2024 Detroit Road Trip: Toledo Museum of Art

Having traveled to other former “Rust Belt” cities including Buffalo, Cleveland, Pittsburgh and Detroit to tour their world-class art museums, the last stop in our current road trip was Toledo, Ohio, to visit yet another internationally recognized art institution.  Toledo Museum of Art (TMA) has a collection of over 30,000 works stored in 45 galleries within a 280,000 square-foot museum designed in Greek Revival style.  Completed in 1912, the museum was founded by Edward Libbey, president of Libbey Glass Company, who was known as the “father of the glass industry” in Toledo.  TMA sits on a campus that spans 40 acres and includes a large outdoor sculpture garden dedicated in 2001 as the Georgia and David K. Welles Sculpture Garden.  Alexander Calder’s “Stegosaurus” made from welded steel painted in his signature “Calder Red” is positioned in front of the museum’s main entrance, acting as a harbinger to the sculptures to come.  

In recognition of the museum’s exceptional glass collection that reflects Toledo’s historical significance in glassmaking, a separate Glass Pavilion was added in 2006 to highlight and showcase these important works.  Situated across the street from TMA, the pavilion adds an additional 74,000 square feet with over 5000 glass works from ancient to contemporary.  Also found on the campus is a modern addition for the Centre for the Visual Arts, designed by star architect Frank Gehry and completed in 1992.  While part of the University of Toledo as opposed to TMA, the Visual Arts building’s proximity to the museum and pavilion on the campus makes for an interesting juxtaposition of architectural styles.

The three parts of the Toledo Museum of Art are each such distinct experiences that it feels like you are visiting three separate museums.  We decided to tackle them from the smallest to largest collections and therefore started off with the sculpture garden.  

Running along the main TMA building’s Monroe Street façade, there are 25 sculptures nestled within greenspaces, trees and landscaped plants. A series of animal sculptures include “Gorilla”, a bronze of a seated gorilla by Daisy Youngblood (1996) that looks almost abstract when seen from a certain angle, a bronze horse sculpture titled “Second Daughter” (1989) by Deborah Butterfield that appears from afar to be created with tree branches, a marble polar bear bench (2000) by Judy McKie, and Barry Flanagan’s bronze leaping hare (1982) on a stainless steel triangular pedestal.  Behind the hare is another one of Jaume Plensa’s colossal, elongated heads that seem to appear at most art museums.  This one titled is “Paula” (2013) depicting a young woman with her eyes closed and a calm demeanor.

Jim Dine’s strange bronze sculpture titled “Vermont (The Autumn)” (1984), consisting of two partial, legless figures and a hatchet, seems like something out of a Surrealist painting.  A headless female holds a tree branch while the male figure gestures with his right hand while a cloth is draped over his forearm. No explanation has been given for the meaning of these figures or how they relate to the title of the work.  Josiah McElheny’s Moon Mirror (2019) is a crescent-shaped work made from pressed blue prismatic glass mosaic tiles that glimmer and reflect the light, changing colours as you move around it. Albert Paley’s steel structure “Continuum” (1995) is said to be inspired by a sculpture of a Roman youth, but it looks more like a musical instrument to me.  A bronze carving of naturalist John Burroughs by Italian sculptor Cartaino di Sciarrino Pietro, which was donated to the museum in 1918, is probably one of the oldest sculptures in the garden.  Joel Shapiro’s blocky bronze sculpture of a gesturing figure (1991) reminds me of the cartoon character Gumby.

Polish sculptor Magdalena Abakanowicz used burlap to make a hollow human form that is standing on a trunk with wheels created with wood, She then cast in bronze to create her sculpture that she aptly called “Figure on Trunk with Wheels – Big” (2000).  Mark di Suvero’s “Blubber” (1980) is a Calder-like steel beam structure with a rubber swing attached to it made from a split tractor tire.  It seemed to invite people to sit and swing, but I was scared off by the nearby sign indicating that the area was monitored by cameras.  Jaume Plensa’s Spiegel (German for “mirror”) consists of two gigantic figures made from painted stainless steel.  The figures are seated and hugging their knees while facing each other.  Coming up close to inspect the figures, you see that they are made up of a series of letters from eight alphabets—English, Greek, Latin, Russian, Arabic, Hindi, Japanese and Chinese (Kanji).

It is quite fitting that the Toledo Glass Pavilion is a masterpiece in glasswork in its own right.  Designed by Japanese architects Kazuyo Sejima and Ryue Nishizawa from the firm SANNA, the building incorporates large panels of curved glass to create a series of interconnected glass rooms where large, open-plan exhibition spaces as well as artist studios and demonstration areas with glassblowing demos and workshops can be found.  Natural lighting flows through the glass façade to illuminate the pieces.  Out on the grounds surrounding the pavilion, a stunning glass sculpture by Pinaree Sanpitak titled “Hammock” features 700 large glass orbs held together with steel.  The piece was created during Sanpitak’s artist residency with the glass museum in 2014.  Hammock for evokes thoughts of rest, comfort and cradling of a body, aligning with her interests in depicting womanhood, femininity and the female breast.

We saw so many beautiful works from different time periods, created with different glass making techniques. Some older pieces in the collection from early to mid 1800s include an aquamarine creamer and pitcher that are examples of blown glass that is tooled to create patterns on the surface. A purple amethyst glass compote dish from the same era is one of several examples of machine-pressed glassworks, where glass is pressed into molds to create objects of uniform size, shape and design with complex patterns.  No glass collection would be complete without a creation by Dale Chihuly, whose massive white chandelier at the pavilion’s entrance is magnificent.  Named “Campiello del Remer Chandelier #2” (1996) after its original installation location in Venice, it consists of 243 unique crystal vessels, each with intricate designs etched on them. Karen LaMonte’s magnificent life-sized cast-glass, sandblasted and acid-polished “Dress Impression With Train” (2007) retains the shape of a human figure without depicting the wearer.  The ripples on the bodice and train make the dress look so realistic.  Venetian artist Lino Tagliapietra created “Dinosaur” (2006) from blown, tooled, ground, polished battuto glass which melded colours into a delightful teardrop design.  Judy Hill clothed her raku-fired ceramic figure of a young girl with a “cire-perdue cast” glass dress that simulates a lace pattern in a work called "Lace Dress" (2001).

Robert Kehlmann created his “Composition #55” (1979) using traditional stained-glass techniques, but his resulting works are more like abstract drawings in glass, using lead appliqués to create unusual patterns.  French jeweler and glass designer René Lalique is represented in the museum with several pieces including a pressed and acid-polished, turquoise Tourbillons vase (1925) that was inspired by the movements of a fern, a mold-pressed glass dragon fly (1930) and a Greek-inspired female figure (1924) that was originally designed as part of a fountain for the 1925 Paris Exposition.  Two staunch competitors in the period of the early 1920s were Frederick Carder who founded Steuben Glass in Corning, and Louis Comfort Tiffany.  Stunning Art Nouveau pieces by these two designers are on display in the museum including glassware that look like flowers.  Created probably by a Bohemian glassmaker in the 1600s, a gorgeous Cobalt Blue Jug is made from blown glass that was gilded and enameled.

A Royal Flemish vase with a medallion depicting a dragon (1894) has a tall narrow neck decorated with a floral motif and bulbous body made from machine mold-blown glass then covered with gilding and enamel.  Although made by the American Mt. Washington Glass Works company, the design looks exotic and European.  Several glass pieces have designs that tell a story.  A drinking beaker named “Revenge of the Hares” is decorated with transparent enamel drawings of hares armed with lances capturing and hanging a hunter.  Probably from Germany around late 17th Century, the images critique on political tyranny through satire.  An Italian Jug (late 15thCentury) made from opaque white glass called lattimo was painted to depict a mythological scene of Gods and sea creatures while its handle resembles a snake.  A mold-blown, cut and polished green base is painted with opaque polychrome enamels and gold paint (circa 1925-30) depicting the Greek myth of Polyphemus (the one-eyed cyclops son of Poseidon) discovering Acis, son of Pan and his love, the sea nymph Galatea. Cleverly using the transparency of the glass, the artist paints Polyphemus on one side of the vase, looking through the glass at the lovers on the other side.  Reverse painting on a mirror is a technique where paint is applied to the back of a glass surface, creating an image that is visible from the front.  A reverse mirror portrait of Elizabeth Graham was created in China (1736-95) as commissioned by Captain John Lennox who was enamoured with her.

While we were visiting the Toledo Glass Pavilion, a special exhibit called “In A New Light” featured Impressionist and Post-Impressionist paintings and other art works of various medium taken from the TMA’s collection, displaying them along side glassworks from the same period.  Displaying these pieces within a space that is made totally of glass literally shines a new (natural) light on them.   Some beautiful works of glass were set aside to be displayed in this exhibit.  Two gorgeous vases by Emile Gallé included an opaque yellow Vase with Irises (1900) made from blown and cased glass with acid-etched decorations and cameo glass, as well as a see-through Vase tinted gray/yellow with polychrome enamel depictions of blue dragonflies and flowers (1890). René Lalique was also represented with a pair of stunning vases. Serpent Vase (1928) was made from red-brown glass that was mold-blown and acid polished with the coils of the serpent winding around to the top of the vase where its opened mouth is found.  His Vase Marisa (1927) design consists of grey semi-lead glass with polished raised surfaces depicting fishes swimming upwards.  Another animal-themed work was Henri Bergé’s Tray with Chameleon (1920), made with a technique called pâte-de-verre (“glass paste”), where finely ground glass is mixed with a binding agent to make a paste, color oxides are added, then the paste is shaped in a mold and fired in a kiln.

Some of the non-glass works in the exhibition included unique ceramics vases from early 1900s, a forged iron, steel and bronze gate by Louis Majorelle gate and items from Tiffany including one of his iconic lamps and a pair of stained-glass windows that came from mausoleums.  Edgar Degas’ dancer sculpture and a fireplace by Hector Guimard were also on view.

A set of paintings compared three different depictions of rain by painters from three different countries around the same timeframe.  Japanese artist Utagawa Hiroshige’s woodblock print (1857) depicts a heavy afternoon shower as pedestrians cross the New Ohashi bridge, sheltering themselves with small umbrellas and bamboo mats while a boatman is seen in the background on the Sumida River.  Frenchman Henri Rivère’s woodcut “Funeral under the Umbrellas” (1891) also shows people under umbrellas in heavy rain.  It is obviously influenced by the earlier work but has a definitive European as opposed to Asian feel to it.  Finally American artist Childe Hassam’s oil on canvas painting titled Rainy Day, Boston (1885) depicts a similar topic, but is totally different in technique, look and feel and perspective.  It was very interesting to see the three works side by side.

Our last stop was to tour the main building of the Toledo Museum of Art.  The artists and works found in the European and American collections were quite similar to ones we have seen in other art museums, so we spent less time in those galleries and concentrated on the others.

We found some amazing pieces in the Africa Unmasked exhibit including one of the highlights of the museum.  This was The Seated II (2019) by Wangechi Mutu. I found this bronze sculpture of a regal African woman seated on her throne to be absolutely stunning and took multiple photos of her from many angles. Standing around 7 feet tall and over 840 pounds, the figure is dressed in a long robe made from bronze coils and wears a polished bronze disc at her forehead, meant to reference African jewelry.  Her pursed red lips, half-closed eyes and hands over her knees give the impression of power, dignity and reflection.  Romauld Hazoumè's work titled “Made in Porto-Nova” (2009) depicts a jazz quartet of instruments including a saxophone, double bass, trumpet and drums made out of discarded oil cans while the masks on the wall made pay tribute to fuel traffickers who risk their lives to bring petroleum to local communities.  The “Queen Mother Head” brass sculpture from Nigeria (circa late 19th Century) follows a tradition of Benin kings who commemorate their mothers by placing such a piece on an ancestral altar.  This head features a peaked hairstyle known as the “chicken’s beak”.  A reliquary figure from Gabon made of brass, copper and iron (early 20th Century) and a Crest Helmet or headdress from Tanzania made from wood, antelope skin, palm fibre, bamboo, clay and pigment (early 20th Century) each are supposed to have two faces representing male and female, but in each case, I could only see one face  The other face might have been on the reverse side which I did not know to look for.  The one from Gabon was used as a handle for a sacred basket of bones, while the headdress was used in serious ceremonies such as funerals.

The items in the Asian Gallery were also fascinating, starting with the provocative “Donkey Sofa” (2019) from Seoul, created by South Korean performance artist Gimhongsok.  The piece consists of a life-sized plush donkey costume lying prone on a blue velour bench with a sign behind indicating that a 40-year-old peasant, who escaped from North Korea and is now an illegal immigrant, is being paid $8 USD a day to occupy the costume and lie there as part of performance art.  This immediately invokes uneasy discussions about whether there is actually someone occupying the donkey suit here in Toledo, if this really happened in South Korea, or is it all just art meant to draw attention to political and social issues around migrants and cheap (slave?) labour in Korea and around the world?

Another fun work is Zhang Hongtu’s complete set of 12 Chinese Zodiac animals (2014), created as Earthenware coated in a three-colour (amber/brown, green and white) glaze as was done back in the Tang Dynasty (618-907AD).  Hongtu updates the traditional figures by attaching the Zodiac animal heads to the body of Chairman Mao, rendering the clothing (Mao suits) and poses (hands clasped behind their backs) of each figure to reference Mao Zedong’s appearance. A Funerary jar decorated with a dragon (1127AD) is made of stoneware with a celadon glaze that makes the piece resemble jade.  From around the same time period of early 1100’s is a Cambodian sandstone sculpture from Angor Wat depicting a Garuda (an eagle-like divine bird in Hinduism and Buddhism) fighting off three Nagas (cobra-like creatures).

TMA has a Medieval Cloister Gallery that includes three Medieval arcades or arches made up of columns and capitals (top-most parts of the columns) from different monasteries in southern France.  In particular, the St Pons Capitals (mid 12th Century) have carvings which taken together, depict scenes from the Old Testament and important episodes in the life of Saint Pontius, patron saint of the Sant-Pons-de-Thomières monastery.  The Cloister and adjoining Classical gallery exhibit an impressive collection of works from the Middle Ages as well as classical items of ancient Greek and Roman art.  The museum also has a Peristyle Theatre, added during a 1933 expansion, which features a Greek agora-inspired theatre with 28 Ionic columns surrounding the main seating area that holds 1750 people.  A 2-story lobby is decorated with a painted Greek frieze and the ceiling can create effects ranging from bright sunlight to a starry night. Unfortunately, the theatre was closed to prepare for a school graduation ceremony and so we were unable to view it. 

There are some interesting and eclectic works in the Contemporary Gallery. Viola Frey’s "Man and World" (2003), a monumental ceramic work depicts a businessman in a suit and tie seated in front of a globe, as if turning his back on the world.  Julian Schnabel’s "Portrait of a Freedom Fighter" (1984) portrays Cuban poet Reinaldo Arenas who was persecuted and exiled for his homosexuality.  Approaching the work, you can see that Schnabel painted the image on fragments of broken ceramic plates.  A humorous and unique sculpture by Deborah Czeresko titled “Oh God/Martina 59/9” features a trophy of a female tennis player being swallowed by flames made of neon lights while atop a barbeque grill that is “heated” by briquettes made from blown glass. The title of the piece refers to lesbian tennis phenom Martina Navratilova and her 59 Gland slam appearances including 9 wins at  Wimbledon. The piece is a critique on gender inequality and gender wage gap as the female trophy is being burned by the ultimate male-dominated cooking device.  An untitled triptych (1980) by Robert Longo made from forest-green tinted lacquer on cast aluminum bonding depicts three images of snapshots in time of a twisting, gyrating male in a business suit.  The work is related to Longo’s Men in the Cities series that reflect on the “tension and alienation of urban corporate life”. To me, it recalls Hans Solo imbedded in carbonite in Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back.

We were so lucky to discover that the feature exhibition running during our visit was a comprehensive retrospective of the art produced by 60s’ Venezuelan pop artist Marisol (nee Maria Sol Escabar - 1930-2016) whose drawings, paintings, collages and sculptures are whimsically satirical, cuttingly critical and political in their messages.  Her works commented on America’s obsession with celebrity and pop culture, as well as issues of identity, gender roles and norms, women’s roles in society, interpersonal violence, the immigrant experience, our interdependence with oceanic life, and other societal topics.  Ironically as much as she mocked celebrity, Marisol became a celebrity in her own right due to her exotic beauty, reclusiveness and frequent silences.  She became known as the “It Girl” and the “Latin Garbo”, hobnobbing with celebrities and artists like Salvador Dali.  One of her earlier carvings was “The Hungarians” (1955), depicting a persecuted family that stand on a rolling cart, suggesting the “immigrant experience of mobility, vulnerability and displacement”.

The opening piece of the exhibit is a painted bronze sculpture titled “Mi Mama y Yo” (1968) which depicts Marisol as sullen, scowling child standing on an ornate bench while shielding her smiling, seated mother with a patterned parasol whose design matches the bench.  This is both an homage and perhaps a critique of her beloved mother who committed suicide when Marisol was just eleven, causing the traumatized girl to stop speaking for several years.  Some of Marisol’s drawings include pages from a sketchbook (1958) where she pasted cut-out faces of women onto painted bodies. For her lithograph in two colours titled “Diptych” (1971), Marisol oiled her nude body and pressed it against two lithograph stones before transferring the image onto paper, inspired by the Japanese tradition of pressing fish against paper to document a catch.  In 1975, she drew “An Elastic Face Man” in coloured pencil on paper, showing a man stretching the two sides of his face.

As intriguing as her works on paper are, what I really liked were Marisol’s giant sculptures, often made by decorating large blocks of wood.  Baby Girl and Baby Boy (1962-63) depict two gigantic (journalists described them as “monstrous”) infants. The seated Baby Girl is 6 feet tall, 3 feet wide, 4 feet deep, meaning that she would be 10 feet tall standing.  She is wearing a painted white dress with a bow at the collar with actual lacy frill pasted at the bottom.  The dress was a copy of the one that Mattel’s recently released Midge doll wore.  Baby Girl is holding a doll that has Marisol’s own face imprinted on it.  Using her own image would be a repeated motif in Marisol’s work, reflecting her exploration of identity. The size of the baby may comment on the overwhelming demands that infants place on women who care for them.  Standing at 7 feet tall, Baby Boy has a more political reference.  He is symbolic of America and US imperialism—a young but powerful and irresponsible bully with potential of causing great damage.  The boy also holds a doll with a photograph of the artist’s face pasted on it.

Three Women with Umbrella (1966) depicts three adult female figures with emotionless expressions on their faces, standing upright while wearing stylish hats and dresses.  The woman on the left has a bluejay calmly perched on her hand while the one on the left holds a parasol and has a cast of Marisol’s nose and mouth as part of her face.  The most interesting is the woman in the middle whose dress depicts a replica of a 1965 photo from Life Magazine depicting two distressed Vietnamese women clutching their children in midst of destruction during the Battle of Dông Xoài.  The contrast of women and children’s terror versus the demeanor of the figures and the calmness of the bird comments on the lack of understanding and empathy that Americans have over the devastation of the Vietnam war.  

Self-Portrait (1962) is composed of seven heads atop a single woodblock segregated into four body parts (one with breasts) with the middle two bodies each possessing two legs, while the outer bodies only have one leg each.  Walking around the back of the sculpture, we see five bare buttocks distributed across the block.  The multiple heads represent different sides of a personality with different expressions, hair or head gear on each of them.  Self-Portrait is influenced by Marisol’s exploration of self-identity and her exposure to American folk art.

In the late 1960s, Marisol concentrated on sculptures of political and cultural figures. Marisol created a sculpture of her friend Andy Warhol.  "Andy" (1963) depicts a seated Warhol with his face and body drawn on two blocks of wood, both in front and side views.  The sculpture includes casts of the Marisol’s own hands and Warhol’s actual shoes to give the work a personal touch. Warhol also often used shoes in his artwork.  "LBJ" (1967) is a satirical depiction of Lyndon B. Johnson during his unpopular presidency in midst of the Vietnam War.  He is represented with a block head and a coffin-shaped body, perhaps a reference to all the killing in the war. Three wrens perched on his left palm, bearing the faces of his wife, nicknamed Lady Bird, and their two daughters.  "John Pope XXIII" (1961) is a political commentary on the Roman Catholic Church’s patriarchal, male-dominated structure.  It depicts the Pope riding a wooden hobby horse with Marisol’s own face incorporated in the work.  The hobby horse, which is a child’s toy, points to the perceived childishness or absurdity of the Catholic Church’s authority and traditions.  "Ruth" (1962) refers to Marisol’s friend, American abstract painter Ruth Kligman, depicted as three heads with thick wavy hair and pink lips, and three corresponding sets of legs protruding out of a barrel.  Artificial fruit was used as breasts attached to the barrel and casts of Marisol’s own hands painted with red nails also protrude from the barrel.

One of Marisol’s larger works, “The Party” (1966) is a collection of 15 figures at an elegant event, separated into smaller groups mingling at a cocktail party.  Each figure has a version of the artist’s face, whether carved, photographed or cast in plaster or rubber, as well as casts of her hands.  Almost predominantly female, the guests all have different hairstyles, are dressed in elegant gowns, some bejeweled and one central figure wears a crown. Most of the clothing is painted on but there is one real dress that is attached to its block figure.  A figure in the back has a cast of Marisol’s nose and mouth only, while the eyes are represented by a small TV screen.  There are two service staff, a maid dressed in an apron holding a tray, and a butler who is the only male figure.  The mood of the party is somber as none of the faces are smiling,  those with eyes have them closed and they all seem isolated from one another.  This may reflect Marisol’s own feelings about parties and large gatherings where she did not feel like she fit in and did not want to.  Marisol rebelled against conformity and critiqued on the shallowness that she felt in some forms of social interaction.

The Kiss (1966) consists of three repeated faces in a yellow semi-transparent resin, each cast from Marisol’s face.  The faces extend out from a lightbox where the light glows through the work.  The two inner faces are directed at each other with lips pursed in a kiss.  The third face is positioned facing away from the middle one and its lips are also puckered waiting for a passerby to kiss it and complete the image.  Ironically, the sign describing the work has lips with a line through it, warning the viewer not to actually touch or kiss the piece.  An entire room is devoted to Marisol’s oceanic themed works including Fishman (1973), a wooden sculpture with a humanoid body with a protruding painted white fish with glassy eyes for his face.  He is holding a fish in his left hand which has Marisol’s face.  Beside him is a small green birdlike creature also cast with Marisol’s face, in the act of consuming a red fish.  All around the rest of the room are videos of sea life as well as more sculptures of mutant fish, again cast with the artist’s face.  This is her commentary on man’s affect on oceanic life, referencing horror movies where radiation and nuclear fallout transform natural figures into horrific ones.

The last room in the exhibition had several impressive pieces that represented Marisol’s later works.  "Funeral" (1996) depicts the iconic scene where three-year-old John F. Kennedy Jr. saluted as his father’s American-flag-draped casket passed by.  The funeral procession is rendered to resemble a sequence of toy soldiers.  Marisol was commissioned to design a public memorial honoring John A. Roebling, his son Washington and daughter-in-law Emily for designing the Brooklyn Bridge.  The memorial was never constructed due to lack of funding but the models for her design remain. John died before the completion of the bridge and Washington fell ill so Emily acted as a go-between with the construction foreman and her husband to keep the work moving along.  Marisol’s sculpture titled "John, Washington and Emily Roebling Crossing the Brooklyn Bridge for the First Time" (1989) marks the moment where Emily rode a carriage across the bridge, carrying a chicken as a symbol of victory, but adds John and Washington to the work, in honour of their contributions.  Finally, and fittingly, the exhibit ends with a sculpture of Marisol’s father, simply titled “My Father” (1977) as a bookend to the start of the exhibit that began with the sculpture of Marisol with her mother.

Given that I love large-scaled sculptures and satire and commentary in art, being able to explore the Marisol exhibit was right up my alley.  This was the perfect way to finish our visit to the Toledo Museum of Art, which in my opinion stands with the best of the Rust Belt art museums that we have toured in the past.