum trustee's "for profit" sale and curious
DMA deaccessioning policy.
April 30, 2010, by CFAR, "U.S. Art Museums, Auction Houses, Galleries,
Perceived as Corrupt - Reforms Demanded," art world issues draw national
attention.
June 1, 2010, by CFAR, "Dallas, TX Arts Institutions Vs. Artists Claes
Oldenburg-Coosje van Bruggen, Kelley and Kraft," gives three examples of
Dallas artists' rights issues.
May 24, 2010, by CFAR, "Continued Cover Up by Dallas Morning News of
$56M "permanent collection" Sales by Dallas Museum of Art," points to
continued lack of vigorous reporting.
May 18, 2010, by CFAR, "$31M Secret Rothko Sale article in Dallas Morning
News fails to ask questions," comments on inadequate reporting.
May 16, 2010, by CFAR, "Collector Vs Collector Lawsuit After Secret Rothko
Sale - Now Valued at $31.4 Million - Exposes Dallas Museum of Art,"
reveals connection between a museum trustee's "for profit" sale and curious
DMA deaccessioning policy.
April 30, 2010, by CFAR, "U.S. Art Museums, Auction Houses, Galleries,
Perceived as Corrupt - Reforms Demanded," art world issues draw national
attention.
March 30, 2010, by CFAR, "North Texas Museums' Prestige for Sale," raises
issue of nonprofit museums partnering with for-profit entities.
March 25 -31, 2010, Radio Nederland Wereldomroep (Radio Netherlands
Worldwide),
Earth Beat, reaching a potential radio audience of millions in ten languages,
RNW interviews Kelley about artists' rights. Listen to it here.

February 2, 2010, by CFAR, "

Deep in the Art of Texas: the True State of the Visual Arts," compiles articles by
or about former Dallas gallery owner Christina Rees.
January 29, 2010, by CFAR, "CBS televised video errs in reporting $400 million
art collection gift to Dallas Museum of Art, Texas," reports on the failure of a
media titan to accurately report on a questionable deaccessioning practice.
Jeff Koons' Balloon Flower (Magenta) was acquired by Howard Rachofsky for
$1.2M. It was then "irrevocably promised" as a gift to the DMA. Seven years
later Rachofsky pulled from the DMA's future and sold it for over $28M.
May 18, 2009, Dallas Morning News reporter Brooks Egerton started a blog
with a maiden entry entitled "They Won't Talk: Dallas Museum of Art." His story
starts out, "Today we launch a regular feature that spotlights officials who won't
talk." Egerton refers to DMA executive director Bonnie Pitman's decision
to keep secret from public view the financial details of the King Tut exhibition
after DMN reporter Michael Granberry reported on the show's poor
attendance.
Sunday May 17, 2009, DMN writes about the King Tut show, "Dallas city,
museum officials call King Tut exhibit a success despite low attendance."
May 17, 2009, DMN Brooks Egerton reports on the lack of museum
transparency regarding the King Tut exhibition in his "Dallas Museum of Art
wants to keep Tut exhibit's financial details a secret". Egerton ended his article
with an unflattering perspective of Pitman, "Pitman initially said she'd do an
interview for Granberry's story but backed out at the last minute. Too busy, her
PR lady said."
Stay tuned, as more is revealed--some of it going back decades--it sure
will be a bumpy road for some folks!

The Council for Artists Rights is based in Chicago, IL USA. Its thrust is to
educate the public about artists' rights and advocates for artists whose work is in
distress. CFAR was spontaneously born in 2004 when devotees of public art learned a
city park district had irrevocably altered--without its creator's permission--a 20 year old
work of public art.

Recognition of CFAR founding member John Viramontes

Honoree, Huffington Post blogger Esther J. Cepeda's Chicago Latino List 2009.

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c/o John Viramontes
2618 N. Merrimac St. 1st Fl.
Chicago, IL 60639

All contributions are tax deductible to the extent permitted by law.

We will never sell, trade or rent your contact information.