Inside Art

Madonna Pitches In for High Art

Madonna and the Philadelphia Museum of Art might at first seem like strange bedfellows. But think about it. The rock star is a collector of 20th-century Mexican paintings and photographs, as well as a supporter of the arts. And the Philadelphia Museum, like all arts institutions, needs support for its special exhibitions.

So when Anne d'Harnoncourt, the museum's director, learned that Madonna was an admirer of the photographer Tina Modotti, she approached her to see if she would be interested in supporting a major Modotti exhibition scheduled to open in Philadelphia on Sept. 16. "We proposed and she accepted," Ms. d'Harnoncourt said.

But Madonna has a more creative notion of beneficence than simply writing a check. On June 10, Sotheby's in New York will auction her 1969 white convertible Mercedes 280 SE, the one she drove in her 1994 music video "Deeper and Deeper." It is expected to sell for $40,000 to $60,000, with proceeds going to the exhibition.

In the past, Madonna has donated items to charity auctions, but often the buyers would turn around and sell them at auction, making a substantial profit by using her name as the bait. "Now she would rather sell something directly than see it marked up 10 times and have the profits go to an individual," said her press agent, Liz Rosenberg. About Madonna's choice of an exhibition to finance, Ms. Rosenberg said it shouldn't be seen as unusual: "Madonna's always been a Modotti fan."

Ms. d'Harnoncourt said she hoped the car would "go through the roof," especially since the museum needs more than $125,000 for the show. She also said the show might attract an interesting crowd because of Madonna's involvement. "It certainly gives the show an extra spin, an added element of intrigue," she said. "But people may be surprised that Modotti is not as highly contemporary as Madonna is." Expansion at the Cooper-Hewitt

The Cooper-Hewitt, the National Design Museum that is part of the Washington-based Smithsonian Institution, has an ambitious agenda. It is about to embark on a $20 million renovation that will force the museum to close for a year, beginning on Aug. 21.

This will be the first time the institution has expanded its home in the Andrew Carnegie mansion on Fifth Avenue and 91st Street. The building was renovated into a museum in 1976, when the Cooper-Hewitt moved uptown from the Cooper Union.

"This is a major turning point for us," said Dianne H. Pilgrim, the Cooper-Hewitt's director. "Two and a half years ago, we hired Polshek & Partners to do the design."

Besides an upgraded climate control system and more efficient study and storage areas, which will better preserve the 250,000 objects in the Cooper-Hewitt's collection, more of the museum will be open to the public. The building will also be totally accessible to the disabled.

A new design research and resource center is also a major part of the scheme. It will be housed in two adjacent brownstones, 9 and 11 East 90th Street, which the museum owns. The two buildings will be linked internally and connected to the Carnegie mansion. Financing is a joint effort. The Smithsonian has provided $13 million, and the museum has raised almost $3 million privately. "We need to raise $4 million more," Mrs. Pilgrim said.

Though the museum will close its exhibitions, it will still offer its educational programs and workshops in its main building, and the library and curatorial departments will remain open.

That's not to say the Cooper-Hewitt has curtailed its curatorial efforts. The museum plans a number of off-site exhibitions during the renovations, among them "Six Bridges and the Making of the New York Megalopolis," scheduled to open in January at the Paine Webber Art Gallery, 1285 Avenue of the Americas, at 51st Street. Bold Sculptures for the White House

The First Lady's Garden at the White House has a new look. Instead of being dominated by demure spring flower beds, it is filled with bold sculptures by such artists as David Smith and Mark di Suvero, Beverly Pepper and David Deming.

The setting is the second in a four-part series called "20th-Century American Sculpture at the White House," organized by the Committee for the Preservation of the White House and the Association of Art Museum Directors. When conceiving the series, J. Carter Brown, the director emeritus of the National Gallery of Art in Washington and head of a sculpture subcommittee, said the panel had decided to divide the series into four geographic areas: Midwest, West, South and Northeast. The first exhibition in the series, "Statues Into Sculpture," which was on view for five months beginning in October, was organized by George W. Neubert, director of the Sheldon Memorial Art Gallery and Sculpture Garden at the University of Nebraska at Lincoln. It represented only Midwestern artists.

The new exhibition was organized by Townsend Wolfe, director and chief curator of the Arkansas Arts Center in Little Rock, and consists of 12 sculptures from museums in the Southeast. All the works were created since 1965. The first part "dealt with the development of sculpture from the turn of the century to the present," Mr. Wolfe said in a telephone interview this week. "This show deals with more contemporary artists." Record Prices for Latin Artists

Economic problems in Latin America don't seem to have hurt the market for Latin American art. On Wednesday, at a Sotheby's sale of Latin American paintings, drawings and sculpture, 11 artists made record prices. Ten works from the I.B.M. collection were included in the auction, and they were the stars of the evening. Frida Kahlo's 1942 "Self-Portrait With Monkey and Parrot" sold for $3.1 million, the highest-priced painting in the sale and a record price for the artist. The buyer was Eduardo Costantini, a financier from Buenos Aires. Another record was made for Diego Rivera's "Dance in Tehuantepec," which was bought by an unidentified pricate collector for $3 million.

"Ten years ago buyers tended to be nationalistic," said August Uribe, who heads Sotheby's department of Latin American art. "We are now seeing an internationalization in the market."