A Discerning Eye

When Henry H. Hawley first walked into the Cleveland Museum of Art to start work in 1960, he was 26 years old. The museum had a new director--Sherman Lee--and a large bankroll, thanks to the 1957 bequest of Leonard C. Hanna. The gallery space had recently doubled with a 1958 addition. Energetic youth, an ambitious director, lots of money, and plenty of space: Henry Hawley had all the ingredients to fashion a remarkable career.

"When I arrived," he recalls, "the only `mission' was Sherman Lee's interest in Central European sculpture. It came at a very good time because German art could be had relatively inexpensively." From those beginnings the young curator branched out, helping to build what has become one of the nation's most distinctive collections of decorative arts and sculpture. On Hawley's short list of major acquisitions during his tenure are Antonio Canova's marble sculpture, Terpsichore, the flamboyant rococo silver tureen designed by Juste-Aurèle Meissonnier, the hand mirror designed by Felix Bracquemond with a relief figure by Auguste Rodin, and Carlo Bugatti's remarkable tea set and table ensemble. For years he also oversaw the growth of the pre-Columbian collection, bringing to the museum, among other things, the large Maya stele.

Today, as curator of Renaissance and later Western decorative arts and sculpture, Hawley can walk through very few of the galleries of Western art without encountering something he helped bring to the museum. His colleagues affirm that these works of art reflect not merely his art historical expertise, but also his aesthetic sensibility. "One's taste tends to be evident in whatever area one collects," he acknowledges. "The nature of the collection is an influence when deciding whether to pursue a particular object--either it is very similar to something we have or very different. But the aesthetic response must also be there. I'm interested in information about a work of art, about who made it, who owned it--but it's not a factor that determines whether or not I want to buy it."

When Hawley was in school, the study of decorative arts--furniture, silver, ceramics, and so on--was not common. After graduating from Stanford, he earned a master's degree in baroque art from Harvard University, then went on to earn the only advanced decorative arts degree offered in the United States at that time, through the Winterthur program at the University of Delaware. To Hawley, part of the appeal of a decorative arts object is that it "can reflect in perhaps a more personal way the circumstances of an individual for whom it was created." One reason the museum intersperses decorative works throughout the galleries, rather than gathering them all into a special area, is that these objects can help establish a richer context for the other works around them--and vice versa. But the decorative arts do present certain challenges.

"The materials are not as easily organized into exhibitions as other media, and they might not often have any great popular appeal," says Hawley. "But this summer's Bugatti show definitely will." The idea for the exhibition was born in the 1970s. "I was unable to persuade Sherman Lee to do it," says Hawley. "And I was unable to persuade Evan Turner to do it." Now the wait is over. Bugatti, opening July 18, is the first American exhibition to celebrate three generations of Italy's illustrious Bugatti family, makers of everything from racing cars and furniture to bronze sculpture and silver.

Hawley draws a distinction between what he sees as a curator's role in acquiring works--a role in which personal conviction, not public recognition, is of paramount importance--and a museum's role in developing exhibitions for the public. "When it comes to exhibitions," he says, "I think the Cleveland Museum of Art is a particular museum in a particular geographical place, at a particular time. There are some very fine exhibitions that might succeed in some places but not others. They need either broad appeal, or if they do not have that, a small but fervent audience."

Is it possible to increase "fervor" in the general audience? "One would hope it could be accomplished," says Hawley. "But it takes a lot of time. It has to do with education, starting in childhood." For nearly 40 years, the eye of Henry Hawley has provided visitors to our museum just such an education. This summer's Bugatti exhibition stands as a fitting expression of the adventurous but uncompromising sensibility of one of America's most distinguished curators.

From a Cleveland Museum of Art Members Magazine article by Gregory M. Donley, Magazine Staff