The Siegels did not own the Lipton, but she was willing to give the money for an important piece of sculpture to be identified by the director.
Amanda Hughes, director of external affairs, escorted me through the gallery and said Kass is a 20th century expert and knew the Lipton was up for sale and would be the perfect fit for the museum's modern holdings. With Siegel's approval, the sculpture was purchased and Kass and Timothy Riggs, curator of collections, set about mining the collection for the ideal objects to enhance the new gift and, in turn, be enriched by it. Seeing "Sentinel" as a linchpin for its permanent collection, Kass and Riggs have built a show of more than 100 objects from the museum's collection.
Kass placed the Lipton in the context of the avant-garde, positioning the sculpture in the center of paintings, drawings and photographs whose dates cover the first half of the 20th century. Riggs took the basic theme of heroes and guardians and placed it among the many variations of that idea created by artists throughout the history of art. In both galleries there are objects on view for the first time.
Near a series of drawings Lipton did in preparation for "Sentinel" is a wall text quoting Lipton, who describes the sculpture as an elongated form that interpenetrates a vertical box-like frame surmounted by an armor-like hood. The sculpture is an abstracted figure and as the viewer moves around it, each vantage point suggests different meanings, from a warrior in armor to a female goddess. Those various views become focal points throughout the exhibit with wall pictures and text set as guides.
At the height of his career, Lipton's mottled and jagged surfaces suggest either threatening plant forms or predatory creatures with protruding features. His open figural forms were influenced by the early experiments in cubism, abstraction and expressionism; these are the same ideas that fueled the avant-garde. Yale University's "Sentinel I," a larger-than-life-size version of the Ackland's piece, is considered a mainstay of the canon of postwar sculpture.
In the exhibition, the development of the avant-garde can be seen in such 20th century treasures as Max Weber's (1881-1961) "Composition with Three Figures," 1910; Alfred Stieglitz's (1864-1946) photograph "The Steerage," 1907; a small Robert Motherwell (1915-1991) oil and a suite by him of six small drawings that add a rich underpinning to the artist's iconic Spanish elegy compositions. Among the new objects is a sketch for a mural by American Charles Alston (1907-1977) found among his papers which are now a part of the university's Southern Historical Collection. Charlotte native Alston did murals in Harlem as part of the WPA, a 1930s depression program to support the visual arts. The mural records the arrival of people into the city by way of boat, train, airplane and bus and their movement from laborer to student to artist to economic success. Hughes said the modern collection has not had extensive research so whether Alston's sketch became a finished mural is still a question.
The subject of guardians or guardians/heroes abounds throughout history. The earliest piece in this section is a tiny bronze figure of the god Baal, dating from the 2nd millennium BCE. As we move through this gallery, we realize that every culture had heroes and guardians and the number of images proves their importance; there is an ancient Egyptian alabaster figure, a 14th century Japanese god and a 20th century Nigerian "Veranda Post from a Palace Complex" by the artist Agbonbiofe Adeshina and assistants. In the 19th and 20th centuries, many societies replaced their gods with cultural heroes so we see images of real people who built larger-than-life personas. In this category there is Andy Warhol's "Mao" and lithographs of Lenin and Zapata.
Hughes pointed out that most of the Ackland's art came as gifts, including the building's bricks and mortar. With the prices of important paintings and sculpture out of reach to any but the greatest museums, it is only by gifting that collections can grow. The Ackland's holdings make it an important university museum. Every time I go inside I realize how lucky we are.
Blue Greenberg's column appears each week in Entertainment and More. She can be reached at blueg@bellsouth.net or by writing her in c/o The Herald-Sun, P.O. Box 2092, Durham, NC 27702. IF YOU GO
"The Guardian and the Avant-Garde: Seymour Lipton's 'Sentinel II' in Context," Ackland Art Museum, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, through Jan. 3. Gallery hours are Wednesday-Saturday 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., Sunday 1 to 5 p.m. For information, call 966-5736.
