Welcome to Accession.
Art contains exactly half of an old and powerful magic. It can build entire worlds from nothing but paint and canvas, tell epic stories inside a single frozen moment, and transport us across time, space, and ourselves. It can bring us to the heart of human emotion, can make music with lines, and poetry with well arranged color.
My name is T.H. Ponders, though most just call me Ponders, and over the years, I’ve found that I’m particularly good at tuning into the magic a piece of art has to share. It might be the poem a sculpture sings through the halls after the museum has closed, or the way a pointillist painting is just a string of love letters to a place in your heart, or how a diner in Greenwich Village isn’t just an elegy to loneliness but an ode to hope. I can put my ear up really close, and here it’s gently hummed melody. Or maybe I just love to read about and research art. But once I’ve heard the story a piece of art is trying to tell, once I’ve caught onto its particular magic, I get this itch until I’ve shared it with someone else. That’s where you, and this show, comes in.
Because here’s the thing-- there is nothing remarkable or special about me. At least, nothing remarkable in me, that isn’t also remarkable in you. As previously noted, art contains exactly half of an old and powerful magic. The other half is in you, the viewer. It’s in every story and moment of your life that you bring into the space before you first see a piece of art; in every thought and emotion, all the love and anger and confusion and understanding you feel as you engage in the act of looking; in everything the piece leaves with you, and everything you do after because of how it has changed you. You hold that magic inside of you no matter who you are, no matter how or where you engage with the art, no matter what your background is in art or life. You hold the other half of the magic of art.
So if you love art and think about it every day, and make this magic regularly, this show is for you. If you think you love art but have had trouble finding the inroads, or the words to express that love, this show is for you. If you’ve never felt the spark of magic in art, or found yourself wanting after an art experience, I hope that this show can bring your some tools to see just how incredible art can be. And if you’ve ever felt like there wasn’t a place for you in the world of art, or that you and the stories that resonate with you have been excluded from art, be it in the museums or the text books, this show is especially for you. While there are those who would seek to use the magic of art to further their own ideologies, and narratives, and power, this is not a place for such things. In every story I tell, I aim to make magic of welcoming, of understanding, of empathy, of hope, and of love.
So for our first piece of art magic, I’d like you to imagine yourself in a museum, in front of some piece of art. If your imaginary museum is anything like mine, then the walls of the museum are probably a plain white wash to let the piece stand out. And on the wall nearest the piece, there’s probably a card with some information like the title and artist. Now at the bottom of that card is a number, usually four digits, a period, and a few more numbers. The first string is the year that the museum acquired the piece, and the second string is the number object it was of all the pieces acquired that year. So Starry Night in the Museum of Modern Art in New York City was the 472nd object to enter the collection in 1941.Thus, its accession number is 1941.472. And that number can help us begin our journey. We can use it to look up information in a museum’s library or request the curatorial file. Pretty soon the plain white walls around the piece will begin to fill up with stories, lines, sounds, colors, music, poetry, hope, and love.
That little number can be the key to the magic we are going to make with art.
Welcome to Accession.