As they say, there always two sides of a story. Sometimes when writing a story, our information comes from the source and in most cases, our members. We are not headline news journalist looking for additional source of information, so from time to time, what we were told, might me missing a few details.
Case in point, recently we featured a story on Pete Gagan following his passing. One of the accolades in Pete's credentials was his work with the Guggenheim Museum's. Another AMCA member, Charles Falco and his business partner, Ultan Guilfoyle were the actual co-curators of the exhibit and Pete was one of two AMCA members who worked for Falco and Guilfoyle. Please see the letter below from Charles.
Dear Keith,
The latest 'The Antique Motorcycle' arrived today, and I saw in your column that Pete Gagan was "a curator for the Guggenheim Museum's landmark 'Art of the Motorcycle' exhibitions in New York and Las Vegas..." Not to take anything away from Pete, but Ultan Guilfoyle and I were the co-curators of the exhibition, having created the checklist of machines, located examples of each, and arranged for the loans of all the motorcycles that appeared in New York and then subsequently in Chicago, Bilbao, and Las Vegas. The exhibition catalog itself makes this clear.
However, after Las Vegas, Ultan and I wanted to move on to other things, but outside promoters had approached the Guggenheim to license the exhibition. So, acting on behalf of the museum, we asked Ed Youngblood and Pete Gagan to take over responsibility for securing loans of the machines. However, that didn't last long and, after Memphis and Orlando, the Guggenheim ceased licensing of the exhibition.
Ed and Pete were hired as staff, not curators, well after New York and Las Vegas, and with their job limited to that of securing the loans. Major art museums take their intellectual property very seriously, which is why Ed and Pete weren't free to vary from the checklist that Ultan and I had created when we co-curated the exhibition. This is why it was possible for the original New York catalog to have been at all the venues, including Memphis and Orlando, with the dust jacket the only variation.
Sincerely,
Charles
AMCA #8824