What’s new?
“Ruby City in Southtown.”
What’s that?
“San Antonio’s newest art museum – though it’s more of a private collection in a fantastic new building in a once-neglected, now-emergent part of the city.”
What makes it unique?
“Linda Pace’s influence. For years I attended residents’ openings at Artpace, downtown, when I lived downtown, and never much questioned its name. Some of the exhibitions were poor – I spent my residence doing things other than art, and now I’m showing something I did before I did my residence, and I promise to try harder in the future – but some of the exhibitions were excellent, and most of them were original, in the sense –”
In what sense? Oh –
“– in the sense of presenting something I’d not seen before. That’s way harder than it sounds. Especially when a visual artist is presenting her wares to museumgoers and collectors. You think you can just make a mess with a handful of colors, and since you figure it’s random, why, it’s original, but actually it’s not. It’s close enough to someone else’s ‘random’ for any collector’s mind to recognize patterns and come away instantly convinced she’s not seeing anything for the first time.”
What made you think of that?
“So many hours in front of art.”
Go on.
“When I moved to Texas 10 years ago, I went to get a new driver’s license and flunked the eye test quite conclusively. Quite surprisingly. I assume some of my left eye’s damage was from boxing and more of it was from reading. Who knows, really? Anyway I had to get glasses. And when I put them on for the first time, suddenly the world was in high-definition. I decided that same month I would be indifferent to visual arts no longer.”
(Smiling) Were you a philistine?
“Not exactly. I read a lot and wrote a lot. But I had no capacity for visual art. I couldn’t draw when I was a kid, and the rest of the indifference, to color and form and texture and sundry media, it all just came along by default.”
Then what?
“By the end of my third month in Texas, I was a member at SAMA and The McNay, a member at MFAH (and never missing a chance to visit The Menil Collection) and making four or five annual trips to Fort Worth, with a stop here or there in Dallas.”
What’s in Fort Worth?
(Smiling) “Now who’s a philistine?”
Hah!
“The Kimbell. The Modern. Even Amon Carter. Along the way, I learned about architecture, too. A few years later I was alone in Madrid solely to spend time at the Prado and in Bilbao to spend time at the Guggenheim. Along with a dozen trips in the U.S. to see museums. Eventually the compulsion faded – during a trip to Medellin, Colombia, actually, to see Botero’s works. But 1,000 hours or so teach you how hard it is to create something no one has seen before.”
What did Ruby City have that you hadn’t seen before?
“A commitment, I think, to philanthropy and making one’s hometown a beautiful place – that, much more than any particular work.”
What about the building?
“Well. We were there at night, so it’s hard to evaluate its handling of light. In some ways it felt more like a sculpture with doors than a home for art. My initial impression. Often that is the case. I think of Denver Art Museum as an example of that. The building seems almost hostile to its art – though it’s awesome to look at and wander round outside.”
What about returning to Ruby City?
“I’ll take my daughter there tomorrow afternoon. A few months ago her kindergarten class had a career day, where the kids dress up in their future careers, and at the very last moment, she told her mom she wants to be an artist when she grows up. Ever since, I’ve used it as an excuse to take her to museums and galleries.”
What else?
“No resolutions for 2020.”
What’s wrong with that?
“Absolutely nothing. But I chided myself for it anyway while meditating a few mornings ago.”
What did you decide?
“Be more generous. That is my sole resolution for the new year.”
Happy New Year!
“Same to you and yours, my friend.”