ARH 312 Quiz #2

A museum is a privileged place with what three roles? (only a general idea of the museum's role)

1. Aesthetic: Its the frame and support upon which the art is composed. It's the centre for the viewpoint of the work 2. Economic: It gives the artwork a sale value. By preserving it, it promotes the art. 3. Mystical: It constitutes the mystical body of art

The Metropolitan

1. The Metropolitan Museum of Art's earliest roots date back to 1866 in Paris, France, when a group of Americans agreed to create a "national institution and gallery of art" to bring art and art education to the American people. The lawyer John Jay, who proposed the idea, swiftly moved forward with the project upon his return to the United States from France. On April 13, 1870, The Metropolitan Museum of Art was incorporated, opening to the public in the Dodworth Building. On November 20 of that same year, the Museum acquired its first object and in 1871 174 European paintings entered the collection. By 1880, the museum had moved to its current location near Central Park. 2. The Met's permanent collection is curated by seventeen separate departments, each with a specialized staff of curators. The collection includes various types of art ranging from ancient Egyptian sculptures, to paintings from European masters, to American and modern art. 3. One of its most famous pieces of art is The Water Lily Pond by Claude Monet, (one of the founding members of the impressionism movement.) While the Metropolitan museum houses pieces of work from numerous different movements, impressionism can be prominently found. 4. Another movement that we can see present in works found at this museum is surrealism.

The museum's role of REFUGE

1. The Museum acts as a refuge. And that without this refuge, no work can "exist." The Museum is an asylum. The work set in it is sheltered from the weather and all sorts of dangers, and most of all protected from any kind of questioning. The Museum selects, collects and protects. All works of art are made in order to be selected, collected and protected. If the work takes shelter in the Museum-refuge, it is because it finds there its comfort and its frame. 2. Whether the place in which the work is shown imprints work, or the work itself is directly produced for the Museum, any work presented in that framework, if it does not examine the influence of the framework, falls into the illusion of self-sufficiency----or idealism. This idealism shelters and prevents any kind of break.

The museum's role of COLLECTION

1. The Museum becomes the single viewpoint (cultural and visual) from which works can be considered, an enclosure where art is born and buried. Collecting makes simplifications possible and guarantees historical and psychological weight. 2. On another level, let us say social, collecting serves to display different works together, often very unalike, from different artists. This results in creating or opposing different "movements" thereby cancelling certain interesting questions lost in an exaggerated mass of answers. 3. Collection in a Museum operates in two different but parallel ways, depending on whether one considers a group or a one-man show. If one considers it to be a group of work from different artists it imposes an amalgam of unrelated things among which chosen works are emphasized. These chosen works are given an impact which is only due to their context. The collection and selection are economically motivated. The Museum collects the better to isolate. In collecting and presenting the work of a single artist (one-man show) the Museum stresses differences within a single body of work and insists (economical1y) on successful works and failures. This shows off the successful works by giving them a higher sales value when compared to weaker works.

The Museum of Modern Art

1. The idea of a Museum for Modern Art was once considered by critics to be an oxymoron. How could there be a museum for modern art which embodies the ideal of always moving forward and constantly changing. Rather than shying away from this paradox, MoMA has embraced it by appealing to both the history of modernism and the legacy it continues to leave in the 21st century. 2. In the year 1928, a group of wealthy art enthusiasts and philanthropists, (including a group of 3 ladies who were nicknamed "the darling ladies) developed the idea for a small museum. The primary purpose would be to educate the public on modern art, as there were no other US museums that did so at the time. The 3 established a foundation to raise funds for a museum in New York. The ladies partnered with several collectors and and curators, until they were finally able to open their museum to the public on November 7, 1929. Housed in six gallery rooms on the 12th floor in Manhattan's Heckscher building, the museum's first exhibit consisted of several different painting--all of which were on loan by the European Post-Impressionists such as Van Gogh. This building was MoMA's home for a little over two years before moving to the current address where it is found today. Originally conceived by its founders as a place for modern art to come and go, the museum established a permanent set of artwork in the year 1952. Since then it has become the home for some of the greatest pieces of avant-garde paintings and sculptures. While it remains true to its roots as a place where new styles of art can circulate, its permanent collection is widely considered to the most impressive assortment of modern art to ever exist. 3. One of this museum's greatest shortcomings was its initial reluctance to purchase the work of artists in the "New York School." Although the curators were unquestionably favorable toward abstract art, MoMA was late to recognize the contribution of abstract contemporaries like Hans Hoffman, Mark Rothko, and William de Kooning. In 1940, a group of New York artists picketed MoMA presenting the question "how modern is the museum of modern art?" They were opposing the museum's tendency to to favor Modern European rather than American art. MoMA eventually played a leading role in promoting the Abstract Expressionism movement, but not until 1958-59. 4. MoMA has continually tried to stay ahead of the curve when it comes to Modern and contemporary art. Outside of Paris and Barcelona, MoMA is home to the finest permanent collection of Picassos in all of existence, which alone would be enough to confirm MoMA's legacy in the Modern era. Yet in order to remain relevant the Museum has diversified how it considers and acquires new works for its permanent collection.

The museum's role of PRESERVATION

1. This function of preservation perpetuates the idealistic nature of all art since it claims that art is (could be) eternal. This idea, among others, dominated the 19th century, when public museums were created approximately as they are still known today. 2. Paintings are generally memories, attitudes or dreams that are fixed on a canvas for an indefinite period of time. To emphasize this illusion of eternity or timelessness, one has to preserve the work itself from wear. The Museum was designed to assume this task, and by appropriate artificial means to preserve the work, as much as possible, from the effects of time-work which would otherwise perish far more rapidly. It is in this way that the art is able to stay "alive", thereby granting it an appearance of immortality. 3. This conservatory function of the Museum, which reached its highest point during the 19th century with Romanticism, is still generally accepted today, adding yet another paralysing factor. In fact nothing is more readily preserved than a work of art. And this is why 20th century art is still so dependent on 19th century art since it has accepted its system, mechanisms, function and furthermore accepting the exhibition framework as self-evident.