Exhibitions: What It Do... (Part One)

In western culture there’s a specific notion that most expect to physically encounter when venturing off to see art. Imagining any venue that possesses untold cultural treasures tacked up on walls or encased in glass, folks would describe the scene in varying terms using words like “gallery,” “exhibit” or “display.” People’s notions concerning art and how its displayed has been engrained in them from school field trips or forced visits accompanying parents to see that one Picasso painting. And while there are only scant signs of change, change has still come to museums and galleries.

Of course, the traditional conception of what an art exhibit is remains tied to traditional, staid environments where all aspects of environment are able to be controlled. Everything from temperature, lighting to the flow of foot traffic is figured ahead of time so as to create a space that most believe ideal for viewing visual art. Generally, the most stringent adherence to this antiquated understanding of art exhibitions occur in museums, venues tied to universities or ritzy galleries that truck in wares to sell.

Each of these places served as backdrops to our childhoods as we were dragged along on field trips while in high school and then, perhaps, returning of our own volition as adults. It’s not necessarily an environment that welcomes one back with guards milling around occupied with passing a day away while watching over the same paintings on the same walls.

Museum settings like this one aren’t necessarily detrimental to viewing fine art, but at the same time, regimented and completely controlled environments appear to directly conflict with the creative nature of what’s being displayed. Surely, one can still dash off to the snack bar for some over priced cuisine, but it’s a brief and expensive respite from stuffy galleries and the random assortment of people who are milling about.

It’s not in just the most sterile environments that curators have an unwieldy amount of influence over what an art exhibit is and does. Even in the most back water, off the beaten path places, those that decide what art is displayed dictate the bent of any exhibit. The quality of a work and its worth doesn’t matter, says Spertus Museum director Rhoda Rosen. It’s the connections between works and the greater culture that dictate how an exhibit functions and is received by the public.

Occasionally, the over arching themes that exhibitions are organized around reveal sensible and well devised concepts. Other times, the logic ordering artistic works is so obtuse that an argument could be made to include any tossed off painting or art object.

Relying on how a single person understands a movement, subject or theme pertaining to art, regardless of the setting, can result in something akin to tunnel vision. Of course, coming upon any set of art works, a person needs to be able to decide what it means – if anything at all – or if a seemingly random assemblage of work constitutes much more than a ceramics class fundraiser. An art exhibit can’t be both, unless a viewer or art enthusiast believes it to be so.