By Mary Jekielek Insprucker
Dr. Lawrence J. Wheeler was named director of the North Carolina Museum of Art (NCMA) in October 1994. Since then, he has had his hand in everything and like the fingertips of a graceful maestro, he has made beautiful music ever since, although he will take little credit for it. “Our success has been a confluence of good luck combined with appreciation and support from the Triangle area,” said Wheeler.
The North Carolina Museum of Art's permanent collection spans more than 5,000 years, from ancient Egypt to the present, making it one of the premier visual arts museums in the Southeast. During his tenure, Wheeler has presided over the completion of the landmark Museum Park on the museum grounds. “I came to a place that had land and the question mark was what would happen with that land,” Wheeler said. “One answer was to use the land for a gallery which would expand museum programs and act as a natural resource for the community.”
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The 62-year-old has greatly enhanced the museum’s collection of contemporary art, his favorite, while continuing to build on what is considered one of the finest collections of European old master paintings in the Southeast. “Not that the museum didn’t already invest in contemporary creativity, but I wanted to bring in major signatures of artist from the end of the 20th Century,” explained Wheeler, who said his favorite artists are Richter for painting, Viola for video, and Gursky for photography.
In 1999 and 2000, Wheeler ushered in the “era of the blockbuster shows” with record-breaking exhibitions such as Matisse, Picasso, School of Paris, Monet to Moore: The Millennium Gift of Sara Lee Corporation and Rodin: Sculpture from the Iris and B. Gerald Cantor Collection. The Rodin exhibition attracted over 300,000 people. “We wanted to step up the mark and do something major people could identify with,” Wheeler said.
By raising funds for a major building renovation and expansion, and money for art and educational endowments, Wheeler helped the museum to exceed its $20 million private sector goal a full year ahead of schedule. In 2000, he laid the preliminary plans for the museum’s future, shifting goals from a renovation of the existing building to the construction of a new facility on the museum grounds.
In December 2000, Wheeler was named Tar Heel of the Year by the Raleigh News and Observer, which called him “the godfather of the Triangle’s cultural boom” and cited his skill at melding “arts, politics, and commerce into a powerful new cultural force.” “I think it is an award not just about me. I am the leader of a big team who helps. To have the community acknowledge us encourages us to do more,” said the director, who has also received the prestigious Chevalier of the Order of Arts and Letters from the French government, and the City of Raleigh Medal of Arts for 2002.
Prior to joining the NCMA, Wheeler was assistant director and director of development at The Cleveland Museum of Art for nine years. “That was different; I wasn’t the head dog there. Here I am the leader and have a responsibility to open doors and create excitement,” said the former deputy secretary of the N.C. Department of Cultural Resources.
“Excitement” doesn’t come close to describing the highly anticipated Rodin exhibit making landfall in 2008. The unprecedented gift of Auguste Rodin works from the Iris and B. Gerald Cantor Foundation contains 23 works of art, including 22 bronze sculptures by Rodin. The addition will make the NCMA one of the world's top Rodin repositories and the only cultural institution in the South with a major Rodin collection.
 The works will be displayed in Wheeler’s new galleries, which will be part of a planned $75 million expansion initiative slated for completion in 2008. As part of that expansion, the NCMA will establish a Rodin study center and name a Rodin gallery and adjacent garden in honor of the Iris and B. Gerald Cantor Foundation. “We are fortunate that North Carolina has now joined the prestigious group of museums to house some of Rodin’s finest work,” said North Carolina Governor, Michael F. Easley. “Iris Cantor's generous gift will open a new world of opportunities and experiences for museum visitors and students alike.”
Among the Rodin works are casts of the celebrated sculptures The Kiss and The Thinker, as well as Cybele, Monumental Torso of the Walking Man, The Three Shades, and Monumental Head of Pierre de Wiessant. The donation also includes Camille Claudel’s Bust of Rodin and a demonstration piece explaining the lost-wax casting process of Rodin’s Sorrow.
“With this gift of 24 works from the Cantor Foundation, the North Carolina Museum of Art becomes the first place in the Southeastern United States to house a Rodin collection,” said Iris Cantor. “I have never forgotten the overwhelming response that greeted our first Rodin exhibition here five years ago, and I know that the same enthusiasm will ensure that the great sculptor’s works are always appreciated here."
According to the NCMA, French sculptor Auguste Rodin (1840-1917) is regarded as one of the greatest artists of his day and was considered by his contemporaries to be the most innovative and influential sculptor since Michelangelo. His primary subject and source of inspiration was the human body and his genius lay in his ability to free sculpture from the academic and highly idealized conventions that characterized his predecessors’ works. His subjective and impressionistic modeling technique captured movement and expressed emotion by altering traditional poses and gestures to create intense, highly individualized figures that celebrate the human spirit.
The museum magician agrees Rodin draws crowds because he paints the human spirit. “When you look at Rodin there is something spiritual and human about it,” he said. “He captures the human emotion of pain, love, struggle, and represents the soaring spirit and ambition of man, and people can connect with that.”
When I asked Wheeler if acquiring such a take-your-breath-away collection was an acknowledgement of the prestige of the NCMA, he joked, “It’s an acknowledgement of my ruthlessness.” Seems Wheeler spent five years courting the collection from Iris Cantor. “I wouldn’t take ‘no’ for an answer,” explained Wheeler. “Every six months, or year, I’d try until finally I hit it at the right moment.” He further explained, “I wrote a proposal and offered to name a gallery for her.”
Wheeler feels mature adults may particularly enjoy the show. “We are wiser, are we not? The older years, whatever those are, bring wisdom, experience and perception on life. Art means more because it reflects on the totality of life.”
When I asked the Michelangelo of museum directors to describe art in one sentence, after a pause, Wheeler replied, “Art is the visual expression of an idea.”
When queried about how life imitates art, a contrary remark came back. “It doesn’t always. Sometimes it inspires or interprets life, but doesn’t imitate it.”
Where did he think he would be at 50? “I thought I’d be a Methodist preacher because that is what my mom wanted me to be,” said the man originally from Florida. “I never thought I’d be an art museum director in my later life.”
Don’t worry if you can’t wait until 2008 for excitement. A Monet exhibit will pull into Wheeler Town in the fall of 2006. It will include 50 hallmark pieces and be the only showing of its kind on the east coast of the United States.
Wheeler’s vision for the museum? “Well, the vision is already unfolding with the park development and building being drawn. We have one of the greatest museum experiences in the world. It connects with the human spirit and is looked at as something great and revolutionary in the world at large.”
But does Wheeler think folks will ever give up the big city museums? “People will never stop going to New York,” he said. “But maybe they will find their way to North Carolina because of the Museum of Art.”
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