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Jun 05, 2023

At Cafesjian Art Trust’s ‘Highlights,’ a masterful curator showcases a prolific collection — but tickets are hard to come by

Most of the 3,500 or so artworks in the Cafesjian Art Trust’s collection spend their days in the museum’s attached warehouse, waiting for their turn in the gallery under curator Andy Schlauch’s

Most of the 3,500 or so artworks in the Cafesjian Art Trust’s collection spend their days in the museum’s attached warehouse, waiting for their turn in the gallery under curator Andy Schlauch’s carefully angled spotlights.

Whereas other museums have vast permanent collections that are always on display, the CAT, which opened last year in Shoreview, works almost entirely in rotating exhibitions.

The museum’s current show, “Highlights of the Collection,” opened in June and runs through Oct. 14. It’s the closest thing the museum may get to a permanent collection, Schlauch said.

Figuring out how to distill local philanthropist Gerard Cafesjian’s collection into a coherent and digestible show was an exciting curatorial puzzle, which Schlauch pulled off very well. The gallery isn’t terribly large — ultimately, the show contains somewhere around 2 percent, tops, of the museum’s total collection — but the show is balanced and has an approachable flow.

“There were a lot of things I wish I could’ve put in the show, but the hardest part for me was not letting it get so overwhelming you didn’t see anything,” Schlauch said. “I know when I go to exhibits, your brain goes fried. It just gets fried. So much to think about.”

Some museums’ highlights shows or tours focus on marquee names and particularly famous artworks. Schlauch took several different approaches to what constitutes a highlight.

Take “Vessel,” for example, a 2001 vase-like sculpture by the Italian glassblower Lino Tagliapietra. Is it his most famous piece? That’s perhaps beside the point. Schlauch included it in the “Highlights” show for how the artist wove together disparate glass-work techniques. It’s a highlight because it’s a technical feat and, more broadly, represents the range of glass styles in the collection.

Glass artist Therman Statom’s work is often shown alongside other studio art glass, Schlauch said. But his house-shaped “Untitled,” from 1984, which contains colorful shards and other inclusions, is a highlight for the new meaning Schlauch sees it take on when displayed with visual pop art.

The show does have its share of big names, too, notably Pablo Picasso — but not his paintings. Schlauch chose two works by the Cubist master, in ceramics and glass. In this case, they’re highlights that show a side of the artist that’s less commonly exhibited.

Other pieces, like “Pears” by Joey Kirkpatrick and Flora C. Mace and “Box-O-Fries” by John Miller, are just fun.

The show also contains quite a few decorative objects: Perfume bottles; carved coral; plates by designer Piero Fornasetti; a stunning jeweled fairy castle by William Tolliday; a wind-up armadillo toy.

“Gerry (Cafesjian) had a very open-ended idea of what he thought could potentially be art or sculpture,” Schlauch said. “So he looked at many different things that most people might not consider to be sculpture, but he thought it was.”

Cafesijan’s art purchasing strategy, Schlauch said, was motivated mostly by his personal interests and artistic sensibilities, and it’s particularly fortunate that he happened to have good taste from a curator’s perspective.

The Cafesjian collection is notable for both its breadth and depth, he said; Cafesjian would be willing to buy work from lesser- or moderately known artists on a lark, simply if he liked it. When he really connected with an artist’s body of work, like that of Armenian painter Arshile Gorky or Czech contemporary glass duo Stanislav Libenský and Jaroslava Brychtová, he had the resources to collect a significant portion of it.

“This is not about a guy who became wealthy and became an art collector,” said Cafesjian’s daughter Kathie Cafesjian Baradaran, the museum’s trustee. “This is about an art collector who became wealthy.”

Walking through the gallery with Schlauch — a fountain of knowledge and a good storyteller, too — one can feel like each artwork is not only a highlight in its own right but also the anchor of its own hypothetical CAT show. Which is, more or less, his plan: A large work by Victor Vasarely, a pioneer of optical art, is a “tease” for the museum’s next exhibition, he said.

That show, “Fooling the Eye: Optics of Vasarely and Kuhn,” juxtaposes Vasarely’s work with glass artist John Kuhn and runs from November 2023 to May 2024.

The current “Highlights” show is on view until October 14. It’s free, but visitors must reserve spots in guided tours that take place a few times a day, Thursday to Sunday. The show has been sold out almost since day one.

As of this writing, thanks to a few cancellations and tour additions, there are some spots available, but vanishingly few tickets remain. Availability can be found online at cafesjianarttrust.org/museum-reservations.

Schlauch said that because the CAT is a small museum with a small staff, they don’t currently have the capacity to offer open hours like other museums do. He’s hoping special events can at least partially fill the gap. Occasional children’s storybook hour gives parents time to see the exhibition. The museum’s next event, Cocktails at the CAT, is Aug. 11. The $40 ticket gets you drinks and food along with evening access to the “Highlights” show. Tickets are available online.

Schlauch is dreaming up new ideas, too. Opening a museum is not easy, and he wants to make sure that as they grow, they do so “carefully and thoughtfully.” But the massive level of public interest has been so validating, he said.

“I’m so excited and elated, and I certainly wasn’t expecting this passionate response from the community. It’s been incredible,” Schlauch said. “It tells me, if we’re out of tours, I need to figure out other opportunities to engage the public and give them ways to come visit.”

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