From Leo Fender’s first guitar to pre-war Martins: Over 500 of the “finest guitars from the golden age of American guitar making” have been donated to the Met museum
A stash of over 500 vintage guitars is now officially part of The Met.
According to The New Yorker, The Metropolitan Museum of Art earlier this week announced a landmark gift of more than 500 instruments from what it calls the “golden age of American guitar making,” dating from 1920 to 1970. The donation, led by publishing heir and guitarist Dirk Ziff with longtime advisor Perry Margouleff, includes some of the most storied instruments in American music history and marks a seismic expansion of the museum’s celebrated instrument collection.
Ziff, who’s recorded and toured with Carly Simon, began building the collection in 1987 with Margouleff. What began as a shared passion has become a trove of rare guitars that rivals even the star-studded private stash of Jim Irsay. Many of the instruments have remained hidden from public view as well – until now.
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This new collection of the most important guitars, anchored by a major gift from collector Dirk Ziff, will showcase the profound impact this celebrated instrument has had on popular music, culture, society, politics, and religion in America – and then resonated around the world. The collection displays the diversity of the guitar in all its forms – including electric, acoustic, archtop, bass, resonator, and lap steel – as well as related stringed instruments and amplifiers.
“This is truly a trailblazing and transformative gift,” says Max Hollein, The Met’s Director and Chief Executive Officer. “The guitar has been of singular importance to popular music of the past century and was used by musicians across geographic, racial, and economic backgrounds… This gift celebrates the innovators, inventors, and manufacturers who created many different forms of the guitar to meet the needs of individual musicians, while also telling the stories of American music through the 20th century.”
Highlights of the collection include Leo Fender’s very first guitar made in 1948, a Gibson 1955 J-50 acoustic guitar used by Delta blues musician Mississippi John Hurt, the 1941 Epiphone “Klunker,” an experimental prototype modded by Les Paul and one of several guitars from his personal collection, as well as the 1959 sunburst Les Paul used by Keith Richards during The Rolling Stones’ first appearance on The Ed Sullivan Show in 1964.
Martins of important provenance also feature, such as cowboy musician Roy Rogers’ beloved 1930 OM-45 as well as a Martin acoustic that’s believed to be a presentation model for the 1853 Crystal Palace Exhibition. Some of the guitars included in this gift were featured in The Met’s widely popular special exhibition Play It Loud: Instruments of Rock & Roll (2019).
“This is not just a once-in-a-lifetime gift; it is a once-in-a-century opportunity,” says Jayson Kerr Dobney, the museum’s Frederick P. Rose Curator in Charge of the Department of Musical Instruments. “The guitar was the driving force of 20th-century popular music. It changed culture and it changed the world.”
The instruments – many still playable – will be used for live performances, recordings, educational programs (including study by luthiers), and permanent exhibitions in a forthcoming gallery dedicated to the American guitar. Until then, selected pieces will be on display in The Met’s Musical Instruments galleries.
Ziff adds, “We always saw ourselves as custodians, not owners. It is genuinely thrilling to see our vision validated at the greatest cultural institution in the world.”
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Source: www.guitar-bass.net
