By MARSHA MERCER
To modern ears, the phrase “American genius” may drip
with irony or smack of clever marketing.
Apple stores have Genius Bars to help technological
dunces. Towns in Missouri branded Highway 36 a “Way of American Genius.” Sliced
Bread Saturday in Chillicothe, Mo., is Aug. 2, if you’re hungry for a morsel of
genius.
Even the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur
Foundation does not call the 20 to 30 people a year who get $625,000 grants
over five years “geniuses” or the awards “genius grants.” Those were media
labels that stuck. Officially, the winners are MacArthur fellows.
We weren’t always so skeptical about the prospect of
cultivating American genius. Long before there was a National Gallery of Art or
a Phillips Collection, there was the Corcoran Gallery of Art, the first art
museum in Washington, D.C., and one of the first in the United States.
When art collector William W. Corcoran opened his
gallery in 1869, he stated the mission clearly: The Corcoran Gallery was to be
“used solely for the purpose of encouraging American genius.”
Students congregated in the new museum, sketching
and painting the works of art. Delighted, Corcoran donated money in 1878 to
start an art school. The Corcoran School of Art opened in 1890, two years after
his death.
The art collection outgrew the first Corcoran
Gallery, located at the corner of 17th Street NW and Pennsylvania
Avenue, in the building that now houses the Renwick Gallery of the Smithsonian
Institution. The Corcoran trustees bought a lot nearby and built a new building
at 17th and New York Avenue, across from the White House. The opening in 1897 drew President Grover Cleveland and his
cabinet.
After encouraging American genius for 145 years, the
Corcoran has fallen on hard times. It’s facing what Philip Kennicott, art
critic for The Washington Post, called “cultural euthanasia.” The museum has
gone to court to get permission essentially to break its historic charter.
“It is impracticable or impossible for the
operations of the Corcoran to continue in their current form,” the museum says
in documents filed with the Superior Court of the District of Columbia.
As a private museum that charges admission, the
Corcoran competes with the Smithsonian empire and National Gallery, all of
which are free.
After suffering financial problems for more than a
decade, the Corcoran has agreed to give its more than 17,000 art works to the
National Gallery and its Beaux Arts-style building to George Washington
University. GW will operate the Corcoran College of Art + Design and take care
of needed electrical, heating and ventilation and plumbing repairs estimated to
cost $70 million to $100 million.
A Save the Corcoran group alleges that “egregious
mismanagement” led to the gallery’s downfall and is fighting the mergers. The
gallery insists this course is the best way to honor Corcoran’s wishes, given the
financial constraints. The Corcoran Gallery is scheduled to close Oct. 1.
The National Gallery will incorporate the art it
wants into its collection and will send the art it doesn’t want to other
museums, with preference to museums in the Washington area.
The plan is that after some renovations, the
Corcoran will reopen as “Corcoran Contemporary, NGA,” with contemporary and
modern art from the Corcoran and National Gallery collections. As part of the
National Gallery, the new Corcoran will be open to the public for free.
A small “Legacy Gallery” of paintings -- as well as
the Salon Doré, an 18th
century French period room; the French mantle, and the Canova Lions -- will be
kept on site, reminders of Corcoran’s dream of encouraging American genius.
If you want a lasting memento of the glory that once
was the Corcoran, its beautiful catalogue, “Corcoran Gallery of Art American
Paintings to 1945,” has been marked down in the final days of the Corcoran
Museum Shop.
The 336-page, hardcover volume with full-color
prints, explanations and copious footnotes went for $60 when it was published
in 2012. The other day, I bought a copy for $7.97. Sadly, genius never came so
cheap.
©2014 Marsha Mercer. All rights reserved.
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