Introduction to the Art in Our City Invitational Exhibition

 What Do We Have in Common with Napoleon the III?

 

 

Swan Song by

Jay Luptak (Photography)

 

Beauty is in the eye of the beholder, or if you were in Paris in the 1800’s, beauty was the art accepted into the Salon de Paris. The Salon was an institution, a valuable stamp of approval for the artists accepted into this illustrious exhibition. However, in 1863, a curious shift in response to the Salon’s power by a group of artists changed the world of art forever.

Naturally, great institutions of art have a static aspect to them in order to keep a solid foundation underfoot, but artists are necessarily running to a different clock, changing mediums, subjects, and perspective, their works being influenced by their contemporaries, their historical moment, and often outpacing the experience of their critics.

It may be strange to hear that because of people like Cézanne, Manet, Whistler, and Napoleon the III, you would not be here today, but so it is. Napoleon the III helped to facilitate this curious shift in the art world when he gave artists whose works were not accepted into the Salon in 1863 an exhibit of their own: the Salon des Refusés.

What a wonderful, tantalizing name: the Salon des Refusés! Who could refuse this delicious invitation to see what had been refused by the Salon and to speculate as to the whys?

As it turns out, not many could resist. The Salon des Refusés was well attended. As you can imagine, spectators were curious to see these works and decide their merit for themselves. Discussions were all over the map (that shocking Manet, that bold Whistler!) and there was no going back. And so it came to pass that art became the beauty in the beholder’s eye in the public sphere in 1863.

Now it is our turn to participate in the fluid nature of the relationship between art and its critics. We are here, in 2014, in the spirit of the Salon de Refusés, glorying in the artwork on full display for the public’s gaze, works rejected by one exhibition and accepted by invitation to another, art given a chance to be viewed by the public eye, the public eye being turned outward, to glimpse what is on the horizon for the art in our city.

Enjoy the view.

Thank you to our exhibition hosts Polly Doctor, Special Project Coordinator for the Frauenthal Center, and Gary Post, owner of the Century Club Center. Without their vision, Art in Our City would not have happened. Thank you to the Community Foundation for Muskegon County and to the Muskegon Museum of Art. The assistance of MMA Director Judy Hayner, and of MMA Associate Curator Art Martin, was key to inviting artists to participate in Art in Our City. Thank you to Mary Sundstrom of the Holland Area Arts Council, for recommending our esteemed jurors, Tamara H. Fox and Stephanie Wooster. We cannot thank Tamara and Stephanie enough for their excellent work. Thank you to Michael Schaafsma of the Red Lotus gallery for his help in installing the Century Club Center show. Thank you to the Muskegon Museum of Art and West Michigan Symphony for our artists' awards.

Thank you to the outstanding artists who accepted our invitation.

And thank you to the public for loving art like we all do.
 

Sincerely,

Shannon M. Mullally, Ph.D.