ICA selects the first 11 works for its permanent collection

Mar. 10--Eleven works of art, ranging from images by the gritty photographer Nan Goldin to a large sculpture of hanging charcoal, will be the first items in the Institute of Contemporary Art's new permanent collection, the museum will announce today.

The addition of a permanent collection is keyed to the opening of the ICA's $51 million new building, on Fan Pier, which is set to open Sept. 17.

"The decision to begin collecting, to build a permanent collection, to have it be a collection focused on the 21st century, is an absolutely monumental decision," the museum's director, Jill Medvedow, said in a telephone interview yesterday. "Over time, that decision will be the most significant change in the ICA."

Cheryl Brutvan, curator of contemporary art at the Museum of Fine Arts, said in a telephone interview that she welcomed the ICA's commitment to a permanent collection. "We do share some of the same collectors and audience. But there's lots of art out there, so we're happy to see this. More is better."

Having permanent holdings would not change the ICA's focus on contemporary art, Medvedow said. "We're a city that, clearly, has a lot of university museums and a great encyclopedic museum in the MFA. But we are the only museum dedicated exclusively to the art of our time. And in doing that, we have a very important role to preserve and present."

All of the works were donated to the museum. Among them are three photographs by Goldin and a watercolor by Marlene Dumas, one of whose paintings recently sold for $3.3 million, the highest price paid at auction for a living woman artist. There are two sculptures by Cornelia Parker, a 1997 finalist for the Turner Prize, Britain's most prestigious art award, including "Hanging Fire (Suspected Arson)," made of suspended charcoal. Paul Chan's "1st Light," a piece of digital animation, is featured in the current Whitney Biennial, in New York.

There are also sculptures by Mona Hatoum, Thomas Hirschhorn, and Taylor Davis, and a gouache by Laylah Ali. Both Davis and Ali are former winners of the ICA Artist Prize, which the museum gives to outstanding local artists, and Hirshhorn was just featured in a major show at the ICA.

"They're certainly all artists worthy of attention," Brutvan said. "It's an interesting selection in terms of media, the communities they come from, and the variety of subject matter. It's a nice, rounded group: abstract and representational, media and traditional. The ICA is off to a good start."

A number of the artists have local ties. Goldin, now based in Paris, began her career in Boston. Ali lives in Williamstown. Davis lives in Boston. There's also a strong international component. Hatoum and Parker are based in London, and Dumas in Amsterdam.

"What we decided in terms of building a cohesive collection was to include people who have had either solo shows or been part of significant exhibitions at the ICA," Anthony Terrana, an ICA trustee and assistant chairman of the collections committee said, in a telephone interview yesterday.

Terrana donated four of the artworks: two Goldin photographs, the Dumas watercolor, and Hirschhorn sculpture. "It was a big decision, because they're some of my favorite pieces," he said. "But no museum here has a collection of 21st-century art, so it's really important for the city."

An ICA trustee, Mary Schneider Enriquez, chairwoman of the acquisitions committee, said in a telephone interview that the collection would complement the museum's exhibitions.

"It's vitally important we have a permanent collection so we provide a context by which the audience can judge and learn about what they're seeing in the new exhibitions, seeing what contemporary art has done in the last 20 years or so. We'd show very exciting, cutting-edge work, and people wouldn't know how to deal with it. This way we can provide a context," Enriquez said.

Works from the permanent collection will make up one of four inaugural shows, which the ICA is announcing today. The four will be up simultaneously. The others are "Super Vision," which will look at the impact of technology, surveillance and virtual reality; "Momentum 6," an ongoing series looking at developments in contemporary art; and a selection of works by finalists for the ICA Artist Prize.

Unveiled in 2002, the dramatic design for the new ICA, by the New York firm Diller Scofidio + Renfro, has drawn widespread praise. Its signature exterior element is a glass cantilever that extends toward the harbor. Its 65,000-foot interior, which triples the ICA's current exhibition space, includes a 325-seat theater and two-story education center.

Along with opening its new building, the ICA has a major capital campaign underway, with a goal of $62 million. According to Medvedow, the campaign is at the $56 million mark. That figure represents pledged donations and projected revenues from the sale of the museum's current Boylston Street facility, which is expected to bring between $7.5 million and $8 million.

"We have work to do, the last 10 percent, but we have incredible momentum and confidence," Medvedow said. "For many years, there was a lot of skepticism . . . about whether we would be able to be financially viable, to get the approvals, to break ground. While we have been somewhat unconventional, perhaps, we are very, very strong as an institution."

The ICA, which was founded in 1936, was one of the first institutions in the United States exclusively devoted to showing contemporary art. The Fan Pier site will be the 12th, and presumably final, address in the museum's 70-year history.

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