An interesting article.

Eric Gibson says:  "The idea, among other things, was to startle the viewer
out of his complacency. And indeed, chronology can be constricting. The
shock of new juxtapositions may well engage the viewer more intensely in the
process of looking at art and prompt fresh insight."

I have to wonder who is feeling constricted by chronology and the canon,
really: is it curators and art historians, or visitors?  I think as curators
we are always trying to find new ways to present works of art, but at some
level we are fighting our own ennui.  Do we *need* to shock our visitors
with new and exciting juxtapositions, or are we just entertaining ourselves?
There is something comforting, as a visitor, to knowing that when I visit an
encyclopedic museum, that I can guess what is coming in room 43 based on
what I've seen in rooms 40,41, and 42.   If I'm in the Gothic room, then I
can expect some nice Renaissance things in a room or two.... If I'm looking
at Monet, there might be a Degas around the corner.  Some people find
museums comforting, and there is nothing wrong with that.

And are the Hirshhorn's new juxtapositions going to be "shocking" to the
kind of visitor who doesn't visit museums dozens of times a year, paying
attention to the structure and format and curatorial decisions behind the
exhibition/installation?   Museum professionals are always noticing these
things, but I wonder if the casual visitor is really going to be shocked to
find an early 20th-century European painting next to a late 20th-century
European sculpture??  Only those of us with expectations and a built-in
knowledge of art history's canon are going to be surprised by such a
juxtaposition.   Joe Bob Visitor might look at the Cubist picture and the
Pop Art picture and think: well, here's the room with stuff that doesn't
look Real.

I guess what I'm saying, roundaboutly, is that museum people go into a
museum with different assumptions and expectations than non-museum
professionals.  We should, perhaps, find out what our visitors are assuming
before we presume to challenge their assumptions, instead of assuming we
know what their assumptions are.  Got that?   It's late on Friday - forgive
me if I've stopped making sense.

Jill R. Chancey, Curator
Lauren Rogers Museum of Art
Laurel, MS
[log in to unmask]
(phone) 601-649-6374
(fax) 601-649-6379

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