The Exciting Evolution of Bass

Quite an appropriate reference considering that she is intent on redefining the mission of the museum in a way that advances the importance of the juxtaposition of historic and contemporary art.

Cubiñá has been at her post for one year now, hailing from a six-year stint at the Moore Space, and in her quest to reposition the cultural institution to a level of stature within the community, all predictions are that artists, collectors, patrons, residents, and community leaders are ready to embrace her avant-garde push towards the future.

Haute Living What is the mission of the Bass Museum?
Silvia Karman Cubiñá We are actually in the process of redeveloping our mission statement. The foundation of the museum will always be to engage people by creating a dialogue between contemporary art and historic art because that is what our collection reflects. But my goal is to ensure that we never become complacent in that strategy, or stagnant with recycled ideas. I am on a constant quest to determine how to historicize contemporary art; and how to make art that was created in the 1600s, let’s say, relevant and engaging for us today.

We’ve come up with a lot of ideas, but it’s an ongoing conversation, not just within the museum, but with the community as well, and its something that we’ve yet to nail down completely. The first exhibition initiated after I arrived was called The Endless Renaissance, so we paired things that had relevance to one another. For example, we found a contemporary video produced by an artist who was inspired by the work of Delacroix, as well as an abstract painting that was also inspired by Delacroix. It’s so intriguing because contemporary artists don’t produce in a void, they produce with tens of thousands of years of creativity behind them and they know that history, so they research and use it as a source of inspiration.

HL Can you comment on the importance of Art Basel for the City of Miami?
SKC It creates bridges, really exciting international bridges. Of course everybody likes that we have lots of visitors coming through our doors, but it could be more meaningful than that. It could be about enabling communication between your foreign colleages and creating dialogues to get projects moving. For example, a few years ago, I had a project over at the Moore Space and my colleagues in Zurich and Oslo walked in and one of their museums ended up purchasing the project and then Zurich included it in their show, so that sort of magical thing can happen with the right mindset and guidance.

HL What are some projects that the Bass Museum will be involved in during Art Basel?
SKC We are curating a show called Where Do We Go From Here? Selections from La Colección Jumex, which opens on December 3. This is such an exciting project because it is the first showing in the U.S. by the Mexican collector Eugenio Lopez Alonso. It is a collaboration between the Contemporary Art Center in Cincinnati and the Bass Museum in conjunction with the renowned Jumex Collection in Mexico City, and our museum will be the first one to host it. They generously opened their doors and we selected works from their collection, which we divided into four sections: art about art; art and urban anthropology; text in art; and a series of artist profiles.

We also have the exhibition from the former Chicagoan graffiti artist DZine, including the wall-to-wall, 1,100 square-foot kaleidoscopic of swirls and electric colors painted in our café.

And I also want to mention Kent Henderson’s exhibition, Wayward We Hunt, in a series called The Cabinet composed of wallpaper and embroidered paintings created in our Project Room. I am inviting a series of artists whose work is inspired by art from the past to come inside the space and produce work there.

HL What have been some of the most rewarding projects that you have worked on, both at Bass and throughout your career?
SKC Well, I am extremely proud to be at Bass because I feel an incredible sense of possibility here. We have a great foundation to build upon, with a great heritage and great community support. My board and staff are excellent and very supportive. I think about my six years at the Moore Space—it was really dynamic. I learned so much because it was a very intense experience working with the very best contemporary artists. My passion for art actually did not begin in an art class, but with a French teacher in high school who snuck in a lot of art history into our French lessons. I didn’t quite understand that I was learning art history until later on when I got to college and actually began training in art history. So, overall, I would say that I am extremely pleased with the direction that I have taken, but even more eager about the direction that we here at the museum will go.