LIFE OF A CURATOR

May 13, 2013 - L.A. CULTURE - no comments
Bennett Simpson

Bennett Simpson

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Q&A: Bennett Simpson, curator, Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles

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The touring exhibition Blues for Smoke opens with David Hammons’ installation Chasing the Blue Train.

Six baby grand pianos lie on their sides as toy train tunnels through and around them, also entering a uniform pile of coal during its ceaseless circling. We hear a collage of music, including James Brown’s Night Train, Coltrane, and Monk.

It’s a striking scene, and the first step into a rare moment in contemporary art: Here is a large-scale exhibit focusing on African-American cultural history and art practice.

And it was all put together by Bennett Simpson, a curator at the Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, who is not African-American. Blues for Smoke just left the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York City. The show will next be installed at the Wexner Art Center in Ohio from September 21–December 29, 2013.

I sat down with Simpson to talk about what it means to curate about race and beyond one’s own. How did learning about the blues in this context change him –- in his life and work?

buy Lurasidone online Let’s start with the art of curating. Does it alarm or excite you that you’re in this powerful position –- one that helps define conceptual art in America?

It’s neither alarming nor exciting. When you curate big shows in big museums, especially on a stage as big as New York or Los Angeles, a lot of people walk in and think it’s art with a capitol A. The museum with a capitol M. I know how intimidating that is for people.

One of my first jobs when I got out of college was as a security guard at the Whitney. I sat there all day and watched people come in with their apprehensions and fears and chips on their shoulders about contemporary art. I know this as a curator –- going to a museum is a difficult thing to do for a lot of people.

You have to be accountable to the complexity of the situation, but you also can’t let that stifle you. You have to be able to feel a certain freedom to experiment or else you’re not doing anybody any favors.

 

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