Peabody Essex's New Gallery | Salem

[PaulC]

Re: Peabody Essex's New Gallery

I heard that when the Van Otterloo collection completes it's tour in February, a smaller version will take over a room in the European Wing.

 

[PaulC]

Re: Peabody Essex's New Gallery

http://www.mfa.org/exhibitions/complementary-collections

We are delighted to welcome back to the Dutch and Flemish galleries masterpieces from the collection of Rose-Marie and Eijk van Otterloo, including Rembrandt’s sublime Portrait of Aeltje van Uylenburgh (1632) and Dou’s sympathetic little Sleeping Dog (1650). These favorites and dozens of other paintings from the Van Otterloo collection, like Bakhuizen’s Ships in a Gale (above), return to the MFA after a sojourn in Holland and yearlong tour of the United States. The collectors’ discerning selection of beautiful works, all in superb condition, by a great variety of artists is a wonderful addition to our galleries. Prime examples of 17th-century Dutch and Flemish painting include architectural views; landscapes and seascapes; still lifes; portraits and tronies (head studies); and figure paintings. Seen together with the MFA’s collection, this installation provides a veritable banquet of Dutch and Flemish art for all to enjoy.

 

[whighlander]

Re: Peabody Essex's New Gallery

http://www.mfa.org/exhibitions/complementary-collections

Paul -- there's a nice big room downstairs in the Evans Wing (used to house American paintings) where the van Otterloo Collection -- including "Rembrandt’s sublime Portrait of Aeltje van Uylenburgh (1632) and Dou’s sympathetic little Sleeping Dog (1650)" -- would fit permanently -- and very very nicely -- just a few steps down from the MFA's own Rembrandts and the masterwork by Jacob Isaacksz van Ruisdael (View of Alkmaar about 1670–75)

 

[PaulC]

Re: Peabody Essex's New Gallery

I think the east side of that floor will be for the Forsyth Wickes collection and the west side will have rooms such as English Regency. Don't know about the rest of the galleries. Too bad the Evans Wing is now land locked. I asked once if they were planing to enlarge the wing somehow and they seemed surprised by my question.

Those paintings you mentioned and some furniture were previously on long term loan to the MFA and I would bet they will again.

 

[stellarfun]

Re: Peabody Essex's New Gallery

Paul -- there's a nice big room downstairs in the Evans Wing (used to house American paintings) where the van Otterloo Collection -- including "Rembrandt’s sublime Portrait of Aeltje van Uylenburgh (1632) and Dou’s sympathetic little Sleeping Dog (1650)" -- would fit permanently -- and very very nicely -- just a few steps down from the MFA's own Rembrandts and the masterwork by Jacob Isaacksz van Ruisdael (View of Alkmaar about 1670–75)

The van Otterloos have supposedly set several conditions for whichever museum gets the collection: the collection is to be housed in its entirety, and its 70 paintings, and counting; the museum is also to house their collection of 7,000+ volumes on Dutch art.

A single nice big room is not going to hold 70 paintings.

We may know more soon enough. The Peabody Essex is closing some galleries at the end of this year, presumably to set the stage for construction of the new 175,000 sq ft wing.

 

[PaulC]

Re: Peabody Essex's New Gallery

Stellafun do you know that means it's own galley. If not it shouldn't be a problem displaying all of them, they are all 'museum quality'. I find the title of the exhibit interesting 'Complementary Collections'.

Today I was walking behind Malcolm Rogers in the gallery where the pictures will hang but I didn't hear anything other than asking someone to submit a bid on things such as more elegant labels.

 

[PaulC]

Re: Peabody Essex's New Gallery

From an older post:

Collectors usually don’t like to talk publicly about where their art may end up, but the “Golden’’ show has the van Otterloos contemplating that very subject. Standing in her study, Rose-Marie raised a series of possibilities.

“Should it stay in Massachusetts? Should Europe have the collection? Belgium?’’

Eijk was more specific.

He said if they were to give it away now, it would probably go to the MFA. But he’s interested in hearing from MFA director Malcolm Rogers about how he might be able to accommodate a library of more than 10,000 Dutch art-history books the couple recently purchased.

http://www.boston.com/ae/theater_art...museum/?page=3

 

[stellarfun]

Re: Peabody Essex's New Gallery

Stellafun do you know that means it's own galley. If not it shouldn't be a problem displaying all of them, they are all 'museum quality'. I find the title of the exhibit interesting 'Complementary Collections'.

Today I was walking behind Malcolm Rogers in the gallery where the pictures will hang but I didn't hear anything other than asking someone to submit a bid on things such as more elegant labels.

I am reading tea leaves, but I know they have given much thought to how the collection was assembled, and they have sought paintings that complement each other, yet span the various oeuvres of Dutch art of the Golden Age. So my sense is that they would/do not want their Rembrandt to be hung with other Rembrandts, or their Hals with other Hals. The scale of the paintings is intimate -- the Peabody Essex handed out magnifying glasses to gallery visitors -- and its great strength is its scope, rather than its depth (by depth, I mean there aren't seven van der Heydens, I think there is one).

The Peabody Essex has already closed its 400,000 volume library for two years for renovation. Architect is Svhwartz Silver. Cost is $20 million. (The renovation doesn't appear in their current project list, so no renders, nor any description.)

 

[BeeLine]

Re: Peabody Essex's New Gallery

Looks like some movement on the development front. PEM buys ajacent buildings, on Essex Street, to house staff offices.
http://www.salemnews.com/local/x1346834442/PEM-buys-3-buildings

 

[stellarfun]

Re: Peabody Essex's New Gallery

Looks like some movement on the development front. PEM buys ajacent buildings, on Essex Street, to house staff offices.
http://www.salemnews.com/local/x1346834442/PEM-buys-3-buildings

I think the article misidentifies this building as one of the properties bought, supposedly a carriage house, purchased for $720,000.

I think the Peabody Essex already owns this building. ^^^^. I think the carriage house building is actually the former Salem fire alarm building, which was a wing of the old police station. It borders the Peabody Essex Museum site, and has a parking lot in back for 20 cars. The parking lot backs into the two buildings below. I imagine the PEM needs part of the parking lot for construction access.

^^^ This building is the one next to the Japanese tea garden.

^^^The building next to the building that is next to the Japanese tea garden.

 

[BeeLine]

Re: Peabody Essex's New Gallery

You are correct. Salem Evening News issued this correction this morning.

http://www.salemnews.com/local/x318439962/CORRECTION

I think the article misidentifies this building as one of the properties bought, supposedly a carriage house, purchased for $720,000.

I think the Peabody Essex already owns this building. ^^^^. I think the carriage house building is actually the former Salem fire alarm building, which was a wing of the old police station. It borders the Peabody Essex Museum site, and has a parking lot in back for 20 cars. The parking lot backs into the two buildings below. I imagine the PEM needs part of the parking lot for construction access.

^^^ This building is the one next to the Japanese tea garden.

^^^The building next to the building that is next to the Japanese tea garden.

 

[BeeLine]

Re: Peabody Essex's New Gallery

Dropped by the PEM today and took a few shots of the actual carriage house they had purchased recently.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/beelinebos/6820188717/in/photostream/

 

[stellarfun]

Re: Peabody Essex's New Gallery

Dropped by the PEM today and took a few shots of the actual carriage house they had purchased recently.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/beelinebos/6820188717/in/photostream/

Beeline, that's the 'carriage house'. I am not certain that the museum bought the carriage house itself; rather, it may have bought the parking lot behind the carriage house and that drive on the east side of the carriage house (right of the carriage house in your photo). The drive is the access to the parking lot.

Thinking about it further, the new wing will eliminate the existing loading docks for the museum, yet by now owning the parking lot, the museum can use that space to position new loading docks as part of the new wing. Owning the parking lot would also let the museum connect the backoffice space it will install in the two other just-bought buildings to the new wing.

In your photo, the brick-faced wall to the right of the drive is part of the museum's mechanical system. As I understand it, a new mechanical setup is to be built, probably this summer, on top of another wing of the museum (not the Safdie wing) so that this part of the property can be used for the new wing.

 

[stellarfun]

Re: Peabody Essex's New Gallery

New wing to have a fashion gallery.

Excerpts from a Bodton Globe article behind the paywall.

A 90-year-old fashion icon [Iris Apfel] who says she will bequeath a significant slice of her couture collection to the Peabody Essex Museum.

Apfel and her husband, Carl, will also bequeath an undisclosed sum that will pay for a fashion gallery in a new wing of the Peabody Essex slated to open in 2017.

All 600 pieces were featured in the show “Rare Bird of Fashion: The Irreverent Iris Apfel’’ which originated at New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art in 2005, and traveled to the Peabody Essex in 2009.

With this latest gift, Apfel will have earmarked nearly 900 pieces of her collection for Peabody Essex.

At one time, the Costume Institute at the Metropolitan Museum expressed interest in acquiring the collection. But after working with Peabody Essex, Apfel decided to donate to the growing Salem museum,

“I think Peabody Essex is a fabulous place,’’ Apfel said. “Having dealt with a lot of art museums, I can tell you that I was very pleased with the way that it’s run. I think they’re quite cutting edge. This museum is much more cross-cultural than others I’ve worked with and mixes it up a bit.’’

While the Apfel collection is sizable, it is not the largest fashion donation to a local museum. That distinction goes to the Museum of Fine Arts, which received a donation of 5,000 historical fashions and textiles in the 1940s. More recently, the MFA made news in 2009 when designer Arnold Scaasi donated more than 120 pieces to the museum, which in turn purchased Scaasi’s sketches and archives for an undisclosed sum.

The Apfel collection is “a huge gift, and I think it’s a huge commitment from the Peabody Essex both toward displaying contemporary fashion and storing and housing it,’’ said Pam Parmal, curator of textile and fashion arts at the MFA.

http://www.bostonglobe.com/lifestyl...QTVz9xRYktaE9r55I/story.html?p1=Well_BG_Links

 

[BeeLine]

Re: Peabody Essex's New Gallery

Preliminary phase of the $200 million expansion starts this month.
http://www.salemnews.com/local/x614301224/Preliminary-work-to-begin-on-PEM-expansion

 

[stellarfun]

Re: Peabody Essex's New Gallery

From two weeks ago,

SALEM — The public got a first glance at Peabody Essex Museum’s plans for expansion at last night’s meeting of the Salem Redevelopment Authority.

PEM representatives presented plans for changes at two museum properties: on Essex Street, next to East India Marine Hall and on Charter Street, adjacent to the city’s oldest cemetery.

On Charter Street, the museum proposes to demolish its “Sailors Curiosity Shop,” a structure built in the early 1970s, to make way for a new building to house the museum’s security operations.

On Essex Street, reconstruction is proposed for a museum-owned building that houses mechanical equipment.

Redevelopment Authority members voted to move PEM’s plans on to Salem’s Design Review Board, which meets July 25.

In November, PEM announced plans for a $200 million multiphase reconstruction and addition, larger than its 2003 expansion designed by architect Moshe Safdie.

PEM representatives stressed that plans presented last night are preliminary and will be developed further as the project progresses through city boards.

The proposed security building will be rotated 90 degrees from the existing building, opening the view from Charter Street to the Witch Trials Memorial. The property sits between the burying ground on Charter Street and two buildings also owned by PEM: the 1665 Samuel Pickman House and 1876 Summer School building.

The security building would be roughly the same width as the Sailors Curiosity Shop. The building, used for a short time by the museum as a retail shop, was most recently used as a space for upholstery conservation.

On Essex Street, reconstruction proposed for a penthouse building next to East India Marine Hall is meant to be complementary to the hall’s 1824 design. The reconstructed building will be roughly as tall as East India Marine Hall but set farther back from Essex Street.

http://www.salemnews.com/local/x1301511456/Salem-museum-eyes-reconstruction-of-two-buildings

The crane is to help move the mechanical HVAC etc, to the new penthouse because the present site for that will be demolished to make way for the new gallery.

Turner is supposed to be the general contractor for the new gallery, it will be interesting to see if their construction trailers show up for this preliminary work.

 

[stellarfun]

Re: Peabody Essex's New Gallery

The new addition is on the right, at the end of the red 'finger' in site plan. That space presently is part of a Japanese garden.

Can't tell much from the one and only render, though the building, at least from the front, looks to be shorter than what was described initially. (Supposedly had to go 'tall' because of the small footprint available.)

The contractor is currently moving and building utilities and infrastructure, much of it into a penthouse that resembles a peeled-open box on the roof of an existing building. The preparatory work is supposed to be done by the end of the year, then several existing museum buildings are demolished and replaced by the new wing. New wing construction starts early 2014.

New gallery square footage is 75,000, though the total net gain is 38,000 sq ft. of gallery space, as some existing galleries are being torn down.

The new wing is still a total of 175,000 sq ft, and when it opens in mid 2017, total square footage will be 550,000 sq ft, and total gallery space will be 160,000 sq ft.

With the new wing open, the Peabody Essex will be in the top 15 of American art museums in terms of square footage, and in the top 10 when it comes to gallery square footage.

The PEM developed this list of major museum expansions in Greater Boston starting in 2003:

PEM 2003, 113,000 sq ft
ICA 2008, 65,000 sq ft
MFA 2010, 121,000 sq ft
Gardner 2012, 70,000 sq ft
Harvard Fogg 2014 100,000 sq ft
PEM 2017 175,000 sq ft

Cost is still $200 million, though an additional $100 million is now categorized as infrastructure / improvements.

 

[itchy]

Re: Peabody Essex's New Gallery

I'd love to be a PEM supporter, but I have to ask: Does the PEM have the collection to support all this new space?

I've only been there once, shortly after the last addition was completed (probably 2004). As I remember, beyond the fairly cool re-created traditional Chinese home, the rest of the museum was comprised of a room with some model sailboats, another room with a few South Pacific tribal masks, and a few rooms of not-terribly-interesting photos of 19th- and early-20th-century Asia ... and that was more or less it. I don't see how the museum could very well fill an additional (large) wing of exhibition space.

I recall being fairly disappointed in the quality and quantity of the collection. Am I wrong? Did I miss something? Is there a compelling reason to build this new wing that I didn't see? Would be happy to be told I'm an idiot and missed plenty of great stuff there...

 

[PaulC]

Re: Peabody Essex's New Gallery

The have 1.8 million objects, obviously most are probably not display worthy but they should have no problem filling the new wing. I sense that they are very ambitious and want to be a bigger player in the greater Boston area and beyond.

This flyer might answer some of your questions, especially the page on the collection:

http://www.pem.org/aux/pdf/visit/PEM_fast_facts_booklet.pdf

 

[BostonUrbEx]

Re: Peabody Essex's New Gallery

It is great to hear this museum is doing so well and will be expanding even further! I don't think I've been in it since I was a kid, back when I hated museums to death. I'm not sure if their collection would even interest me in the least, but I still want to go check it out. I'm just hoping that with this expansion they're leaving some room for retail fronts on the Essex St pedestrian plaza and on Charter St. I assume any further expansion will swallow that parking lot off of Charter, abutting the expansion. I'd imagine their goal is to keep going until they hit Central St if that is possible? I just don't see them being mindful of retail, though.