The San Diego Museum of Art has been keeping its treasures under wraps. Imagine going to the Louvre and seeing just one eye of the Mona Lisa. That’s about how much the museum has been showing you of its real collection.
San Diego Magazine reported that the SDMA has only been showing the public about 10 percent of its total array of art. But that is all about to change, thanks to the new executive director of the museum Derrick Cartwright. He told the magazine that the museum is working on renovating permanent galleries to hang the pieces for everyone to see all year long.
“Our shift now is not to throw out exhibitions but really try to show off our collection so that people come not only when there’s a show they’ve read about, but just because it’s a great museum with a great collection,” curator John Marciari, a specialist in Italian and Spanish paintings, told the magazine. When asked about the installation that was there for more than a decade until about six months ago he said, “And frankly, it was pretty boring. I think maybe it was the world’s most boring installation.”
Works created by artists from El Greco and Giotto to Matisse and Georgia O’Keefe will make their way on to these new galleries, in the hopes of attracting more visitors. From the 30’s-50’s, various donors contributed work to the museum—mostly 16th and 17th century Italian and Spanish Renaissance art. SDMA told San Diego Magazine that it could fully attribute its loot for any suspicion of Nazi-era theft.
Hidden away to create more excitement for summertime exhibitions, works by Francisco Zurbarán, Juan Sánchez Cotán, and Paolo Veronese as well as modern artists like Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, Thomas Eakins, Joan Miró, Stuart Davis and William-Adolphe Bouguereau will also adorn the new gallery walls.
A new installation will open the doors to what museumgoers can expect to see more of. “Old Masters in New Light” is open to the public already, and it is a beautiful sight to see. Hey, if you got it, why not flaunt it?
Check out this story and more stories like "From Vinyl to Digital...and Back", or "Life on the A-List" on San Diego Magazine's website.
