William "Bill" R. Olander (July 14, 1950 – March 18, 1989) was an American senior curator at the
New Museum of Contemporary Art
The New Museum of Contemporary Art, founded in 1977 by Marcia Tucker, is a museum in New York City at 235 Bowery, on Manhattan's Lower East Side.
History
The museum originally opened in a space in the Graduate Center of the then-named New Scho ...
in
New York City
New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...
. He previously worked as curator and director of the
Allen Memorial Art Museum
The Allen Memorial Art Museum (AMAM) is an art museum located in Oberlin, Ohio, and it is run by Oberlin College. Founded in 1917, the collection contains over 15,000 works of art.
Overview
The AMAM is primarily a teaching museum and is aimed at ...
. He was a co-founder of the arts organization
Visual AIDS Visual AIDS is an art organization based in New York City. Started in 1988, it is one of the first initiatives to record the impact of the AIDS pandemic on the artistic community. Art institutions and AIDS-related communities co-developed projects l ...
.
Early life
William R. Olander was born in
Minneapolis
Minneapolis () is the largest city in Minnesota, United States, and the county seat of Hennepin County. The city is abundant in water, with thirteen lakes, wetlands, the Mississippi River, creeks and waterfalls. Minneapolis has its origins ...
, Minnesota, on July 14, 1950, the son of Clarence Emil Olander (1928-1988) and Isabelle Olander née Marcucci (1928-2015). He moved to
New York City
New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...
in the 1980s.
Olander attended the
New York University Institute of Fine Arts
The Institute of Fine Arts (IFA) of New York University is dedicated to graduate teaching and advanced research in the history of art, archaeology and the conservation and technology of works of art. It offers Master of Arts and Doctor of Philoso ...
where in 1983 he obtained an Art History Ph.D. with the thesis "Pour transmettre a la posterite: French Painting and Revolution 1774–1795".
The unpublished thesis was considered a reference work: Olander was one of the first to highlight the importance of the 1792 proclamation of ''
La patrie en danger
''La Patrie en danger'' (French: "The country (fatherland) in danger") was the start of a declaration by the French Assembly on 11 July 1792 in response to Prussia joining Austria against France. Along with the Levée en masse declared the next ye ...
''.
Career
In 1979 Olander became
modern art
Modern art includes artistic work produced during the period extending roughly from the 1860s to the 1970s, and denotes the styles and philosophies of the art produced during that era. The term is usually associated with art in which the tradi ...
curator at the
Allen Memorial Art Museum
The Allen Memorial Art Museum (AMAM) is an art museum located in Oberlin, Ohio, and it is run by Oberlin College. Founded in 1917, the collection contains over 15,000 works of art.
Overview
The AMAM is primarily a teaching museum and is aimed at ...
run by
Oberlin College
Oberlin College is a Private university, private Liberal arts colleges in the United States, liberal arts college and conservatory of music in Oberlin, Ohio. It is the oldest Mixed-sex education, coeducational liberal arts college in the United S ...
; from 1983 to 1984 he was acting director.
In 1980 Olander contributed text to the museum exhibition "From Reinhardt to Christo". In 1981 Olander curated the exhibition "Young Americans" and in 1984 the exhibition "New Voices 4: Women & The Media, New Video".
In 1982 Olander contributed an essay to ''Face It: 10 Contemporary Artists'', a catalogue for the exhibition at the
Contemporary Arts Center
The Contemporary Arts Center (CAC) is a contemporary art museum in Cincinnati, Ohio and one of the first contemporary art institutions in the United States. The CAC is a non-collecting museum that focuses on new developments in painting, sculptur ...
, Cincinnati, and in 1984 he curated the exhibition ''Drawings: After Photography'' and contributed texts to its catalogue.
From 1985 he was a curator at the
New Museum of Contemporary Art
The New Museum of Contemporary Art, founded in 1977 by Marcia Tucker, is a museum in New York City at 235 Bowery, on Manhattan's Lower East Side.
History
The museum originally opened in a space in the Graduate Center of the then-named New Scho ...
, New York City, and specialized in performance art and video, especially
post-modernist
Postmodernism is an intellectual stance or mode of discourseNuyen, A.T., 1992. The Role of Rhetorical Devices in Postmodernist Discourse. Philosophy & Rhetoric, pp.183–194. characterized by skepticism toward the " grand narratives" of moderni ...
language and theory.
In 1985 Olander curated the exhibition "The Art of Memory/The Loss of History".
Olander's most famous exhibition is the 1986 "Homo Video: Where are We Now, a program of Video Tapes by Gay Men and Lesbians", including video which responded to the spreading of the AIDS virus. The exhibition was a response to two earlier shows at the New Museum, "Extended Sensibilities: Homosexual Presence in Contemporary Art," organized by Daniel Cameron in 1982, and "Difference: On Representation and Sexuality," organized by Kate Linker and Jane
Weinstock in 1984. In his essay for "HOMO VIDEO," Olander wrote that both exhibitions, "with regard to homosexuality, were stunning failures."
In 1987 he curated the exhibition ''On View at the New Museum. "The Window on Broadway by Act Up."'', which included the ACT UP installation "Let the Record Show...", a workspace "Social Studies: Recent Work on Video and Film" and paintings by
Charles Clough Charles Clough may refer to:
* Charles Clough (artist) (born 1951), American painter
* Charles Clough (geologist)
Charles Thomas Clough MA, LLD, FGS, FRSE (23 December 1852 – 27 August 1916) was a prominent British geologist and mapmaker. Th ...
and Mimi Thompson. Another 1987 exhibition was "FAKE", which focused on the relationship between authenticity and the postmodern notions of "the fake" or "the counterfeit".
In 1988 Olander contributed the essay ''An Artistic Agenda'' to ''LACE (
Los Angeles Contemporary Exhibitions
Located in Hollywood, Los Angeles Contemporary Exhibitions (LACE) is a nonprofit exhibition space and archive of the visual arts for the city of Los Angeles, California, United States, currently under the leadership of Sarah Russin.
History
In t ...
), 10 yrs. documented'', and to ''One Plus or Minus One'', with Lucy Lippard.
Both ''Discourses: Conversations in Post Modern Art and Culture'', of which Olander was coeditor with Russell Ferguson, Marcia Tucker and Karen Fiss, and ''Discussions in contemporary culture'', to which Olander contributed two essays, were published posthumously in 1990.
''Let the Record Show''
In 1987 he invited the
AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power (ACT UP) group to present an installation for the museum's window facing
Broadway
Broadway may refer to:
Theatre
* Broadway Theatre (disambiguation)
* Broadway theatre, theatrical productions in professional theatres near Broadway, Manhattan, New York City, U.S.
** Broadway (Manhattan), the street
**Broadway Theatre (53rd Stree ...
. The installation, created by the art collective
Gran Fury
Emerging from ACT UP (AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power) in 1988, Gran Fury was an HIV/AIDS, AIDS activist artist collective from New York City consisting of 11 members including: Richard Elovich, Avram Finkelstein, Amy Heard, Tom Kalin, John Linde ...
, was a collage of information on AIDS, and was presented in a way that expressed the general public indifference to AIDS victims.
Olander explained, "The majority of the sitters are shown alone
..they have no identities other than as victims of AIDS". Olander invited ACT UP to mount the installation after an anonymous poster bearing the phrase ''
Silence=Death'' began appearing throughout Manhattan.
"Let the Record Show" (1987) is now an iconic installation at the New Museum.
Olander compared the installation "Let the Record Show" to
Jacques-Louis David
Jacques-Louis David (; 30 August 1748 – 29 December 1825) was a French painter in the Neoclassicism, Neoclassical style, considered to be the preeminent painter of the era. In the 1780s, his cerebral brand of history painting marked a change in ...
's ''
The Death of Marat
''The Death of Marat'' (french: La Mort de Marat or ''Marat Assassiné'') is a 1793 painting by Jacques-Louis David depicting the artist's friend and murdered French revolutionary leader, Jean-Paul Marat. One of the most famous images from the e ...
''.
Olander's name on the
NAMES Project AIDS Memorial Quilt
The NAMES Project AIDS Memorial Quilt, often abbreviated to AIDS Memorial Quilt or AIDS Quilt, is an enormous memorial to celebrate the lives of people who have died of AIDS-related causes. Weighing an estimated 54 tons, it is the largest piece o ...
reads: "Let the record show that there are many in the community of art and artists who choose not to be silent in the 1980s".
Visual AIDS
In 1988 Olander, together with
Robert Atkins (writer/curator),
Thomas Sokolowski
Thomas may refer to:
People
* List of people with given name Thomas
* Thomas (name)
* Thomas (surname)
* Saint Thomas (disambiguation)
* Thomas Aquinas (1225–1274) Italian Dominican friar, philosopher, and Doctor of the Church
* Thomas the A ...
(then Director of The
Grey Art Gallery
The Grey Art Gallery is New York University’s fine art museum, located on historic Washington Square Park, in New York City's Greenwich Village. As a university art museum, the Grey Art Gallery functions to collect, preserve, study, document, in ...
), and Gary Garrels (then Director of Programs at
Dia Art Foundation
Dia Art Foundation is a nonprofit organization that initiates, supports, presents, and preserves art projects. It was established in 1974 by Philippa de Menil, the daughter of Houston arts patron Dominique de Ménil, Dominique de Menil and an h ...
), created ''Visual AIDS'', a loosely-organized coalition of arts professionals working to encourage discussion of the pressing social issues of the AIDS epidemic, with artist
Patrick O'Connell as their founding executive director.
Every year Visual AIDS presents the "Bill Olander Award" to art workers or artists living with HIV.
Personal life and death
Olander's longtime companion was
Christopher Cox
Charles Christopher Cox (born October 16, 1952) is an American attorney and politician who served as chair of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, a 17-year Republican member of the United States House of Representatives, and member of t ...
.
Olander died on March 18, 1989, from causes related to HIV/AIDS. He is buried at
Lakewood Cemetery
Lakewood Cemetery is a large private, non-sectarian cemetery located in Minneapolis, Minnesota, United States. It is located at 3600 Hennepin Avenue at the southern end of the Uptown area. It is noted for its chapel which is on the National Re ...
, Minneapolis. When Olander's obituary ran in ''
The New York Times
''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...
'', Cox's name was initially omitted, only to be corrected later. Cox died 18 months later, on September 7, 1990.
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Olander, William
1950 births
1989 deaths
American gay men
People from Minneapolis
LGBT people from Minnesota
Directors of museums in the United States
Art museums and galleries in New York City
Contemporary art galleries in the United States
Museums in Manhattan
AIDS-related deaths in New York (state)
American LGBT rights activists
20th-century American LGBT people