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Austin360 blogs > Austin Arts: Seeing Things > Archives > 2010 > February > 02
Tuesday, February 2, 2010
Michael Dell’s $100 million purchase of Magnum Photos archive to live at UT — for five years
The University of Texas’ Ransom Center will be home for five years to nearly 200,000 original press photographs taken by the legendary staff of Magnum Photos, the long-standing international agency, the university announced Tuesday.
The Magnum Photos archive was purchased last year by MSD Capital, the $10 billion private investment firm for the family of Michael Dell.
Officials from MSD Capital and Magnum Photos would not disclose the purchase price of the private sale. But UT officials said that the Ransom Center insured the collection for $100 million.
The Magnum collection contains photographs dating from the 1930s through the 1990s and includes images of major world events, celebrities and startlingly candid shots by famed photographers such as Henri Cartier-Bresson, Robert Capa, Elliott Erwitt, Leonard Freed and Bruce Davidson.
As part of the arrangement, the Ransom Center has agreed to catalog and preserve the entire photo archive as well as host exhibitions and public programs. The Ransom Center will also make digital scans of every image. However, the cost to UT and the Ransom Center for the Magnum archive’s care and cataloging has not been determined, said Ransom Center spokeswoman Jen Tisdale.
Magnum and its photographers retain the copyright and licensing rights to the images. Dell’s MSD Capital will retain ownership of the photographs.
A spokesman for MSD Capital said that both the investment firm and Magnum Photos are making financial contributions to the Ransom Center to support the care and archiving of the collection, but he would not disclose the amount of those donations.
Cataloging, digitizing and publicly exhibiting an archive ultimately adds to its value.
The agreement between the Ransom Center, Magnum Photos and MSD Capital comes as the university is facing budget cuts including the controversial move to shut down the Cactus Cafe and cancel the UT informal classes program.
With the purchase of the Magnum archive, Dell himself joins an exclusive club of high-tech titans who have purchased important photography collections. In 1995, Microsoft founder and billionaire Bill Gates, through his privately owned digital stock photo company Corbis Corp., purchased the Bettmann Archive, a collection of some 19 million prints assembled by German collector Otto Bettman.
And this is not the first time that MSD Capital and its members have gotten involved in the art market.
Co-managing partners Glenn R. Fuhrman and John C. Phelan both collect contemporary art.
Fuhrman’s Flag Art Foundation in New York — which presents exhibits of contemporary art — co-produced a recent exhibit at Austin’s Lora Reynolds Gallery that featured the work of Noriko Ambe.
The Flag Foundation’s next exhibit for its Chelsea gallery? ‘Size Does Matter,’ a show curated by basketball legend Shaquille O’Neal.
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Review: Tim Miller’s ‘Lay of the Land’
When solo performer Tim Miller takes the stage, it seems like he can’t breathe. When Miller shifts into his performance persona, he always seems to be gasping for air.
The acting choice alternates between producing a sense of anxiety or exasperation as Miller’s streaming delivery goes on a journey through his take on what it means—and more importantly—how it feels to be queer in the US.
In Miller’s newest piece “Lay of the Land,” Saturday at Vortex, Miller targets his exasperation toward the ongoing battle over same-sex marriage. As is always true with Miller’s shows, the mix of comedy, pain and exuberant politics produces an unsettling mixture of empathy and indictment. “Lay of the Land” asks the now perhaps old, but still true feminist question: how do personal stories become political? And how do political decisions affect individual people trying to love each other and live together?
“Lay of the Land” focuses most directly on Miller’s experience in one the Californian same-sex couples able to marry during five months in the summer of 2008. But the show’s structure allows Miller to cover a huge swath of topics. “Lay of the Land” follows Miller’s participation in November 15 protests following the California Prop 8 anti-gay marriage vote.
Popping in and out of his role as activist in the street, Miller recalls vignettes from his life as a queer man. Perhaps the most intense recounts a harrowing moment as Miller’s father stood over his nine-year-old son, preparing to do an emergency tracheotomy on the kitchen table to remove chuck steak stuck in Miller’s throat
In one of many examples of the play’s web like writing, Miller relates the moment to his childhood hatred of baseball games—he saw the stadium as a tool for fathers to masculinize their gay sons—and Miller uses the steak as launching pad to discuss the queer issues, as he says, stuck in the throat of the nation. The many-tentacled writing can be dizzying to follow, but it’s fascinating in its scope.
Reflecting “Lay of the Land’s” title, Miller offers a stunningly broad view of the place of queer Americans in the national landscape. From an ode to Iowa — the state Miller calls the freest of the free after its 2009 unanimous State Supreme Court ruling allowing same-sex marriage—to his queer ode to state university mascots, Miller surveys the variety of American positions on gay and lesbian issues in even the most unlikely of places. After seeing “Lay of the Land,” no audience member will ever look at the University of Wisconsin’s hyper-muscular Bucky the Badger the same way again.
“Lay of the Land” is unabashedly political. Whether one agrees or disagrees with Miller’s positions, it would be nearly impossible to remain conscious through this show and not rethink gay rights in the US. And it would be impossible to sleep while Miller gasps and entertains.
Kudos to the Vortex for their long-time commitment to bringing this important artist back to Austin again and again.
Clare Croft is an American-Statesman freelance critic.
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Magnum photos to reside at UT
The University of Texas’s Ransom Center will be home for five years to some 200,000 original press photographs taken by the legendary photographers of Magnum Photos, the long-standing international photo agency.
The Magnum archive — which was purchased last year by MSD Capital, the private investment firm for the family of Michael S. Dell — will be housed at the Ransom Center for five years for exhibition and study. It is the first time the Magnum archive will be available to the public.
The collection contains photographs dating from the 1930s and include images of major world events, celebrities and starling candid images by photographers such as Henri Cartier-Bresson, Robert Capa, Elliott Erwitt, Leonard Freed and Bruce Davidson among many others.
Magnum, founded in 1947, is owned and managed cooperatively by its member photographers. Magnum continues to provide photographs to the media, publishers and advertising agencies.
The New York Times reported that the Ransom Center had insured the collection for more than $100 million.
As part of its agreement with Magnum and MSD Capital, the Ransom Center has agreed to catalog and preserve the entire photo archive. The Ransom Center will also make digital scans of every image.
The Magnum archive joins other important photography collections at UT including the Gernsheim Collection which includes the world first photograph made by Joseph Nicephore Niepce in 1826.
Photo: Bob Adelman. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. during his “I Have A Dream” speech, 1963. Copyright: Bob Adelman/Magnum Photos
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Q-and-A with Anne Akiko Meyers, violinist
Violinist Anne Akiko Meyers burst onto the international concert stage when she was just 11 years old. Now, the California native is a sought after soloist with a busy schedule of concerts around the globe.
Meyers is also a new member of the faculty at the University of Texas Butler School of Music.
On Sunday, she gives her first recital since moving to Austin, with Anton Nel at the piano at UT’s Bates Recital Hall at 4 p.m. See www.music.utexas.edu for ticket information.
A-AS: How did you select the program you’ll be playing?
Anne Akiko Meyers: I programmed Schnittke, Beethoven, Vernon Duke, Gershwin and this amazing premiere by Jakub Ciupinski with several things in mind. I love how Schnittke took classical themes and sacred music such as ‘Silent Night’ and put such an ironical twist on it. Usually music like that can be so overdone but when you hear his music, he spins everything very subtlety on it’s head and ends up making a very dramatic original statement. That originalality is uncanny and very brilliant. There is also a seasonal thread through the program with me visiting spring in the Beethoven ‘Spring’ Sonata, summer with the Gershwin, autumn via Vernon Duke and winter with the Schnittke. The premiere by Jakub Ciupinski is with electronics. This is a first for me, exploring the rich tapestries of a musical universe using a recording to accompany the solo violin.
AA-S: You started your career at a preciously young age. What kind of career advice do you give your college-age students at UT?
Meyers: Yes, I began my career at a very young age and relished every bit of it! Everybody’s development is very different and most my students have no desire to be soloists. Being a soloist must start at a very young age and by the time one is in college, that choice should have been made much earlier in one’s life. I think it is very important to be honest with one’s abilities in order to focus on learning and making the most of one’s talents and capabilities. This way, the path is clear to make plans with one’s life and hopefully make an impact with the environment around you.
AA-S: You’re new to town. What are some your favorite places in Austin?
Meyers: Being that I travel so much, my favorite place to be in Austin is at home. I love being able to sleep in my own bed, crawl to the kitchen and serve myself loads of ice cream. Other places I love visiting are Mount Bonnell, Zilker Park, the shops and restaurants at the Domain, Whole Foods and the Milk and Honey Spa. I seem to spend a lot of time on Research Blvd. as well!
Anne Akiko Meyers
When: 4 p.m. Sunday
Where: Bates Recital Hall, Music Building, UT campus
Tickets: $10-$20
Information: 471-5401, www.music.utexas.edu
