Paintings and ceramics from “Clouding: Shape and Sign in Asian Art,” the Ackland’s 2021-2022 permanent collection installation. (Photo by Scott Hankins.)
Through the generous support of donors, the Ackland Art Museum has established an endowed curatorship for its collection of Asian works of art. The Sherman E. Lee Curator for Asian Art, when hired, will steward the museum’s collection of more than 3,000 works of Asian art, with responsibilities for research, acquisition, preservation and presentation.
“We are ecstatic,” said Carolyn Allmendinger, interim director of the Ackland. “The endowment to support a curator for Asian art is a dream that we have had for so long, and at times we thought it might only ever be a dream. We have been able in the past to have short-term curatorial expertise, but the collection clearly demands much more. I am very thankful to the donors who made this possible.”
Representing the largest collection of Asian art in the state and among the most significant in the Southeast, the Ackland’s collection spans diverse cultures and time periods. Its many notable works include Chinese ceramics, Japanese woodblock prints and religious sculptures from across Asia.
“It is a resource for students and faculty on campus to broaden their understanding of global cultures and histories,” Allmendinger said. “It also meets the educational needs and interests of our state; it aligns especially closely with the public school social studies curriculum.”
The $3 million endowment was established through gifts and commitments from an anonymous donor, the E. Rhodes and Leona B. Carpenter Foundation and the estate of the late Joan Huntley. The fund will provide salary and benefits, as well as opportunities for travel, research and professional development.
The curatorship is named in honor of the late Sherman E. Lee (1918-2008), who was a renowned expert in Asian art and director of the Cleveland Museum of Art. Following his retirement in 1983, Lee moved to Chapel Hill and served as an adjunct professor of art history at UNC-Chapel Hill and a close advisor to the Ackland, especially for its holdings and acquisitions of Asian works.
Sherman E. Lee was a renowned expert in Asian art who helped the Ackland build its collection. (Photo provided by the Lee family.)
Lee’s daughter, Peg Bachenheimer, shared that a significant moment in her father’s connection to Asian art dated to his service in the Navy while deployed in the Pacific. Soon after World War II ended, he asked his captain if he could take a trip ashore to China to view art. The captain agreed, and the brief visit confirmed Lee’s interest in the field. Following the war, Lee spent two years as a “monuments man” in Japan, cataloging important artworks there.
Lee’s book “A History of Far Eastern Art” was published in 1964 and remains a standard text in the field, and Bachenheimer remembers her father writing drafts on a yellow notepad every evening after dinner.
Bachenheimer said that she and her siblings, Elizabeth Chiego and Thomas Lee, felt proud that the curatorship would honor the legacy of their father. She also shared that her late sister, Katharine Lee Reid, was a curator at the Ackland in the early 1980s and followed in her father’s footsteps to become director of the Cleveland Museum of Art. Reid later served on the Ackland’s National Advisory Board and advocated for establishing a curator of the Asian collection. Her work on the board was important in securing the grant from the Carpenter Foundation.
“Dad would be honored to know of the success of the endowment and new curatorial position at the Ackland,” Thomas Lee said. “Thank you for continuing to honor a man who in life promoted and encouraged scholars of the arts, and the enriching effect that their continued support has on the rest of the community.”
Selected works from the Ackland’s Asian art collection are displayed in the museum’s permanent galleries. One recent installation of Asian art highlighted the important role that donors of art have played in developing the collection that the Sherman E. Lee Curator for Asian Art will care for. In 2022, the Ackland’s “Pleasures and Possibilities: Five Patrons of the Asian Art Collection” installation celebrated patrons who made significant contributions to the collection, with works from benefactors Smith Freeman and Austin Scarlett, Jeffrey and Carol Horvitz, Gene and Susan Roberts, Richard D. Pardue, and Charles Millard.
“Asian art has been important to the Ackland from the very beginning,” said Peter Nisbet, deputy director for curatorial affairs. “This endowed position, named for one of the giants in the field who had a decisive impact in raising the profile of the Ackland’s Asian art collection, will help to ensure it remains active and increasingly significant for all our audiences.”
Story by Drew Guiteras
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