Varied Views for a Variety of Visitors
Even considering the Thanksgiving and Christmas holiday breaks, November and December are invariably the busiest months of the year in terms of exposing The Wolfsonian Library to visitors.
In early November, Florida International University Professor Maria Antonieta Garcia organized and brought students from her Francophone Literature class and members of Le Cercle Francais at FIU to our rare book and special collection library.
Professor Garcia and the students were especially interested in French colonial materials, and we laid out a display of rare books, exposition catalogs, and other items in anticipation of their visit. Museum founder Mitchell Wolfson, Jr. spends a great deal of time in Paris and has substantively added to our already strong holdings of French language materials. Consequently, we were able to show the group materials not previously seen before, including a rare book featuring the artwork of several French Orientalists.
Cavalier dans l’Oued / Louis Antoni
Un intérieur israélite à Constantine / A. Assus
Une chambre d’Ouled Nail / Maurice Bouviolle
Mosquée El-Djedid / Alex Rigorard
L’Oasis / André Suréda, The Wolfsonian–FIU, Mitchell Wolfson, Jr. Promised gift
In addition to these beautiful works of art, the group also perused some more mundane but interesting ephemeral items, such as some recently processed and catalogued collecting cards showing off France’s overseas empire in the 1930s.
The Wolfsonian–FIU, Purchased with Founder’s Fund
The visitors also had the opportunity to look at some rare children’s books produced in France in tandem with the Exposition Coloniale Internationale held in Paris in 1931, before breaking for some snacks and a tour of our own museum exhibitions.
The Wolfsonian–FIU, Mitchell Wolfson, Jr. Collection
The Wolfsonian–FIU, Purchased with funds donated by Mitchell Wolfson, Jr.
Ironically enough, soon after re-shelving the materials pulled for the class visit, our chief curator was contacted by the former French cultural attaché arranging a visit by a delegation from French Guiana to see some materials from our collection related to their homeland.
Fortunately, it was easy enough to retrieve some rare materials produced for various international and colonial expositions.
The Wolfsonian–FIU, Mitchell Wolfson, Jr. Collection
The Wolfsonian–FIU, Purchased with funds donated by Mitchell Wolfson, Jr.
In mid-November, The Wolfsonian Library also hosted a visit by 12 FIU students from the Fine Arts Student Association (FASA) interested in doing some sketching in the galleries. The trip was organized by Maurizio Gomez and Wolfsonian student + academic engagement coordinator, Molly Channon and provided the students with a guided tour of All the World’s a Stage: The Sketchbooks and Theatrical Designs of Albert Wainwright. Afterwards, the students had the chance to see some more original sketchbooks housed in the library.
One of those items was created by the budding artist, Charles Laborde, a French book illustrator who achieved some notoriety in the 1920s and 1930s for publishing a set of four portfolios celebrating the “rues et visages” of the great metropolitan cities of Europe and America.
The Wolfsonian–FIU, Mitchell Wolfson, Jr. Collection
While less well-developed, the early pencil and pen and ink drawings of England and the Basque country in Laborde’s early sketchbook reveal a consistent interest in facades and faces.
The Wolfsonian–FIU, Purchased with funds donated by Mitchell Wolfson, Jr.
Each year, Art Basel Miami Beach draws thousands of contemporary art lovers to The Wolfsonian museum. Marco Brambilla, who screened King Size, a meditation on the intertwined legacies of Elvis Presley and Las Vegas, in our lobby last Wednesday, returned after hours to peruse some world’s fair and international exposition materials for inspiration for, and possible integration into, a new project he is developing.
He and his colleague, Kathleen Forde, were especially interested in a souvenir catalog of the 1939-1940 New York World’s Fair designed by Donald Deskey.
The Wolfsonian–FIU, Mitchell Wolfson, Jr. Collection
Exploring the idea of yesterday’s utopian views of tomorrow, they were eager to see some original catalogs dating from more recent fairs. Not only did we have a postcard illustrating the Atomium built for Expo ’58, the international exposition in Brussels, but we also hold a rare oversized book with detailed plans of that and other buildings and structures from the fair.
The Wolfsonian–FIU, gift of Michele Oka Doner
While our holdings for the 1964-1965 New York World’s Fair and later international expositions are not so comprehensive, we did have a couple of leaflets, view books and children’s pop-up and paper toy assembly books that caught their eye and imagination.
The Wolfsonian–FIU, gift of Francis Xavier Luca & Clara Helena Palacio Luca
The Wolfsonian–FIU, Mitchell Wolfson, Jr. Collection
The Wolfsonian–FIU, Mitchell Wolfson, Jr. Collection
The Wolfsonian–FIU, Mitchell Wolfson, Jr. Loan
Even before our open house began on Friday evening, December 8th, curators from the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA) and a group of students led by Indira Sanchez of the Museo de Arte Contemporaneo de Monterrey, Mexico, came to the library for a sneak peak at the display of materials laid out for the Art Basel visitors.
That same evening, the museum was swarmed with more than a thousand Art Basel enthusiasts; hundreds of these visitors came up to the library foyer where Dr. Harsanyi introduced them to the installation on Albert Wainwright, as they qued up to enter the main reading room to view a Jazz Age-themed display and presentation.
Materials included sheet music covers and books ridiculing the passage of Prohibition, flouting the dry laws, or encouraging thirsty Americans to vacation in Cuba where the rum still flowed like water.
The Wolfsonian–FIU, gift of Francis Xavier Luca & Clara Helena Palacio Luca
The Wolfsonian–FIU, Mitchell Wolfson, Jr. Collection
The Wolfsonian–FIU, gifts of Vicki Gold Levi
To complement the Silhouettes: Image and Word in the Harlem Renaissance exhibition in our seventh-floor gallery, we also included a few of the more than a hundred rare books on the topic donated to our library by Daniel Morris of Historical Design gallery in New York. Many feature dust jacket designs and illustrations by Aaron Douglas and other artists associated with the movement.
Stompin’ at the Savoy / Al Hirschfeld
The Wolfsonian–FIU, gifts of Historical Design, New York
Daniel Morris also gifted to The Wolfsonian Library a rare portfolio of pochoir plates by Paul Colin celebrating Josephine Baker.
The Wolfsonian–FIU, gifts of Historical Design, New York
After moving from New York to Paris, Ms. Baker became an overnight sensation, dancing in the Folies Bergère for more than a decade.
The Wolfsonian–FIU, Mitchell Wolfson, Jr. Collection
The Wolfsonian–FIU, gift of Francis Xavier Luca & Clara Helena Palacio Luca
Not only is she reputed to have introduced and popularized the “Charleston” to Parisians, but she quickly became a renowned singer and star of the French silver screen.
We hope that all of our Art Basel guests and our virtual visitors enjoyed this glimpse inside The Wolfsonian Library. Until next time!
Wolfsonian-FIU Library 