Kim Sajet at the Arts Club, May 4, 2022/Photo by Patricia Leslie
The crowd may not have been as big as it was last month when the National Gallery of Art director came, but remarks by the director of the National Portrait Gallery Wednesday night at the Arts Club seemed deeper, more personal, and drew louder laughter.
Kim Sajet with Dana Tai Soon Burgess at the Arts Club, May 4, 2022/Photo by Patricia Leslie
"I'm fine with people coming in the museum and walking out more confused" than when they came in, said Kim Sajet, NPG director and the first woman to hold the position.
"We are a history museum as well as an art museum," she said, and "I'm just dangerous enough to know a little bit about a lot of things."
She continued: "I believe what museums do is important."
Many new museum directors discover they are "floating down the river" without staff support which takes some time to win over, but Dr. Sajet is proud of her staff.
The National Portrait Gallery is the only portrait gallery in the U.S. she reminded the audience, and it has tried "some crazy things," but the crazies seem to draw the biggest crowds.
For three days the NPG hosted, more or less on a lark, an exhibition during the heyday of "Google glasses."
"People lined up for hours to see it," Dr. Sajet said.
"We've made mistakes; we've learned a lot."
The Portrait Gallery "used to be non-threatening" with lots of "dead white guys. What was not to love?" she asked.
NPG's mantra is to collect portraits of persons (until 2001, "really dead" persons, like for more than 10 years) who have made a great impact on American history and culture.
Right now an artist is working on the Trump portraits, and the Gallery has 15 works under commission.
The museum might approach a major contemporary artist, she said, and ask: "Who would you want to do?"
"I don't know why museums have to be so boring; you know, 'don't touch.'"
"I always tell the curators, you'll get brownie points if you can make someone cry."
"If you live here, you try to stay away from all these tourists, face it."
Competition on the National Mall for space is stiff with two new museums vying for land: the women's history museum and the U.S. Latino museum, and hold it! There's a new kid coming to the block, an Asian-American museum, Dr. Sajet said.
Answering a question from a member of the audience, she is "so grateful we are not on the Mall. We are surrounded by fantastic restaurants" but on the Mall, it's nothing but a "food wasteland."
When she arrived in 2013, NPG attendance was one million; now attendance is 2.3 million.
"We may not have the largest attendance" among museums, "but we're the most revisited museum," she said. (Unclear if she meant museums in D.C. or the U.S., probably the former.)
This year's Outwin Boochever competition which NPG holds once every three years, chose 42 finalists from 2,774 entries, Dr. Sajet said. The winner, Alison Elizabeth Taylor, received $25,000.
It's not easy determining who belongs in the collection.
Take Katy Perry, "a good example," Dr. Sajet said.
At the time Ms. Perry was selected for NPG inclusion, "she was the second highest performing artist after Michael Jackson. If Rosemary Clooney got in, why not Katy Perry?" (Katy Perry has her own solo shot at NPG; Rosemary Clooney is pictured with 17 others.)
Will Cotton (b. 1965) , Cupcake Katy, 2010, National Portrait GalleryPhilippe Halsman (1906-1979), Rodgers and Hammerstein, 1954, National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution; gift of Jane Halsman Bello, © Philippe Halsman Archive. Rosemary Clooney is pictured the second from left, back row.
When someone dies, "we put out their portrait" like Aretha Franklin's (died August 16, 2018), when "the line was out the door the next day."
Visitors left purple flowers at Prince's portrait, ashes for Kobe Bryant on the museum's steps, and filled "two books" (of remembrances?) for John McCain.
"People want to be with other people" at these sad times.
Answering an audience question, Dr. Sajet said NPG has about 40 digital portraits in its collection.
She was born in Nigeria to Dutch parents, holds citizenship in the Netherlands, and grew up in Australia. She loves reading and is probably one of those "readers for life." She's been in the U.S. 25 years.
"My mother is someone I've always admired." Dr. Sajet has a severely disabled brother.
As a youth, she "fell in love with the history of art."
"A moment" she experienced at the Whitney Museum of American Art was when she saw a painting by Edward Hopper of an outdoor cafe with a sad clown which helped steer her life.
Edward Hopper, Soir Bleu, 1914, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York
Moderating her presentation was Dana Tai Soon Burgess, Arts Club member, choreographer-in-residence for the Smithsonian, and "poet laureate of national dance" (as identified by a club member).
From May 17 - 19, 2022, NPG will host his newest work, El Muro [The Wall], created by inspiration drawn from the Outwin-Boochever contest. It's 30 minutes of modern dance with 10 performers and live music by Martin Zarzar, formerly of Pink Martini.
Free to see, but May 17 is "sold out." Go here to reserve.
Patricialesli@gmail.com
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