Last June, when Colin Bailey came on board as the new director of the Fine Arts Museums, it was a tough time for the institution. Bailey's predecessor, John Buchanan, had died at the end of 2011, leaving the organization and its two venues, the de Young and Legion of Honor, rudderless for a year and a half. A slew of bad press, including a critical piece that ran in The New York Times, aired internal problems related to mismanagement, the dismissal of a prized curator and an ensuing lawsuit, and raised concerns about the controversial, some say too-powerful role of six-term FAMSF Board President Dede Wilsey, who was accused of nepotism after her son exhibited his photography collection at the museum.
Into this morass stepped Mr. Bailey, a reserved, Oxford University-educated art history scholar with a specialty in 18th and 19th-century French art, who had served as Deputy Director and Chief Curator at the Frick Collection in New York. A couple of weeks before moving to San Francisco, Bailey, who's in his late 50s, married his partner of over 25 years, Alan Wintermute, an expert on Old Masters at Christie's auction house.
Diplomatic and well-spoken, the London native appears to have a mix of steely determination and wry humor that should help him navigate his new post, and perhaps restore FAMSF's reputation, which has suffered of late. During our recent conversation, he expressed a love of Fragonard and Renoir, whom he's written three books about, and touched on a range of issues confronting the museums he now heads.
Sura Wood: How does one go from being the son of a London hairdresser to a life in the upper echelons of the art world?
Colin Bailey: I was fortunate in that my brother was the musician, I was the academic. After studying history, I took a course at Oxford on French art history and found it so interesting I switched disciplines and continued to work on a doctorate in 18th-century French painting, hence my love of Fragonard. My first experience of American life was a year spent as a fellow in the paintings department at the Old Getty in Malibu. I went from living and working in Paris to learning to drive a car in Los Angeles. It was a big move. So began my North American career, my 13 years at the Frick, and my return to California. I think of myself really as American now.
Is there a work of art you covet for the museum?
I covet Chardin. Everything he painted was marvelous.
And to own for yourself, if money were no object?
A glorious painting by Watteau.
Is there a museum show you've seen that particularly struck you?
The Alexander McQueen at the Met. It was an unexpected hit for them. I found it unbelievably moving and beautiful, the poignancy of it, someone who was so gifted and so young. It was a brilliant installation. It was something I admired a great deal.
Where do you want to take the Fine Arts Museums?
As an entity, we have the city's most substantial encyclopedic art collections. The permanent collections are very strong, have been created over a century, and continue to be added to. We are in a good place. Museums are a little like ships: if they're on a good course, you want them to stay on it.
We've been able to attract a great collection of Native American art that will transform our holdings. We've just acquired a wonderful selection of prints by Richard Diebenkorn, gifts of Baroque and Nabis paintings, a painting by Edouard Vuillard, and wonderful African sculptures are coming in.
As I'm sure you're aware, the institution has been the object of public criticism. How do you plan to address this?
By concentrating on all the good things we're doing and have done. The robust exhibitions and displays we've had since I arrived in June were well in the making before I came, and we've had tremendous support and acclaim for them. We're working to reinstall galleries and rooms in our permanent collection.
The Salon Dore will open in April. It's a tremendous addition to understanding French 18th-century art, and one of the most beautiful rooms in a museum anywhere. We've re-hung the 18th-century French & Italian galleries at the Legion, and we're going to do the same thing for the 18th-century British galleries.
We're introducing a mixture of ambitious temporary exhibitions that investigate less well-known artists or periods, and hopefully bringing in works otherwise not seen in the city before.
I think it's fair to say there's a perception that Mrs. Wilsey wields too much influence. Has that been your experience?
My primary relationship is with the President of the Board and the search committee that appointed me. It's a harmonious one, and one that I nurture very carefully. We have tremendous leadership and support.
In a recent article on MOCA, someone commented that artists and curators were looking for a good Dad in their new director. Is that how you see your role?
That's actually a phrase that makes me smile. Yes, I want to engage and encourage, but I also have a duty to make sure that we're alive and nimble to take great opportunities where they're offered to us.
There have been a number of traveling blockbuster exhibitions, and it seems that whenever a French or Dutch facility is under renovation, we get a show. Can we look forward to more exhibitions curated in-house like the Diebenkorn?
I'd like to be on record as saying that every show is curated. All of the choices - the way the shows are described, interpreted and animated and hung - are curatorially driven, and our staff is very involved in that. These projects are carefully thought through here.
What about shows that you originate?
We originated Hockney. We're organizing a Keith Haring show that's coming at the end of the year. We're looking at exhibitions of 17th-century French art and 18th-century European art. And yes, we are looking at projects that curators are generating in-house as well as collaborating on.
What do you do in your off-time?
We try to go to everything we can. I have a subscription at Berkeley Rep and ACT. We go to the opera and ballet. We're keen to partake of the rich offerings here. I'm a big film buff. I love going to the cinema. I liked "The Past" by the Iranian filmmaker who did "A Separation," which I loved, too.
I've heard you like to run.
I try to go to the gym three or four times a week. I used to run up and down the hills to and from Crissy Field, but now, I'm afraid, I'm on an elliptical machine watching bad TV.