Guggenheim, eastward bound

Guggenheim, eastward bound

Richard Armstrong, director of the Solomon R Guggenheim Foundation and Museum, talks about art in Asia

ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT
Guggenheim, eastward bound

The Guggenheim is coming to the East — and though the degree of engagement varies from place to place from Abu Dhabi to Beijing, Bangkok plays a small part and should look forward to a bigger one.

Richard Armstrong, director of the Solomon R Guggenheim Foundation and Museum, last Thursday gave a talk to a full-house audience at the Bangkok Art and Culture Centre on the topic “Asian Art And A Guggenheim Constellation”, during which he gave a brief history of the Guggenheim Museum and an overview of the growing presence of Asian art in the museum’s agenda. His visit is part of the Asian Art Council meeting, which, through the co-ordination of Prof Dr Apinan Poshyananda, chose Bangkok as a venue for the discussion aimed at accentuating the role of Asia into the global art spotlight.

Armstrong also referred to the museum’s expanding constellation which encompasses the Peggy Guggenheim Collection in Venice, Italy, the Frank Gehry-designed Guggenheim in Bilbao, Spain, the new Guggenheim Abu Dhabi on the so-far uninhabited, man-made island of Saadiyat, also designed by Frank Gehry, to be opened in 2017.

The Guggenheim Bilbao, now a world-renowned landmark, sparked what is now recognised as the Bilbao Effect, where economically distressed cities, often as a result of industrial shutdown, were revived by the creation of a major new cultural landmark by a leading architect, bringing in vibrancy and new prosperity.

But it’s the Guggenheim’s vision to involve Asia and Asian artists more is what we’re interested in. In an exclusive interview before his public talk, Armstrong spoke about the rise of China and how local artists can transcend limited metaphors and become a global force.

Can you tell us more about the Asian Art Council and what the Guggenheim is trying to promote with it?

The idea was to try to become more global. The Guggenheim museum has a long history of being deeply connect with Europe, especially German-speaking Europe, but [many years ago] we came to realise that that wasn’t enough and we wanted to involve areas of the world that are the most interesting. The decision was that Asia would be the best and intellectually the richest.

What’s your view on ‘Asia’ or ‘The East’? What does it mean to you exactly?

It was a naive vision originally that ‘The East’ might be a monolithic place, but we discovered, as everyone knows, that Asia has many different ideas, not only politically but racially and economically. We’re already familiar with Japan and we’ve had a relationship with Korea. One of our new curators has a deep connection with China, and we use the opportunity of the UBS Map Global Initiative [a cross-cultural platform] to work with June Yap from Singapore and to try to collect from the region. Two years ago there was a meeting at Jim Thompson House in Bangkok, it was so successful that we come back [for the Asian Art Council meeting]. There’s been some political changes along the way, but they all seemed to be tolerable so we kept on going.

How is Southeast Asia going to fit?

As you know, Southeast Asia is mostly overlooked, but because of the Guggenheim’s commitment to Abu Dhabi [the new Guggenheim will open there in 2017], it’s another catalyst towards being responsible about the bigger world. Abu Dhabi offers a possibility of looking in a much bigger way, and Southeast Asia should be part of that.

Do you see any interesting art movements taking place in Asia?

I see many versions of how [Asian artists] reinterpret reality, how to invent new metaphors that have universal appeal, and I see a bigger and more positive reaction to the possibility of abstract art — which is what the Guggenheim has always been interested in. The willingness in Asia to corner that, very deeply and in a non-cynical way, is what we’re interested in.

How do you see the connection between art and economic reality?

To be very simplistic I think that an economy around contemporary art is predicated on surplus capital.

So the degree that there is new surplus capital means more possible ways to use money and time.

Art is a demonstration of economic power. At the risk of again being simplistic, with the long history of culture and sensibility being more integral to the Asian personality than in the West, I think there is a discernment of beauty of value attributed here that is maybe not so strong elsewhere, especially in the West.

This is part of what really interests us about Asia, as well.

What’s the quality that makes an artist become a global artist?

We never know where the metaphors come from. The people who work with the biggest metaphors are deeply connected to their origins and interested in the bigger world also. I’m not sure so many people are open to where they came from; many people deny it or want to be different from the way that they began. There’s a dissatisfaction [with their origins] and this frequently makes people become more homogenous and more like each other.

In the art world it’s better when people are more eccentric and more connected to how they began, and to me the power of their art is frequently connected to how much they remember and use the memories from childhood from the beginning of their life. To that degree, I think it’s important to be a product of a certain place.

The question is, what’s your role as a local artist? Some people are completely consumed by that and they remain local artists — yes, we need that in our civilisation.

But we also need the artist that’s bigger than the place where she or he came from and speaks in a bigger way.

From the top of your head, can you give us an example of such artists?

Rirkrit Tiravanjia [a Thai conceptual artist] is a great example. I’ve known him since he was a student in New York. He had a very unusual ability to be both very inclusive, as well as very certain. In those days, he had a distinct way to present his questions. He didn’t have many solutions but he had many good questions.

Also I think of Marlene Dumas, from South Africa, Doris Salcedo from Colombia and their Rachel Whiteread from England.

Dr Apinan Poshyananda of the Thai Ministry of Culture leads Richard Armstrong of the Guggenheim Museum on a tour of the ‘Thai Charisma’ exhibition at the Bangkok Art and Culture Centre.

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