Digital Docent Dateline: Spring 2018

A Note from the Editor: Art Travels and Pilgrimages

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by Jeremy Reiskind When I travel I like to have equal portions of nature, history and art. However, recently I took an exclusively art-oriented trip to New York City to see three special exhibitions in the Metropolitan Museum of Art—Michelangelo: Divine Draftsman & Designer, a retrospective of the artworks of David Hockney and, in particular, Thomas Cole's Journey: Atlantic Crossings. I had hoped this latter show would resonate with our Church exhibition and it did.

Cole made an Atlantic crossing when he came with his family to America in 1818 as a teenager. He found a job working as an engraver in Philadelphia. Moving to New York City and taking The catalogue cover for the Thomas Cole exhibition at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Thomas Cole’s up painting landscapes, his potential was soon recognized. Much Journey: Atlantic Crossings like Church a generation later, Cole returned to Europe in order to see art and learn from artists—their approaches and techniques. The Met exhibition explores Cole's heightened concern for the loss of wilderness in America as our country joined the community of manufacturing nations, after seeing the burgeoning Industrial Revolution and its effects on the landscape and people in England. This sensibility resulted in two great works by Cole shortly after his return the America: The Oxbow, a panoramic view of the Connecticut River valley in Massachusetts, and a series of five large canvases called The Course of Empire. Like Frederic Church: A Painter’s Pilgrimage, Thomas Cole’s Journey: Atlantic Crossings includes Cole’s many on-site sketches of places he visited, especially in Italy, as well as the preparatory sketches for his masterpieces. (Noted was a small painted sketch for our own Home in the Woods, 1847.)

Cole traveled to Europe to look and learn. Church made a religious, philosophical and artistic "pilgrimage" to the Near East and Athens for new subject matter (this time less nature, more history).

Today there is a new kind of "pilgrimage", trips to the places that have inspired artists we love. In the past two years I have visited O'Keeffe's Ghost Ranch in New Mexico, where she painted many of her ionic landscapes, and Giverny where Monet painted his water lilies. Harper's Bazaar lists “11 Art Pilgrimages to make in your Lifetime” which is a similar idea, though more of a “bucket list” than pilgrimage. I imagine that this spring's trip to Church’s Olana could well be considered a "pilgrimage". Others that come to mind would be Winslow Homer's Maine coast and Sargent's Venice.

In this issue of the Docent Dateline, you’ll read about travels a few of our docent-volunteers have taken to Church’s Olana, Turkey, and South Africa. Perhaps you have similar tales of travel, art-travel and/or pilgrimage. Please consider sharing them with our docents and volunteers in future issues.

A Natural Beauty: South Africa

by Kathie Eppert Our Hudson River artists loved South America because it seemed to them to be as close as they could get to the unspoiled beauty of biblical Eden. Don and I had a similar experience in South Africa. The beautiful gardens of Kirstenbosch in Cape Town were full of the lush, green flowering plants and trees we often picture when we think of the garden of Eden. If the Lord wanted Adam to find animals to name He could have sent him to Londolozi safari lodge, near Nelspruit in the northern part of South Africa!

The beautiful grassy plains of that region were filled with animals: herds of elephants and zebras, impalas and rhinoceros, giraffes and water buffalos, a pride of lions, solitary leopards, shy warthogs, fleeing with their skinny tails in the air, beautiful, colorful birds and the ever-present monkeys. The animals eyed us humans in our high, loud jeeps, with curiosity, but not fear. We returned their stares with awe and humility.

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Staff Spotlight: Cindy Byrd

Art-y-Facts: Olana: A Persian Paradise

by Genie Carr

by Barbara Kolesar

If you are ever in or near the gift store and see a blur go past, don’t be startled: That’s Cindy Byrd, the Visitor Experience Coordinator.

Imagine if you could take a trip anywhere in the world, admire and research ancient buildings, architecture, decorative arts, and bring home to the United States your ideas for the ideal home you wished to construct. Such was the luxury of Frederic Church as he began to sketch, revise, and build Olana, his last great work of art. This 250-acre View of the Main House at Olana from the Summer House Location. Photo by Beth Schneck Photography. estate, located in Hudson, New York, was selected by Church in 1860 for its scenic vistas over the Hudson River. Persian in style, the home took nearly three decades to complete, and acted as a three-dimensional canvas at a time when Church was incurring increasing pain while at the easel, as he suffered from degenerative rheumatism.

The word Olana was derived from Latin and was the name of a fortress near the capital of ancient Persia (modern day Armenia).

Perhaps a visitor wants a birthday present for her mother-in-law, or another is looking for earrings for his wife. Whatever it is, Cindy will find just the right thing, at the right price. Then she will deftly gift-wrap it. And she may also suggest something else irresistible from the store to go with it.

“I am a people person,” Cindy says. “I do feel like when I come to work, I enjoy what I do, I am energized by what I do. You just have to be sincere when you’re helping people; people pick up on that.”

Cindy has been at Reynolda House since 2004, when the Babcock Wing was set to open. She says that she was hired to help the docents, who ran the store at that time, as well as work with the greeters at the front desk who welcome visitors, enroll them as members, answer the phones and field a myriad of questions during the day. Her team is in the marketing office under the external relations department.

Cindy and her husband, Russell Byrd, were fairly new to Winston-Salem when the job came open.

Their daughter, Anna Grey Byrd, had just started high school, at Salem Academy. Cindy, who grew up in Whiteville, in eastern North Carolina, went to UNC-Wilmington, where she majored in history. Although she had worked in retail, in apparel and gifts, when the family lived in Hilton Head, Savannah, and elsewhere, she had no formal background in retail, nor in art.

“Really, my love of people is probably why I took the job—and my love of history was very attractive about my coming to work at Reynolda.

I do not have an art background, but I’ve enjoyed learning about how art is reflective of what has gone on in history.”

In 1869, Church turned to architect Calvert Vaux who had experience in country-house design. While Vaux is responsible for the cross-axial plan which organized the main floor of the house, it is Church's watercolor sketches which were the genesis for the facades. About one thousand architectural sketches and stencils by Church testify to his full engagement in the construction of Olana. Olana's curvilinear lines of cornices and arched openings, and the colorful stenciled decorations on doors, frames, cornices, and borders are good examples of elements Church had admired on his pilgrimage to the Near East. My most vivid memory of visiting Olana was the colorful tiles, some of which were exact replicas of ones found on the walls of the Alhambra.

The irregular shape of Olana reminded me of Mark Twain's Hartford, Connecticut home: a blend of folly and beauty, a place for family and a place to display. Twain was one of many famous visitors to Olana and referred to Church's home as an “exalted hill of art.” Olana's contents are an eclectic collection of thousands of ‘trophies of travel,’ ranging from stones from Petra and the Parthenon, to stone fragments from a house in Damascus, rugs from Smyrna and Istanbul, Ottoman embroidery, Arab spears and armors. Olana's many open rooms and outdoor balconies and porches connected the family to surrounding nature.

Through a trap door, one can reach a crow's nest with 360 degree view of Olana's surroundings. Indeed, Olana was ‘the center of the world’ for Church, a place which puts the connection of wilderness and spiritual beauty on full display.

Church's paradise came under industrial siege two different times. In 1977, a massive nuclear power plant was proposed which would block Olana's views to the River. Residents used Church’s paintings as evidence of the beauty that would be lost during the hearings, which eventually halted the project. In 2005, the Saint Lawrence Cement Company proposed building a plant along a stretch of riverfront in the nearby city of Hudson. Calling for a 40-story smokestack, residents, including the Olana Trust, blocked the project, citing how it would spoil scenic vistas.

Frederic Church was also an accomplished landscape architect who designed five miles of roads on his estate to heighten the drama as a visitor approached his Olana home. He viewed Olana as three-dimensional: architectural, agricultural, natural. He used artistic techniques

She likes to choose items for the store in different price ranges, but that all still have “quality,” (Continued on next page) (Continued on page five)

3 Docent-Volunteer Events & Learning Opportunities April 16 Monday: Docent-Volunteer Association meeting, 10 a.m. - 12 p.m.

21 Saturday: The Finest Eye: A Symposium on Frederic Church. Dr. Kenneth Myers, Dr. Jennifer Raab, and Dr. Timothy Barringer will place Church’s paintings and his travels within a broader interdisciplinary context, drawing upon history, science, religious studies, and literature. Light reception to follow. 1:00 – 5:00 p.m. Members/students $15, not yet members $30 May 2 Wednesday: Object of the Month: Bootleggers (1927) by Thomas Hart Benton with Phil Archer, Betsy Main Babcock Director of Program and Interpretation and Rebecca Eddins, director of collections management, and Ruth Cox, paintings conservator. 1 p.m.

3 Thursday: Partners in Design: Frederic Church, Calvert Vaux and the Making of Olana with Dr. Sean Sawyer, the Washburn and Susan Oberwager President of The Olana Partnership, will explore Church’s creation of Olana, its rescue 50 years ago, and its subsequent restoration.

6:00 p.m. (reception at 5:30 p.m.). Members/students $10, not yet members $25 25 Friday: Historic Reynolda Grounds and Gardens Walking Tour with Amanda Lanier, curator of education at Reynolda Gardens, and Chris Jordan, director of public programs. The tour will explore the grounds of Reynolda as they existed 100 years ago, including hidden sites and stories of our city’s most recognizable landmarks. 2-3:30 p.m.

June 2 Saturday: Reynolda Revealed Community Day that also marks the launch of our new mobile audio-visual tour of the Museum and Estate. 11 a.m – 3 p.m.

6 Wednesday: Object of the Month: General Plan of Reynolda, Inc. (1925) J.E. Ellerbe with Chris Jordan, director of public programs, 1 p.m.

12 Tuesday: Docent-Volunteer Celebration Luncheon 11 a.m. – 1 p.m.

(Art-y-Facts continued)

to enhance this road system, hoping that the visitor would feel like he was inside a Hudson River School painting. Realizing that the earth could be sculpted, Church designed zig-zags and switchbacks to enhance the visitor's experience whether arriving by foot, donkey cart, or carriage.

Church understood the power of the views from his estate, so he often directed roads to a vista or view shed which was set up just like a painting: foreground, mid-ground, background. Many of these views included the Hudson River, which was not only an important trade route to New York City, but also called “America's First River.” Church planted large native trees, such as maple, birch, pine, oak, hickory, and chestnuts, and regularly had invasive growth removed. He also established a farm on the Olana estate, which Theodore Alexander Cole, first son of Thomas Cole (who was both mentor and neighbor to Church), ran the farm. In 1865, Church built a studio at Olana with views to the Hudson River and the Catskill Mountains.

“Standing high as some New World Alhambra or…crusader castle, the house at Olana is a tribute to many things Eastern: origins of civilization, early Christianity, delicate craftsmanship, and colorful ornament. It is a truly idiosyncratic creation.” (Kenneth John Meyers) Olana delighted Frederic Church as he had transformed his pilgrimage into a hilltop castle, furnishing and decorating it in the Persian style inspired by his travels. Church transposed a phrase from Farsi to describe Olana: “If on earth there be one paradise, it is here, it is here, it is here.”

I hope you will “tour” Olana online at olana.org, because this article does not do the visual justice. If you are planning a visit, Olana's “Historic Landscape Audio Tour” is excellent, as you can imagine Church's miles of paths and their lush greenery leading to the house.

4 Serendipity

by Mary Mascenik Serendipity is the most fascinating part of travel. The unexpected opportunity it presents can throw into shadow many a preplanned target of curiosity.

During our five-week trip to Turkey in 2010, for example, we mapped out our route, activities, etc. on an extensive Excel spreadsheet. How modern! Every box a category, a date, a cost, a contact person. Like Frederic Church in his Middle East travels, who prepared by reading many contemporary guidebooks, we could learn a lot the modern way, from websites and blogs, before ever leaving home.

Departing from Istanbul, we eased down the Aegean and Mediterranean coastlines from Troy, Ephesus and Pergamum to Konya.

Similar to our man Church, we independent travelers eschewed the cruise ship, instead making our way by ferry, bus or dolmus (a minibus between towns). We walked some of the Lycian Way, a long distance footpath used since the Late Bronze Age, and kayaked over the sunken city ruins of Simena. As Church undoubtedly learned, communicating by common language is not often possible. These days, gestures and place names written on paper are effective among provincials and lder people, but those under 35 usually have some facility with English.

Our journey took us inland through the spectacular Taurus Mountains to Konya, one of the most conservative cities in Turkey: few western visitors come and most women cover their hair. For this reason, I came prepared with a giant square of fabric which I carefully tied around my head from the moment we arrived. (When this prompted chuckles from several teenaged Muslim girls on the bus, I dropped this pretense.)

While we discovered Konya to be a worthy destination in its own right, we came here because of its proximity to Catalhoyuk, a center of advanced culture in the Neolithic period from 7500 BC to about 5700 BC. This was decidedly a “bucket list” item for my husband, a deliberate pilgrimage back in time for this man who loves paleontology, archeology, and antiquity. Subsequent to this trip, we added Chaco Canyon, New Mexico and Mesa Verde, Colorado to our experiences of early civilizations, ticking more boxes on that list.

We roamed the archeological excavations for the afternoon, learning that the inhabitants lived in mudbrick houses that were crammed together in an aggregate structure. No footpaths or streets were used between the dwellings, which were clustered in a honeycomb-like maze. Most were accessed by holes in the ceiling with doors reached by ladders and stairs. The rooftops were effectively streets. The ceiling openings also served as the only source of ventilation, allowing smoke from the houses' open hearths and ovens to escape. Eighteen layers of buildings have been discovered here. Nearly alone on this weekday, it was possible to imagine the dynamic life that once was here.

Once back in Konya, serendipity chanced our way in the form of a small poster advertising a Sema Ceremony at the Mevlana Cultural Center that night. Turns out that Konya is a pilgrimage destination for Sufis, focused on the tomb of the founder of the Mevlana order, Jelaleddin Rumi, a 13th century Persian Sunni Muslim poet and Sufi mystic.

Unfamiliar with this and open to discovery, we walked the half mile to the A Whirling Dervish! center. It was a round audi© Directorate General of Information torium with seats sloping Audiovisual Archive/Ministry of Culture and Tourism steeply down to a flat round performance floor. The audience was reserved in respectful anticipation. The lights came up as a single file procession of men who emerged to the rhythmic beat of kettledrum, cymbals, and flute. They wore tall hats and widely flowing white dresses. The procession followed the circumference of the ring, forming a circle of spinning dancers engaged in a spiritual concert involving prayer, song and dance. These were the “whirling dervishes!” The Mevleviye, we discovered, are mendicant ascetics who have taken a vow of poverty to learn humility, and are renowned for their whirling dances.

Following a recommended fast of several hours, the whirlers rotate on their left feet in short twists, using the right foot to drive their bodies around the left foot. The body of the whirler is meant to be supple, with eyes open but unfocused so that images become blurred and flowing. His goal is to fall into an ecstatic trance and thereby reach God. The practice of Sema and the whirling dervishes of the Mevlevi order were born when Rumi was walking through his town marketplace one day and heard the rhythmic hammering of the goldbeaters. He heard the Persian phrase for “There is no God but Allah” in the apprentices beating of the gold. He was so entranced in happiness that he stretched out both of his arms and started spinning in a circle. This evolved into the meditative ceremony that we were observing. It featured various patterns of whirlers, always spinning to the same consistent beat and melody. Spectators such as ourselves could become contemplative too, listening to the voice of our own God and reflecting on its impact.

Although the Sema Ceremony went on into the night, we left after several hours, feeling privileged to observe this devout tradition.

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things that are “reflective of Katharine and her desire to have things that were quality.”

It’s a standard that the docents held to when they ran the store, and one that Cindy is happy to maintain.

Whirling Dervishes of the Mevlevi order, during a Sema Ceremony © Directorate General of Information Audiovisual Archive/Ministry of Culture and Tourism

(Serendipity continued)

We learned later that UNESCO named the "Mevlevi Sema Ceremony" one of the Masterpieces of the Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity.

How lucky we were to see it!

Our trip to Turkey continues to be the benchmark against which we measure all of our more recent trips. We were always met by kindness, hospitality, and a warm welcome to appreciate their Muslim culture. The depth and breadth of history exceeded our well-researched expectations, but those serendipitous experiences not charted on our Excel spreadsheet really brought antiquity to life.

She finds appropriate items for the gift store by going, once a year, to the Museum Store Association show in Atlanta. When a big exhibition is on its way to Reynolda House, she gets items—T-shirts, catalogues, postcards, scarves—that go with that show. The Georgia O’Keeffe exhibition was perfectly situated for gift-shop offerings. Not only did it bring in O’Keeffe fans from far and wide, but also it ran from mid-August to midNovember 2017—the gift-giving season.

“Typically in a given 11-month period (the museum, of course, is closed to visitors in January), we make about $100,000 in the store,” Cindy says. “With the Artists’ Gardens and Ansel Adams’s shows, it was $150,000.”

During the O’Keeffe exhibition alone, 32,000 visitors spent $194,000.

High season or light visiting times, Cindy is taking care of anyone who stops by the store.

“It’s nice to be somewhere where people are enjoying leisure time—where it’s pleasant.

There are so many other places where day-today life can be overwhelming. In my job, I’m typically experiencing people having fun.”

Upcoming Exhibition: Fall 2018 Dorothea Lang’s America September 14—December 31 | Mary and Charlie Babcock Wing Gallery The Great Depression was the catalyst for a tremendous outburst of creative energy in America’s photographic community. This focused exhibition of original lifetime prints by the legendary documentary photographer, Dorothea Lange, will include Migrant Mother, Nipomo, California from 1936, an emblematic picture that came to personify pride and resilience in the face of abject poverty in 1930s America. Lange’s photographs will be supplemented by those of other notable social documentarians of the era, including Walker Evans, Ben Shahn, Russell Lee, and Mike Disfarmer.

Cindy Byrd, Visitor Experience Coordinator, in front of the museum store

Post Office Box 7287 Winston-Salem, NC 27109-7287 Telephone 336.758.5150 Website r ey n o l d ah o u s e.o r g Facebook: /r h m aa

HOURS: Tuesday-Saturday 9: 30 a.m .-4:30 p.m.

Sunday 1: 30-4:30 p.m.

ADMISSION: Adults $18 Members f r ee Children/students f r ee WFU Employees f r ee Affiliated with Wake Forest University and supported by the Arts Council of Winston-Salem & Forsyth County

Art on the Move: Spring Turning The Museum’s Grant Wood painting, Spring Turning has received national visibility in ArtNews, the New York Times, The Magazine Antiques, and other media while on loan to the Whitney Museum’s exhibition, Grant Wood: American Gothic and other Fables.