The Foreign Service Journal, October 2009

72 F O R E I G N S E R V I C E J O U R N A L / O C T O B E R 2 0 0 9 I n Stockholm, a city where the light is diffuse at best and almost nonexist- ent in winter, a 1932 oil painting by American artist Edward G. Eisenlohr (1872-1961) was recently displayed in the library of the U.S. ambassador’s res- idence. The painting,“Rural Texas,”was on loan from the Panhandle Plains His- torical Museum in Canyon, Texas, through the State Department’s Art in Embassies Program. It depicts a land- scape very different from the Scandina- vian urban environment outside the residence windows. Eisenlohr chose warmdesert colors to portray a Southwestern canyon, and the oil-on-canvas features hues of salmon and terra cotta for the rock face, con- trasted by blue-gray shadows and green trees dotting the landscape. The effect is one of heat and brilliant sunlight. Thousands of miles south, an out- door stone installation by New York artist Elyn Zimmerman stands in the courtyard of Embassy Dar es Salaam, commissioned by the Foundation for Art and Preservation in Embassies as part of the newly constructed mission. Made up of a circle of African red gran- ite sculptures surrounding a shallow pool, the large-scale 2004 work is titled “Assembly of Friends.” The cool, trick- ling water provides a fluid contrast to the solidity of the towering figures. The American art that appears in these and other U.S.missions overseas is there due to the State Department’s Art in Embassies Program, complemented by the Foundation for Art and Preserva- tion in Embassies. Although their goals often overlap, the two operate quite dif- ferently. The Art in Embassies Program , es- tablished in 1963 as a part of the U.S. Department of State and currently under the Bureau of Overseas Buildings Operations, plays a vital role in our na- tion’s public diplomacy through a cul- turally expansive series of temporary exhibits and permanent collections. For its temporary exhibits, AIEP arranges for the loan of American art from cor- porate and private collections, galleries, museums and individual artists, to be displayed in the public rooms of more than 180 American diplomatic resi- dences overseas. Each exhibit is on view for a period of two to three years, to co- incide with an ambassador’s tenure. (“Rural Texas,” the painting that was in Stockholm, has just returned home; a new exhibit will follow the next U.S. am- bassador to Sweden.) One reason this loan program is so successful, according to Senior Curator Robert Soppelsa, is because AIEP works “in collaboration with incoming am- bassadors to come up with a theme for an exhibit, which can be related to the political, cultural or even geographical climate of the host country and its rela- tion to the United States.” Since 2005, AIEP’s mission has ex- panded to overseeing all facets of build- ing a permanent art collection for newly constructed U.S. missions worldwide. As an integral part of the department’s cultural exchange effort, AIEP also has established relationships with thou- sands of artists and dealers domestically and internationally. This broadened function unites American culture and that of the host country in ongoing artistic conversation by including local talent. For example, a new collection in Beijing features Chinese and American artists. AIEP provides international audi- ences “with a sense of the quality, scope and diversity of American art and culture.” Internationally known artists such as Martin Puryear and Jasper Johns share the spotlight with emerging artists. The vast majority of art in Ameri- can missions abroad is accomplished through this vital program. The Foundation forArt andPreser- vation inEmbassies was established as a nonprofit organization in 1986 as a re- sponse and a complement to the State Department’s cultural diplomacy en- deavors. Founders Leonore Annenberg, Wendy W. Luers and Carol Price had A F S A N E W S WERNER HUTHMACHER ART IN EMBASSIES Visual Diplomacy: Bringing Art to Embassies BY FRANCESCA KELLY Sol LeWitt, “Wall Drawing #1256: Five Pointed Stars,” acrylic paint, installed in 2008 at the American Embassy in Berlin. Gift of the artist through FAPE, made possible by The Honorable Ronald S. Lauder and Mrs. Jo Carole Lauder. A team of artists worked together to install the work. Mickalene Thomas, “Girlfriends and Lovers,” 2008, acrylic, enamel and rhinestones on panel. Currently in AIEP’s “Contemporary African-American Artists” exhibit at the Waldorf Astoria, the residence of the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, New York. On loan cour- tesy of the artist and the Rhona Hoffman Gallery, Chicago, Ill.