Art Matters., Issue 1, 2024

Art Matters.

ON THE COVER Oval

Takashi Murakami (Japanese, born 1962), 2000. Molded plastic and rubber with CD. Gift of David W. Steadman in honor of the Norton Family, 2001.11.

Takashi Murakami is the best-known member of a generation of Japanese Pop artists who emerged in the 1990s. This project features a cartoon-like character called Oval, a meditating figure loosely based on a Japanese Buddha sculpture. He sits atop a “cosmos ball”—Murakami’s name for the sphere covered with smiling flowers. On view in Gallery 35.

From the

Director’s

Desk

I am energized by the ability for art to shape our understanding of the world. Museums, as guardians of cultural heritage, bear the responsibility of both preserving the artworks of the past and actively engaging with artists of the present.

The Toledo Museum of Art (TMA) is committed to providing a platform for artistic exploration, whether for artists in Nigeria, Toledo or anywhere in between. At TMA, we do this in many ways, but three stand out: fostering growth, perpetuating legacy, and inspiring future creativity.

Museums can continue to be dynamic hubs that enrich the cultural fabric of our societies.

Fostering growth

By supporting the creation of art and by showcasing and acquiring the work of living artists, TMA supports arts production and helps artists reach audiences, gain recognition and contribute to ongoing artistic dialogues. TMA has a long history of providing these types of opportunities for local, regional and national artists.

Consider the Guest Artist Pavilion Project (GAPP). Since its inception in 2006, GAPP has brought 57 artists from across the world to our glass studio to work with our team—

Supporting artists — past, present and future

each of them incredibly talented local artists in their own right. Artists-in-residence find the space, time and knowledge to allow their exploration of working with glass in the inspirational environment of the Glass Pavilion. Then they take what they’ve learned and created back to their home communities.

We also provide opportunities for artists to sell their art. For more than 30 years, the TMA Museum Store has housed Collector’s Corner, a sales gallery of original works of art by more than 250 emerging and established regional artists. More recently, our Bob and Sue Savage Community Gallery opened with exhibitions with works for sale by regional artists. We partner with makers in both instances, not only to promote and sell but to offer the necessary support, guidance and infrastructure for artists to navigate the complexities of the art world.

Perpetuating legacy

Broadening the narrative of art history involves acknowledging and incorporating the full range of artistic contributions. With purpose and consideration, TMA has acquired works from across time, place and culture, ranging from ancient Yemen to early modern Europe; from precolonial

North American makers to global contemporary artists.

We also host exhibitions that include or feature the full scope of human creativity. Last year, TMA chronicled Jacob Lawrence’s extended stay in Nigeria in Black Orpheus: Jacob Lawrence and the Mbari Club. Black Orpheus emphasized the global network in which Lawrence’s work was situated, exploding the notion that modern art developed in any one place on its own.

Recently, The Washington Post art critic Sebastian Smee named our newest exhibition, Marisol: A Retrospective, one of the six “best new art museum shows to see this spring.” The retrospective explores the life and work of the under recognized but influential Pop artist Marisol (Escobar) and helps her reclaim her spot in art history as an early shaper of the Pop art movement.

Inspiring future creativity

By kindling curiosity and nurturing creativity, museums contribute to the cultivation of the next generation of artists in our community and beyond. TMA’s educational programs, workshops, and outreach initiatives expose both younger and older minds to the vast world of art, inspiring the artists of the future.

TMA proudly accepts the responsibility of championing artists. By embracing our role as stewards of artistic legacies, champions of contemporary creators and inspirations for future talents, museums will continue to be dynamic hubs that enrich the cultural fabric of our societies.

We do this by creating a supportive ecosystem for the artists in our communities. Few have been a greater advocate for these efforts than Sara Jane DeHoff, who is featured in this issue for her endowment of the Guest Artist Pavilion Project. It is no surprise, but eminently fitting, that Sara Jane was named chair of the TMA board of directors in October 2023. Her passion for the arts, understanding of their societal impact and her commitment to the Toledo community have made her an invaluable board member and her professional and board experiences make her an exceptional chair. Her leadership will continue to support our efforts to build an inclusive art community for all—as does your support, for which we are so grateful.

Best regards,

Adam Levine

Edward Drummond and Florence Scott Libbey President, Director and CEO Toledo Museum of Art

Toledo Museum of Art

Working Together

TMA’s glass team listens in on Joyce J. Scott’s words during her 2022 GAPP residency.

THINK

Flat Torus 4

Phillip K. Smith III (American, born 1972), 2019. 70 by 70 by 3 1/2 inches; acrylic, plywood, LED lighting, electronic components, unique color program. Purchased with funds from the Florence Scott Libbey Bequest in Memory of her Father, Maurice A. Scott, 2020.22.

view in Wolfe Gallery.

Toledo Museum of Art

New Perspective

A family reacts to Beth Lipman: ReGift, on view in Gallery 18.

Insidethe Issue

Check out our new brand identity, learn about Marisol and so much more

This museum has meant many things to me over the years. As a BGSU student, I visited the Toledo Museum of Art (TMA) when I missed the museums of my hometown. As a young mother, I chased my boys around the sculpture garden to burn off energy so we could walk the galleries. And, now, it’s an opportunity for a second career as editor of this magazine. I hope this issue makes you think, discover and experience art in new ways as it has for me.

In “From the Director’s Desk,” Adam explains the important role museums play in supporting our past, present and future artists. You’ll find articles inside the issue to support this notion. “Ageless Expressions” reminds us that it is never too late to produce art or to call yourself an artist. “Art According to Sara Jane” explains how an endowed residency brings artists from around the world to Toledo to learn about glass creation. And “Museum Store Spotlight” introduces readers to Aaron Bivins, one of the artists represented by the Collector’s Corner.

We also showcase our new brand identity. The dynamic T more strongly represents the values and mission of TMA and the journey we are taking to become the model museum in the country. The team responsible for reimagining our brand

recently reunited for a roundtable discussion to compare notes about their experiences with the project. They share interesting insights you won’t want to miss.

I hope it makes you think, discover and experience art in new ways as it has for me.

Last, but not least, you must see Marisol: A Retrospective. It’s on view until June 2. Andy Warhol dubbed Marisol (Escobar) “the first girl artist with glamour.” But this quiet, introverted artist was so much more and now she’s getting more of the recognition she deserves! The show is colorful and playful. But look deeper and you’ll see Marisol had profound insights to share about the times she lived in; many are still relevant today.

Happy reading,

Doreen E. Cutway Editor, Art Matters Toledo Museum of Art

Welcoming Change

The team behind TMA’s transformed brand identity discusses its inspiration

Panelists

Lafayette American

Paolo Catalla Lead Designer

Meg Jannott Head of Design

Justin Morley Senior Account Supervisor

Beth Rea Chief Strategy Officer

TMA

Gary Gonya Director of Brand Strategy

Aly Krajewski Designer

Mark Yappueying Design Manager

We are surrounded by brands every day. They act as symbols to represent products or organizations. Brands summarize a set of values and associations: the Apple brand is innovative; Tiffany & Co.’s brand is elegant. Brands help build trust and they help make a human connection between things and people.

Museums are brands, too. The Toledo Museum of Art (TMA) debuted a new brand identity in October 2023 with the goal of making a deeper and more dynamic connection with our community and our visitors. That was the challenge at hand when the museum identified a team of design minds and brand experts. Detroit agency Lafayette American and TMA’s marketing team worked together to reimagine the museum’s brand for the future. The result? A dynamic new brand identity system that signals the values and mission of TMA.

As design thought leader and critic Armin Vit of UnderConsideration wrote in his recent TMA brand review, “Overall, I think this is one of the best museum identities I’ve seen in a while [...] this strikes a perfect balance of honoring the seriousness and significance of the museum with some actual creativity to give [TMA] a unique and sophisticated design language.”

The rebrand team recently met up for our latest roundtable discussion, giving Art Matters a behind-the-scenes look at how they approached evolving the TMA brand.

Toledo Museum of Art

Logo Form

The letter T has deep roots at TMA. It’s a symbol of pride for all of Toledo. It can also represent our transformative future. The letter T is a visual intersection, a dynamic crossroads where the past meets the future, where one history opens up to many histories.

Art Matters: Before we dig into the changes, let’s talk about the context for this project. What is a brand identity, and how is that different than a logo?

Meg: A brand identity is so much more than a logo. It’s so much more than visuals. It’s the core values, mission, what you are promising your audience, and how you communicate that.

Beth: The visual identity of a brand is more than just look and feel; it is really making sure we’re transmitting the voice and the personality of this place. There are many ways to interact with a museum in the 21st century, and a modern brand must have a consistent voice and experience across all interactions.

Art Matters: It’s been 25 years since the last brand identity was designed for TMA. How different is it to undertake the designing of a brand now versus 25 years ago?

Beth: Things have changed so much in that timespan. There wasn’t any social media presence and websites were very limited; TMA was more focused on business cards and pamphlets. Dynamic tech experiences, in person and online, didn’t exist. There was no need to create a brand with movement, unless it was used at the end of a TV commercial. Today, a brand must work in many more spaces— especially in digital.

Meg: That was a big catalyst for the work that we created, this idea of bringing TMA into the digital age. In today’s culture, if your brand doesn’t have a visual language with movement, you’re behind. We wanted to create a strategic, transformative brand that moves, that is dynamic. Because that’s how you’re going to connect emotionally with the audiences you’re trying to attract. We came back to that idea often during the design process.

Deep Dives

Archival research was crucial to the success of a new brand identity. The typography selections are deeply inspired by the type treatments used throughout the history of the museum. The combination of a refined sans serif typeface with a supporting serif typeface has been carried forward and has evolved to give flexibility to the new identity.

That’s what we’re trying to represent, an idea of transformation and moving forward together as community.

Gary: The museum has a very different strategy today than the last time it rebranded in 1998, so we needed to make sure the new identity represented how we aim to be a leader in the museum field and create a more inclusive environment for our community.

Art Matters: Why was it time for the TMA brand identity to change?

Justin: While the museum was making great strides in making the community feel included, radically changing the visuals of the museum’s brand really signals something positive. [It] says things are changing, and we want you to visibly notice that change.

Meg: The letter T, which is the logo’s visual foundation, becomes a symbol for reflecting and celebrating diverse perspectives and it encourages new perspectives. That was what we wanted the visual identity to embody. And this idea of embracing change—as you watch the video of the T-shaped logo rotating and changing and becoming different things, that’s truly what we’re trying to represent here, an idea of change and transformation and moving forward together as a community.

Aly: The museum has all these opportunities for helping a visitor to understand who we are and how we can be part of their lives. But we weren’t telling that story in the best way. Now when we speak, it’s with the same visual language, voice and personality across everything we do.

Art Matters: What research served as the foundation for creating the new visual identity?

Aly: We spoke to the community and our constituents to make sure that we were communicating in a way that resonates with them. We wanted to both connect with our existing audience and invite in a new generation of visitors.

Beth: We wanted to learn how different members of the community felt about the museum—internal, external, near, far, visitor, tourist. We held stakeholder sessions, and we conducted surveys and interviews. We asked if they felt welcome in the museum, what their pain points were, why they were or weren’t visiting. We really dug into those different points of view to make sure that the new brand identity would signal a change that made community members feel more welcome.

Justin: One wonderful thing we learned was the sense of pride everyone has in TMA. Everyone we spoke to, no matter what their opinion was, expressed pride and love for the institution. But that connection wasn’t fully reflected in the old logo and look of things. It was a familiar logo, but it did not express much.

Gary: We went deep into the museum archives to study past versions of TMA brand systems. We also analyzed museum brand identities from all over the world to make sure we created something that both stood out and was also grounded in our geography and history.

Prismatic

The new TMA logo is designed to highlight the collection in new, interesting ways.

Adaptive Color

The brand identity is not just one color; it carefully adapts to the colors in each artwork.

Dynamism

The rotating logo design brings the website and digital displays to life.

Toledo Museum of Art

Art Matters: Lafayette American is an agency from Detroit. You trekked to Toledo many times for this project. Tell us a bit more about some of the visual points of inspiration for the brand identity that you discovered here.

Paolo: The T-form was big. It represents so many things. Typographically, it represents T for Toledo. Architecturally, it echoes the shape of the Green Building, and when you zoom out even more, it represents the layout of the Green Building to the Glass Pavilion, creating another T footprint. The acronym of TMA fits perfectly on the three arms of the T. And then there’s the metaphor for the T as this intersection or crossroads where art and community meet, where the past and the future meet. All these things naturally fell into place. It’s unique to this museum and its campus. It’s of this place and for this place.

Meg: Glass is a huge piece of the DNA of TMA. One of the versions of the logo is transparent and shows the art behind it—that was a nod to glass and the Glass Pavilion. The other piece is the adaptive color palette. The brand is designed to shift colors in response to the many kinds of art in the collection. It enables TMA’s collection to be at the forefront and not compete with a brand identity. The fonts and typography itself were pulled from the archives. We did a lot of digging in the archives. We love that there is an homage to TMA history woven into the brand identity now.

Art Matters: What do you love most about the new brand and why?

Mark: My favorite thing is the transparency of the logo and how it contains images of art and people. It’s beautiful but even more poetically it speaks to how the museum campus is the container for every activity that happens here. Art and the people who come here are really what activates the brand as well as TMA’s buildings.

Aly: I grew up taking classes, visiting here and loving TMA, but even in all that time I spent, the brand presence was never anything that I felt connected to. I love that it’s now a dynamic showpiece, and I love how many different things it can be to so many people. I can look at this and feel the pride in our brand identity that I have felt in TMA’s collection and mission for years.

Gary: The dynamic motion of the new brand captures a truth about how we experience art: art is transformative. Art helps people see differently, and it changes us. Our relationship to art is dynamic, always changing; it’s alive, not static.

Meg: I feel it truly and authentically represents the community that surrounds TMA. And I feel strongly that this strategic rebrand establishes TMA as a model museum, and I’m interested to see how other museums follow suit.

Beth: Essentially, the brand look is finally leveling up to the TMA mission.

Want to learn more about the vision behind the new TMA brand? Visit brand.toledomuseum.org or scan here:

Design in Action

This new brand system will enhance museum spaces and messaging around the campus.

Summer Institute for Teachers

TMA programs extend the collection’s reach into classrooms around the county and country

Every summer, the Toledo Museum of Art (TMA) welcomes teachers from around the country for a week-long teacher institute funded by donors (last year, it was the National Endowment for the Humanities that lent its support). Summer Institute, as it’s called, allows 25 educators to learn new techniques for teaching. The institute incorporates real-life examples from the world of art to enhance teachers’ lessons in history, science, math and other subjects.

The Summer Institute is one of several workshops at the museum that offer the TMA collection as a tool for teachers. Organized by Grace Toth, the museum’s director of education, they include curator talks in the galleries, curriculum planning sessions and resources for activities in the classroom.

“In our workshops, we dive deep with teachers and reinforce the learning in the galleries so when they take these lessons back to their classrooms, they can offer students something more meaningful and relevant,” said Grace. “Time in the museum with the art makes a big difference in the types of conversations teachers can have with students.”

Throughout the year, local teachers from school districts including Toledo Public, Ottawa Hills, Springfield Local and Washington Local Schools take advantage of similar opportunities at TMA to earn continuing education hours to maintain their licensing. The result is that TMA’s collection has become part of lessons in classrooms throughout the area and, through the Summer Institute, around the country.

“The emphasis on hands-on learning among educators in the galleries enhances the educational encounters, making it not only informative but also an inspiring and rooted experience,” said Jennifer Moorman, a visual arts teacher from Eastwood High School in Pemberville, Ohio. “TMA’s approach fosters a sense of community and shared learning among educators, which is crucial for staying informed and motivated in the field.”

Are you looking for a creative outlet for the kids, a gift for a friend or an opportunity to learn something new?

For more than a century, TMA has offered classes for every age, experience level and schedule. Students visit the galleries, learn about iconic works of art and combine inspiration with their own creativity.

For more information, visit toledomuseum.org/learn/classes-workshops

Toledo Museum of Art

DISCOVER

Portrait of a Woman (detail)

Egypt, about 50 CE. 13 1/8 by 8 1/2 inches; tempera on linden wood panel. Purchased with funds from the Libbey Endowment, Gift of Edward Drummond Libbey, 1971.130

On view in the Classic Court.

Toledo Museum of Art

Karolynn Bonds didn’t believe she had the skills to join an art class. Her hands were no longer dexterous. She wasn’t a natural creative. She just didn’t feel qualified to participate. “I’m not an artist,” she said.

Since May 2023, a team of Toledo Museum of Art (TMA) teaching artists has visited Senior Center, Inc., where Karolynn has been a longtime member. Senior Center, Inc. is a community gathering place for older adults on Jefferson Avenue, near the museum.

Once a week, TMA’s team provides guided art classes for the members there. Week after week, they encouraged Karolynn to try a class. She always declined, until one day she didn’t.

That first class, she sat alone in a corner, completely focused on learning how to manipulate cardboard to create a threedimensional face. When she finished, she looked up beaming and called out to everyone, “I’m an artist!”

“To see her sense of pride is the whole reason we’re doing this program,” said Jessica Mack, TMA’s community outreach manager. “It’s about showing seniors that age doesn’t impact their ability to be creative and learn new things. Whether producing art is something they’ve done their whole life or they’re just starting, they can be artists.”

Jessica leads the coordination of the museum team that has been heading out into community senior centers once

Outreach program uses the power of making art to enhance the lives of local seniors

a week, offering hands-on art classes to people in their 60s, 70s and 80s. The Vitality Arts Project, as it’s called, is grant funded through E.A. Michelson Philanthropy and from American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) funds, administered by The Arts Commission of Greater Toledo. The museum received additional support for the program from Signature Bank and the Area Office on Aging of Northwestern Ohio. Visitors at participating centers receive courses in painting, drawing, glass, textiles, sculpture and illustration.

“We are thinking outside the box to create unique art-making experiences for them,” Jessica said. “And given the costs of art supplies, we’re offering something they might not be able to access otherwise.”

The program is available at five different senior centers near TMA campus, including Chester J. Zablocki Senior Center, East Toledo Senior Center, J. Frank Troy Senior Center, Mayores Senior Center, and Senior Centers, Inc. This summer, TMA will host an art show and reception at the museum to bring together the program participants and share their work.

“Hands-on art-making has proven health benefits—it’s therapeutic and engaging. And connecting with other people in the class helps battle loneliness,” Jessica said. “This program has had a positive impact on people in our community, and we’re so happy to continue reaching out.”

Ageless

Expressions

Thinking Caps: On Outreach team member Kacey McCreery shares her love of art–and beanies–with an art class member

Art According to Sara Jane

Few works of art can inspire tears. But a new short film by Atesh Atici, which finds inspiration in Florence Scott Libbey’s dreams for her community in the early days of the Toledo Museum of Art (TMA), makes Sara Jane DeHoff cry every time she sees it.

“I feel so fortunate to be part of the history of this amazing place,” she said during a recent interview, sliding into a chair in a quiet corner outside the museum’s café. It is something of a full-circle moment for Sara Jane, who celebrates being one of the longest-serving board members in the museum’s history and its current chair, capping a philanthropic career that has left few Toledo arts institutions untouched. Florence was a pillar of the founding of TMA in 1901. Sara Jane helps carry the torch 123 years later.

The Atici film is on view alongside an installation in Gallery 18 called ReGift, by the glass artist Beth Lipman. ReGift celebrates Florence Scott Libbey’s role as

How Sara Jane DeHoff’s endowment helped create one of the area’s premiere artist residency programs

a founder and poses important questions about how women benefactors of the arts have been recognized and remembered historically. Lipman created parts of ReGift as an artist-in-residence with the Guest Artist Pavilion Project (GAPP), a program Sara Jane endowed in 2006.

The GAPP residency has nurtured artists from across the United States and around the world, from the emerging to the very established. It provides space, time and support for them to explore working with glass in the inspirational environment of the Glass Pavilion’s Glass Studio.

The seed for an artist residency program in Toledo was planted early in Sara Jane’s volunteer career when she joined one of her first boards at the suggestion of former

Recent Success

Kristin Arnold

completed the latest GAPP residency in February 2024.

TMA director Roger Mandle in the 1990s. Called the Alliance of Artist Communities and based in Providence, Rhode Island, the board position provided Sara Jane an insider’s view on the powerful impact residency support has on artists. She became familiar with programs around the country.

A few years later, when she had grown into an avid collector of glass and was approached about supporting the Glass Pavilion, she was ready to lend her support— on one condition.

“It was natural for me that when TMA asked me to give money to the campaign for the Glass Pavilion, I specified a residency program,” Sara Jane said. “Artist residencies are an incredible way of getting an artist to step out of their everyday life. That dedicated time to create something new and different is important to artists, and it was important to me. I wanted TMA to become a place for living artists to experiment and grow, especially against the backdrop of our legacy in glass.”

The serendipitous energy that made the museum the grounds for the founding of the Studio Glass Movement in 1962 was possible because the museum was a place for creation, not just observation. Recapturing that energy as the museum expanded

its campus in the early 2000s was important to Sara Jane—as was ensuring that artists coming into their own in this new century recognize TMA’s history as the birthplace of the Studio Glass Movement.

“The GAPP residency invites artists to contribute to advancements in the medium, to challenge previously held ideas about it and take it to new heights,” Sara Jane said. “That’s an important part of keeping the movement alive and also in the DNA of a museum that has made glass a fundamental part of its collection.”

The glass enthusiast continues to support TMA in its efforts to engage artists, while engaging with them herself. She counts artists Flora Mace and Joey Kirkpatrick as friends and travels to Seattle to see her son, a glass artist in his own right. And she keeps a busy slate of projects supporting the arts in her adopted hometown; the Iowa native came to Toledo in 1975 for love. In 2018, she was awarded a medal for her advocacy work from the Ohio Citizens for the Arts. She has no plans of slowing down anytime soon.

“I love TMA,” she said. “It’s ever-changing. I’ve been giving my time to this place through five different directors. They all create something different, and I’ve been so fortunate to be part of it all in some way.”

Arts Advocate Sara Jane DeHoff.

EXPERIENCE

Quai aux Fleurs, Paris

Luther Emerson van Gorder (American, 18571931), about 1911. 36 by 48 inches; oil on canvas. Gift of The Tile Club, Toledo, 1911.25. On view in Gallery 29A.

Toledo Museum of Art

Marisol: A Retrospective

Invited to Before Beyoncé, before Madonna, before Iman, there was Marisol

Marisol with The Party (1965–1966) in the artist’s studio, about 1966.

Andy Warhol called her “the first girl artist with glamour.” Some called her the “Latin Garbo.” She preferred just Marisol.

Born María Sol Escobar in Paris in 1930 to a wealthy Venezuelan family, Marisol was renowned for a distinctive style of figurative sculpture, often incorporating found material, painting, drawing and photographs in her large-scale groupings and carved-wood compositions.

All my life I have wanted to be distinct, not to be like anyone else.

An exhibition of her work— Marisol: A Retrospective—is on view at the Toledo Museum of Art (TMA) until June 2. The career-spanning show chronicles the artist’s full creative arc with over 200 works, including objects from the TMA collection. Her sculptures, self-portraits, sketches, source materials, studies and personal photographs take viewers through the artist’s ideas and inspirations as she explored the cultural ideas of her time, from social identities to ecological concerns.

“This exhibition demonstrates Marisol’s profound engagement with the world around her and her own profound impact on the broader social and cultural landscapes,” said Jessica Hong, senior curator of modern and contemporary art at TMA. “She was an artist of verve and acuity, which she used as tools to challenge our ideas around gender, identity and societal standing, which continue their relevance in our lives today.”

Pop art sensation

The artist spent her childhood in Caracas, New York and Los Angeles. In her early teens, she adopted the name Marisol, merging her first (María) and middle (Sol) names and hinting at the Spanish words for sea (mar) and sun (sol). She used Marisol as her professional name for the rest of her life.

She studied at the Otis Art Institute and Jepson Art Institute, both in Los Angeles, and attended the Académie Julian and École des Beaux-Arts in Paris before settling in New York in the 1950s to study with Yasuo Kuniyoshi at the Art Students League, as well as Abstract Expressionist Hans Hofmann.

Marisol began to show her work in the mid1950s and landed her first solo exhibition at New York’s prestigious Leo Castelli Gallery in 1957, when she was just 27. The playful and colorful sculptures she presented in subsequent 1960s exhibitions at Stable Gallery and Sidney Janis Gallery in New York caused something of a sensation, and art audiences lined up around the block to see them.

While in New York, she befriended Abstract Expressionist Willem de Kooning and Pop artist Andy Warhol—quickly becoming enmeshed in the art world and its lavish parties and gallery showings. She landed a spot on LIFE magazine’s 1962 “Red-Hot Hundred,” a list of the day’s top, young movers and shakers. Gloria Steinem profiled her in Glamour in 1964 and Grace Glueck did in The New York Times Magazine in 1965.

However, Marisol was never comfortable with the media spotlight or New York’s art and social scenes. She claimed that while she attended many parties, she always felt alienated from everyone else. When the trappings of fame became too much for her, she left New York for extended periods of time to travel and live abroad—usually just when her career seemed to be taking off.

“I never wanted to be a part of society. I have always had a horror of the schematic, of conventional behavior. All my life I have wanted to be distinct, not to be like anyone else. I feel uncomfortable with the established codes of conduct,” Marisol was quoted as saying.

She continued to work through her whole life, but her visibility waned, and like other influential women artists, she lost her place in history.

“Writing and scholarship around Marisol may be limited. But Marisol: A Retrospective brings her art back to us, providing a more nuanced, complex understanding around her work,” said Jessica. “TMA continues to be committed to foregrounding underrecognized artists and sharing new insights into their work that—like Marisol’s—still resonate with the critical issues of our day.”

Artist of verve and acuity

Marisol: A Retrospective pairs the artist’s recognizable self-portraits and sculptures with her lesser-known works to present her evolving ideas. She drew inspiration from the robust, experimental arts scene thriving in postwar New York as well as the larger cultural changes in the world around her. Her works shared personal experiences and offered commentary on the issues of her time.

While she had always drawn, she began her artistic career as a painter in the Abstract Expressionist style. But, in 1953, inspired

by an exhibition of pre-Columbian art, she turned to sculpture. She incorporated discarded objects she found on New York City streets and would often cast her own face as well as other body parts to use in her sculptures.

“It started as a kind of rebellion,” she told Glueck in their 1965 interview. “Everything was so serious. I was very sad myself and the people I met were so depressing. I started doing something funny so that I would become happier—and it worked.”

Her wooden sculptures depicted political figures, family groupings and women at leisure or at gatherings and provided nuanced commentary on societal relationships and structures. For example, Baby Boy (1962-1963) and Baby Girl (1963) “speak to the sociopolitical happenings of the day, from the pending outbreak of nuclear warfare to the pressures to shape nuclear families,” said Jessica.

Later in the 1970s, Marisol’s ecological concerns and her passion for scuba diving and underwater photography inspired new depictions of water and fish, as seen in The Fishman (1973).

Woman at Work

Marisol retouching

The Generals (1961-1962).

of Art

Contemporaries

Marisol and Andy Warhol were collaborators during the Pop art movement.

Through her whole career, Marisol made portraits of subjects who were of political, cultural and personal importance to her— including figures like Marisol’s father, Andy Warhol and Georgia O’Keeffe. The graphite and oil on wood Portrait of Georgia O’Keeffe with Dogs (1977) presents one of Marisol’s inspirations in her older age. Marisol used casts of her own hands for the painter’s, creating a poignant link between the older artist and herself. The source photograph, also taken by Marisol, is presented in the exhibition, allowing visitors to compare the same subject across two media.

Marisol was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease in the early 2000s. Although her art production slowed down as the disease progressed, she continued to draw. She died on April 30, 2016, at age 85, leaving her entire estate to one of the first museums that purchased her work—the Albright-Knox Art Gallery in Buffalo, New York, now named the Buffalo AKG Art Museum.

Marisol: A Retrospective is organized by the Buffalo AKG Art Museum and curated by Cathleen Chaffee, Buffalo

AKG’s Charles Balbach chief curator. TMA’s presentation is organized by Jessica S. Hong, senior curator of modern and contemporary art. The exhibition and catalog are supported by a major grant from the Henry Luce Foundation. Critical work related to this exhibition and collection was made possible by a major grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities.

Locally, Marisol: A Retrospective is sponsored by Presenting Sponsor Susan & Tom Palmer; Platinum Sponsor Gay Deiger; Gold Sponsor TMA Ambassadors; and Silver Sponsors Shumaker, Loop & Kendrick, LLP, SSOE, and Mark Zyndorf. Additional funding is provided by Season Sponsor the Rita Barbour Kern Foundation and by the Ohio Arts Council, which receives support from the State of Ohio and the National Endowment for the Arts.

To enhance your experience with Marisol: A Retrospective, an audio guide and family activity cards are available. You can also purchase a fully illustrated catalog exploring Marisol’s life and work in the museum store. Tickets to the exhibition are free to TMA members and $10 for nonmembers.

Toledo Museum of Art

Mi Mama y Yo, 1968 Painted bronze and aluminum pole, 73 x 56 x 56 inches.Buffalo AKG Art Museum, 2016.

Are we seeing The Party through Marisol’s eyes? A Closer Look

Marisol put together very specific written instructions, including a diagram, to detail how The Party (1965-1966) was meant to be displayed. She wrote of her boxy wooden sculptures, “They are not to be placed any old way.” She also intended visitors to mingle among the guests at her “very elegant ball.”

TMA acquired The Party in 2005, one of the crowning jewels of our collection. Today, we still use Marisol’s instructions and diagram as a guide for installing the artwork. But sometimes we need to adjust the installation to best use the space where the sculptures will be exhibited.

That rang true for Marisol: A Retrospective. While we placed the figures in The Party in Marisol’s intended arrangement, they are much closer to one another than her diagram prescribes. And, visitors observe The Party from outside the group, rather than inside among the sculptures.

How might that change your experience with The Party? What kind of relationships are you seeing between the figures in this presentation?

“Dear Mr. Meyer [sic] it is very important that the figures be placed in this way. I wish I had known sooner. It is part of a certain composition that I had in mind when I made the piece. They are not to placed any old way. The pannel [sic] can be on the left side or in back also. You can see the placement well by looking at the green lines in relation to the yellow. It can be approximately like that, but like that. I hope you will be able to change it. I’m sorry I didn’t have time yet to make the face but will send it this week–will also send a better drawing.

Sincerely, Marisol” Realignment Marisol wrote specific placement instructions for The Party and mailed them to Robert B. Mayer with this note:

The Asian art collection returns in gallery and Impressionism gets a new home

Have you ever noticed that the Toledo Museum of Art (TMA) moves around its collection? It occurs for different reasons like loans to other museums, conservation needs, or rotating artwork on and off view.

Other times we want to help our visitors see our collection in a new light and benefit from experiencing the artwork in a new context. That’s exactly what museumgoers will enjoy this spring as TMA debuts new views of its Asian and Impressionist art collections.

The reenvisioned gallery experiences include putting some of the museum’s European heavy hitters—works like the 19thcentury painting Antibes Seen from La Salis by Claude Monet—in the Glass Pavilion’s Gallery 5. Sculptures and paintings spanning the history and geography of Asia, including a seated Buddha carved more than 2,000 years ago, will grace Gallery 35, located just off Libbey Court.

The return of the Asian art collection, which was stored away while the museum galleries that contained the works underwent renovations and updates, will include the debut of recent acquisitions by contemporary Asian artists. In 2024 and 2025, they’ll be front and center for art enthusiasts to enjoy.

From Asia to the World: Ancient to Contemporary Art

Christine Starkman, TMA’s consulting curator of Asian art, wanted to curate a display that would reflect not only the long history of arts and culture from Asia, but also the robust contemporary art scene in that part of the world. It’s one of the reasons she titled the new installation From Asia to the World: Ancient to Contemporary Art

“In looking at the wide span of our collection, a rich sense of the history of Asia emerges across 5,000 years,” Christine said. “I wanted to frame the collection and the new acquisitions around this idea of the vastness and the diversity of historical periods and artistic creations within TMA’s Asian collection, including its new contemporary art acquisitions.”

The Asian collection’s refreshed presentation touches on three characteristics that unite the works: religion and philosophy (especially of Buddhism and Hinduism), innovation in material culture (like ceramics, bronze and stone), and global trade. Each was a vehicle for ideas that emerged in Asia and were shared and exchanged on the continent then exported to the rest of the world.

“There are encounters between Asia and Europe that created new ideas in both regions, particularly the porcelain craze in 17th- and 18th-century Europe for Chinese

Seeing Differently

and Japanese objects,” Christine said. “We’ll explore that story in the gallery.”

New acquisitions by Filipino artist Pacita Abad and Korean artist Gimhongsok will also be shown for the first time, introducing audiences to contemporary art from Asia alongside ancient material. Christine’s curatorial goal was to spur viewers to look at how artists reinforced or challenged the norms and ideas of their time, and to frame Asian art in a new worldview as well as a new gallery location.

“It’s been a fascinating project to represent this collection in a different space within the museum and I think it will be exciting for TMA visitors to experience this collection anew,” Christine said. “I hope they find it to be a rich and innovative presentation.”

In a New Light: Impressionism and Post-Impressionism

Across the TMA campus at the Glass Pavilion, Impressionist paintings will be seen in front of translucent walls, placing them against the backdrop of nature— similar to their early environments, when they were canvases on outdoor easels being tapped by a great artist’s brush.

“Impressionism and Post-Impressionism are really about the artist discovering light and the way it affects what we perceive visually,” said Robert Schindler, TMA’s William Hutton

Curator of European Art. “You’re essentially showing landscapes in a setting that’s as close to nature as possible, and we think it will be a fascinating way to experience Impressionism.”

Sculptures and other materials from the collection will fill Gallery 5 and the adjacent gallery in the Glass Pavilion, telling a more complete story of the European art of this period and its influences. American and European paintings, sculpture and decorative arts including glass will be shown alongside Impressionist works in a more extensive presentation. Select Japanese prints and decorative arts will showcase the influence of Japanese works on European artists.

As the months progress, paintings will shift between the two galleries and from storage to display; visitors can expect to see something new in the space every two to six months.

“We’re trying to move away from looking at these collections in isolated ways and moving toward what connects them rather than what separates them,” Robert said of the upcoming displays. “And we’re looking to activate our own collection and find avenues to make it fresh and something new to discover on your next visit as opposed to having something you expect at all times.”

Museum of Art

Looking and Seeing Works like Woman in a Summer Kimono (1920) and The Clarac Gallery (1922) will be on view in these galleries.

On View & Upcoming

Ethiopia at the Crossroads Aug. 17–Nov. 10, 2024

Journey through more than 1,700 years of artistic traditions and celebrate rich history and culture in Ethiopia at the Crossroads, the first major U.S. exhibition to chronicle Ethiopian artistic traditions and exchanges from their origins to the present day.

The African country’s access to key waterways and strategic placement at the juncture of Africa, Asia and Europe fostered trade and significant cultural interchange. In Ethiopia at the Crossroads, more than 200 historic and contemporary works usher visitors through centuries of this crosscultural connectivity and highlight the role Ethiopian artists played in the creation and exchange of artworks throughout Africa and across the Mediterranean, Red Sea and Indian Ocean. Historical works of Ethiopian art—including devotional painted icons, manuscripts, coins, textiles, metalwork and carved wood crosses of various scales—will appear alongside contemporary works by Wosene Worke Kosrof and Elias Sime to showcase the immense cultural significance of Ethiopia.

Free for members | $10 for nonmembers

Tightrope, Zooming In (detail)

Elias Sime (Ethiopian, born 1968) 2012.

On View & Upcoming

Marisol: A Retrospective

On view through June 2, 2024

Far more than a muse or an icon of a single decade, Marisol created art that in radical ways addressed urgent issues of the 20th—and now 21st—centuries. While celebrating her satirical and deceptively political sculptures and self-portraits of the 1960s, the exhibition also assembles lesser-known areas of her practice for the first time.

Free for members | $10 for nonmembers

Beth Lipman: ReGift

On view through January 2025

ReGift recreates, at three-quarters life-size proportions, a glass diorama of the parlor in TMA founders Edward Drummond Libbey and Florence Scott Libbey’s Old West End home. It also symbolically emphasizes Florence’s involvement in building the museum’s (and Toledo’s) legacy.

Expanding Horizons: The Evolving Character of a Nation

On view through June 2025

Explore new ways of understanding complex histories through the themes of mythmaking and religion. More than 80 objects from TMA’s collection offer a powerful method for discovering American stories and voices.

In a New Light: Impressionism & Post-Impressionism

On view through June 2025

The Glass Pavilion in now home for our Impressionist and Post-Impressionist collections. Translucent walls provide the feel of en plein air, and American and European paintings, sculpture and decorative arts including glass are shown side by side.

Africa Unmasked: The Art of the Continent Across Time and Space

On view through August 2025

Sixty-five years of African art collecting and exhibiting at TMA come together in this gallery installation. The display invites viewers to appreciate the museum’s collection through the lenses of African innovation and evolving diasporic ideas about African culture.

From Asia to the World: Ancient to Contemporary Art

April 20, 2024–June 2025

The Asian art collection is back with new additions. Curated to reflect the long history of arts and culture in Asia as well as its robust contemporary art scene, it touches on three themes: religion and philosophy, innovation in material culture, and global trade.

dirtykics: In Order to Live

May 1–July 14, 2024

The photograph can be the greatest representation of a person’s soul. Immerse yourself in the silver-toned world of James “dirtykics” Dickerson, a visual storyteller with an obsession for life on the streets of Toledo, Ohio.

Museum Store Spotlight

The Museum Store featuring Collector’s Corner provides one of the Toledo area’s most delightful shopping experiences. Browse original art by internationally renowned artists, handmade jewelry, art books, quilt kits, toys, postcards and more. There’s something to enchant at anyone’s budget.

Aaron Bivins

Ornette Coleman, 2015

Acrylic on canvas painting, 60 by 48 inches $5,000

Ornette Coleman cracked open his corner of the music world with his rebellious improvisations on the saxophone. This painting, rendered by Ohio artist Aaron Bivins, portrays the jazz legend with the concentrated face of an artist completely in the present moment. The work is one of many paintings of the music genre’s greats—Art Tatum, Jon Hendricks, Claude Black and others among them—that Bivins has manifested on his canvases. Since the artist’s early days, when he was the only male illustrator working at LaSalle’s department store in downtown Toledo, he has tried to understand his subjects, not just recreate their physical image—injecting something of himself into the paintings in the process.

“When you listen to some of the older jazz performers, you hear their spontaneity, and I love that,” Bivins said. “They infuse their personality into whatever instrument they’re playing. I try to do the same with my paintings.”

To see more local artwork available for purchase, visit store.toledomuseum.org

Photography Credits

Pages 26–27: Marisol with The Party (1965–66) in the artist’s studio, about 1966. (Artwork: Toledo Museum of Art. Museum Purchase Fund, by exchange, 2005.42A-P.) Photographer: Geoffrey Clements. Photographic print. Overall: 7 1/4 by 10 inches. Marisol Papers, Buffalo AKG Art Museum.

Page 29: Marisol retouching The Generals, 1961-62, at the Albright-Knox Art Gallery in November 1963. Artwork: Collection Buffalo AKG Art Museum. Gift of Seymour H. Knox, Jr., 1962 (K1962:7). Image courtesy of the Buffalo AKG Art Museum Digital Assets Collection and Archives. Photo: Unknown.

Page 30: David McCabe, Andy Warhol and Marisol with the Empire State Building, 1965. The Andy Warhol Museum, Pittsburgh; Contribution The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, Inc. Photograph by David McCabe, 2001.2.2065.

Page 32: The Party, Marisol (Escobar) [American (born France), 1930-2016], 1965-1966. Dimensions variable. Assemblage of 15 freestanding, life-size figures and three wall panels, with painted wood and carved wood, mirrors, plastic, television set, clothes, shoes, glasses, and other accessories. Museum Purchase Fund, by exchange, 2005.42A-P.

Pages 36–37: Tightrope, Zooming In (Detail), Elias Sime (Ethiopian, born 1968) 2012. 83 1/2 by 313 inches; Reclaimed electronic components and assorted small ephemera on panel. Purchased with funds from the Florence Scott Libbey Bequest in Memory of her Father, Maurice A. Scott, 2018.12A-JJJ.

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