Bruce Nauman with U.S. Commissioner Carlos Basualdo at the U.S. Pavilion, Venice, Italy in June, 2008. Photo courtesy of the Philadelphia Museum of Art © Michele Lamanna 2008.
Carol Vogel reports from the New York Times that officials at the Philadelphia Museum of Art, commissioners of the United States pavilion at the Venice Biennale this year, are scrambling to raise the money to cover the costs of their ambitious Bruce Nauman exhibition. Last week the museum sent out a letter to a group of national and international contemporary-art collectors asking for help. Donors were invited to join Friends of Bruce Nauman and, as with museum memberships, receive special perks depending on the amount of the contribution. A check for $5,000, for instance, will be reciprocated with an invitation for two to drinks on June 5 and a free exhibition catalog. “There’s no question this is an ambitious project to do in a challenging economic climate,” said Gail Harrity, the museum’s interim chief executive, who estimated the cost of the exhibition at $1.8 million. “We’re 80 percent of the way there, and I’m encouraged and hopeful that we will close the gap soon.” The plan for the show, “Bruce Nauman: Topological Garden,” is particularly large in scale. Besides the national pavilion, which will survey four decades of his work, including video, installation, performance, and neon pieces, there will be two versions of a new sound installation by Nauman that is too big to fit in the pavilion. One will be on view in the Università Iuav di Venezia at Tolentini and the other on two floors of a fifteenth-century gothic palace that houses the Università Ca’ Foscari. Harrity said there were no plans to truncate the show if the needed funds were not raised. In addition to individual donors, she said, the project has received support from the Pew Charitable Trust, the Henry Luce Foundation, the State Department and the Philadelphia Museum’s home state, Pennsylvania.
