Page 9 - Avery Brundage Ancient Bronzes and Collecting Biography

forgeries. The uniqueness would normally arouse suspicion. What emboldened Brund-
age to make such a daring purchase, and apparently at a very high price?
Brundage’s love for Asian art had come about rather suddenly and unexpectedly.
While in Europe for the Winter Olympics at Garmisch-Partenkirchen in 1936, he
stopped in London and visited the landmark exhibition of Chinese art sponsored by
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the Royal Academy at Burlington House (fig. 8.9). Thirty-five years later Brundage re-
called, “We spent a week at the exhibition and I came away so enamored with Chinese
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art that I’ve been broke ever since.” He did not actually begin serious collecting right
away, but his words tell us how he later remembered the impact the Burlington House
exhibition had on him.
The Burlington House exhibition was the largest exhibition of Chinese art ever or-
ganized, and it was unquestionably extraordinary. The Chinese government sent more
figure 8.9. Burlington House exhibition
than one thousand objects from several domestic institutions, including 735 from the
of Chinese art, 1936. From Gray, “Royal
Imperial Collection in the National Palace Museum—jades, bronzes, paintings, ceram- Academy Exhibition,” 12 fig. 4.
ics, sculptures, and more. To those treasures, not one of which had ever been shown in
the West, the organizers in London added another two thousand plus objects borrowed
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from European, American, and Japanese collections, public or private. The exhibition
impressed Brundage so much that more than 60 objects in the exhibition on loan from
private collections were ultimately purchased by him in later years. Of his avid collect-
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ing, Brundage said, “It’s not a hobby, it’s a disease.” 27
Among all types of Asian art, Brundage found ancient Chinese bronzes—such as
those pictured in figures 8.10 and 8.11—particularly attractive. For the reason, we may
quote two of Brundage’s earliest and most trusted curators. One was René-Yvon Lefe-
bvre d’Argencé (1928–1997), who became associated with Brundage in 1963 and was
named director and chief curator of the Asian Art Museum in 1969, a position he held
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until his retirement in 1985. The other was Clarence Shangraw, the longtime deputy di-
rector and senior curator of the museum until his retirement in 1992. Lefebvre d’Argencé
said of Brundage that ancient Chinese bronzes “particularly appealed to him through
their architectonic robustness, intricate delicacy of design and superior craftsman-
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ship,” while Shangraw said that Brundage found in them “the perfection of the anony-
mous craftsman, strength and potency mingled with ‘primitive’ spirituality.” 30
As a buyer, Brundage managed to be both careful and daring. According to Shangraw,
he was well aware that replicas and forgeries abounded, and he became a dedicated stu-
dent of Asian art and archaeology, accumulating an extensive library on the subject.
Brundage was methodical and scrupulous in considering purchases. Visiting dealers, he
would make lists of objects that interested him, writing down a brief description of each,
often with an aesthetic rating, comments on condition, and the price. He would seldom
make an on-the-spot decision, preferring to “think about it.” Later that evening or the
next morning, he would go over his list; any object he could not recall vividly would be
summarily crossed off. The list would then go through another review, and after several
days of this he would make his final selection from those objects that had left an indel-
ible impression on him. On his innumerable Olympic travels, he methodically visited
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A Unique Pair: The Bronze Rhinoceros and Its Collector, Avery Brundage 209