Hello fellow listmembers,
at the same horrifying day happened that a very interesting museum-related
article appeared in the English edition of FAZ newspaper, Germany. Day
after, it seems that its web-presence was just temporarily. I suppose it is
good enough to keep this article out of web-managed oblivion, so here is
its greater part. J.K.
Museums at Risk
By Eduard Beaucamp
Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, Sep. 11, 2001
Year after year, we are reassured by the statistics of the Museum
Association: About 100 million visitors every year are drawn to the
multifaceted museum landscape in Germany. But politicians are apparently no
longer impressed by that imposing figure. They see only empty exhibition
halls, where the dazzling and distinguished essence of history is displayed
for the enjoyment and education of everyone, in contrast with bustling
locales where effect-conscious exhibitions dramatize their collections and
attract hordes of visitors. Today, artistic quality is measured by the
degree of its popularity. (...)
The Louvre and the Prado, the Uffizi and the Gemäldegalerie in Dresden are
in no danger. But trouble is brewing in provincial areas and specialty
museums. Can we maintain the daily, costly and wide-ranging operation of
our museums? Should individual items be sold off from collections to
finance operations? Should we finally consider art collections as nothing
more than a fund -- a type of savings deposit -- to be activated when
necessary for superficial and alluring exhibition events?
Museums of applied arts are the most endangered of all; virtually without
exception, they have all given themselves face-lifts and taken on more
market-friendly, younger-sounding names. Almost everywhere, their permanent
collections have been placed in the background, packed up and relegated to
a dark corner. The museums see their uncertain fortune in the closest
possible alliance with contemporary commercial show business.
In decentralized Germany, collected treasures including works of global
rank are scattered across the provinces, found in state museums and
communal collections. Those who come from faraway places to seek them out
must often quiver with apprehension as to whether they will encounter them
at all -- even the illustrious masterpieces at the Augustinermuseum in
Freiburg, the Düsseldorf Art Museum, or Berlin's New National Gallery -- or
whether, in a capricious change of scenery, they might have been moved
backstage for several years. Some museums have staked their well-being on
the current mood and a future of pure conjecture to such an extent that
they have exiled entire domains of their collections -- at the museum in
Wiesbaden, for example, the 19th century, much of which is first-class --
into their storage rooms, possibly never to be seen again.
Modernism's existential crisis has also powerfully affected art history and
the museum industry. These disciplines derive their legitimacy from their
alliance with meaningfully progressing art. Their role has been to support
and accompany, assert, interpret and communicate aesthetic revolutions and
evolutions, as well as depict epochal images. The self-confident scholars,
historical strategists and aesthetic educators of yesteryear have become
fainthearted and have taken to zealously manifesting their skills at
service provision.
Today's market society, not exactly known for its sensitivity, inquires
with relative thoughtlessness about the type and level of services and
wares offered. Intimidated museum curators submissively stretch the concept
of services, turning to entertainment when historical and contemporary
museum goods no longer suffice: the street, shopping, bistros or discos,
the circus and high-society salons. The success of these ancillary
offerings confirms that the actual substance -- the messages of historical
truth and beauty -- is no longer the exclusive attraction; they have lost
some of their meaning and are no longer able to justify their purpose.
Contemporary, modern and traditional art is thus equally at the whim of the
market and in need of protection.
There is no escaping the bitter truth: Nobody still truly believes in art's
ideal value as a currency for consensus-building, in its power to shape the
future and its societal representation. The brilliant reserves of history
can no longer give rise to a binding canon, an aesthetic ethos, or a
life-defining style. In their despair, museum curators and art historians
have become almost too flexible. And they remain unappreciated: The
directors and entertainers in the exhibition business, mostly outsiders,
have stolen the show from them.
Those who decline to participate in the contemporary carnival of art
automatically disqualify themselves. In applying for a museum position,
candidates are well advised to discreetly conceal their scholarly
qualifications to avoid ruining their chances. Specialists and researchers
are considered flies in the ointment. These days, managers, not scholars,
are needed to direct the Albertina or the Kunsthistorisches Museum in
Vienna. Administration, acquisition and research into the quality and
significance of art can be taken care of by lowly subordinates, otherwise
known as division heads.
But now even the most talented economic lion tamers, fund raisers, public
darlings, museum scene changers and socialites among museum actors have
become an endangered species. They have courted and flattered the artists,
providing them with a disproportionate amount of museum space while
relegating the historical collections to the background -- and as a result
are now being thanklessly passed over and pushed aside by their clientele.
The newest craze, the "artist's museum," as just created at the Museum
Kunst Palast in Düsseldorf, manages to do without any art history or art
historians whatsoever. Here, a meaningful and proud heritage spanning six
centuries has been tossed on the garbage heap. Even patriots of the Rhine
region can now be glad that the princely painting gallery wandered off to
Munich 200 years ago; there in the Alte Pinakothek, it is still safe -- at
least for the time being -- from the whims of politicians and artists.
What will become of these magical museum gardens? Are there any
alternatives to continuing to market, curtail and re-arm them for the
zeitgeist, or else banishing them into storage? It seems that waning public
acceptance and the prohibitive expense involved in keeping them accessible
to the minority are forcing this course of action. Especially in the
provinces, an insidious attack on traditional art is underway.
We must take a good look at what we are doing. We must no longer be allowed
to subordinate this heritage to vulgar and pitiful needs. We must secure a
place for history in our society without subjecting it to a cost-benefit
analysis. Without our cathedrals, palaces and museums, none of which are
"cost efficient," this exhausting civilization would become altogether
intolerable. Despite an increasing secularization and despite our
historical triumph over feudalism, society remains responsible for taking
care of the powerful monuments of churches and palaces and keeping them
accessible to the public.
Our museums must be looked after as well -- in all their wealth and
splendor. We would do well to recall the kind of refuge, alternative
visions and flights into fantasy the distressed population immediately
after World War II and later in the communist countries of eastern Europe
found in their museums. It is high time that the movements to protect
historical monuments and the environment are joined by one committed to
protecting our museums.
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