What a great thread! I think that we need to distinguish between artistic intent and museum intent here. Once a work is completed by an artist and sold, it's context, presentation, and interpretation - it's visual and sometimes verbal "meaning" changes into the hands and intent of its owners. If you think about it, very much the same thing happens with antiquities and historical artifacts as well. How many of us see ancient objects - that were once part of a funerary assemblage - exhibited isolated from their contexts and presented as "art"? Very much the same happens to paintings and sculptures when they pass out of their originators realm and into the museum. Just consider museum intent 40 years ago and how that has changed, or sometimes not changed. Museums are very much stages, theatres of art and history and science, and those who conceive and organize exhibits are the directors. There are innumerable ways of expressing the meanings of the same object or objects over time. Museums are all over the place in terms of how much information and context they present their audiences - and experimentation and fresh thinking are vital to keeping audiences interested and to discover new avenues in presenting a collection. To be honest, I personally get tired when I encounter exhibits that have more words and applied graphics than there are objects on view. I also get more than humbug when I see objects (especially in a history museum) that have absolutely no labeling at all. And look at what technology has done - where some museums are so techno-laden that the medium really has become the message while other museums eschew technology in favor of a more primary visitor experience. I have no problem with an exhibit such as the one described at the Hirshorn, that jumbles the traditional art historical concepts and shrugs off labels, and is essentially organized as an art sculpture garden. Sometimes it is a very relaxing experience to simply "be" in the midst of art and not be bombarded with concepts and interpretation constantly. I think that the question is whether this experiment will find and sustain an audience, and if the museum intent can be communicated more visually than orally, by the arrangement of objects in a space. Cheers! Dave David Harvey Artifacts 2930 South Birch Street Denver, CO 80222 303-300-5257 [log in to unmask] ========================================================= Important Subscriber Information: The Museum-L FAQ file is located at http://www.finalchapter.com/museum-l-faq/ . You may obtain detailed information about the listserv commands by sending a one line e-mail message to [log in to unmask] . The body of the message should read "help" (without the quotes). If you decide to leave Museum-L, please send a one line e-mail message to [log in to unmask] . The body of the message should read "Signoff Museum-L" (without the quotes).