The "exhibition" value of the museum is supported by the "collecting" quality behind it. Almost all the important collectors in history have a fanatical temperament and a persistent will, otherwise they cannot persist. The artistic taste and artistic aesthetic of collectors determine the artistic standard of the museum. Because only when "private art museums have authentically preserved the historical and live context of artworks", their living collection behavior can maximize the possibility of preserving the original value of art. Only with a vivid sense of presence can we establish the path dependence of our viewing and examination, and can we find the mysterious forest road in the art jungle.
Mr. Liu Peng's newly published "The Charm of the Original Realm: A Study on the Display Methods of European and American Art Museums" selects more than 20 famous museums in Europe and the United States, mainly private museums, and opens up the rich construction history and important details of European and American museums through the investigation and analysis of the core perspective of "collection formation, exhibition narrative and its interaction with the intentions of donors". Western art collections have followed the path of private appropriation-public sharing for hundreds of years. Private collection and appropriation of the "things" of art are obviously not the ultimate goal, and collecting is only the initial stage of realizing value. The pleasure of collecting, the satisfaction of the desire to possess the things you love, will soon pass. If we put what we have out of it in a high cabinet and hide it deeply, this possessed "thing" will not only lose its vitality, but also damage its inherent value. Therefore, whether it is for the purpose of showing off and highlighting, or out of feelings, the publicity of these art objects in a certain form is the only way for art collection. Because the display of works not only reflects the artist's artistic position and self-confidence, but also the collector's personal and family's highest and most decent way of glory.
▲The Charm of the Original Realm: A Study on the Display Methods of European and American Art Museums
By Liu Peng
Tongji University Press
Originating from the early 19th century and matured in the middle of the 20th century, the construction of modern and contemporary private art museums in Europe and the United States has gone through three important stages. The first is to start with art salons and club practices. From about the middle of the 18th century to the beginning of the 20th century, some important art genres and artistic concepts in Europe and the United States were basically born in the top art salon activities, especially avant-garde works of art, which were displayed here and recognized by the art circle and went to the market. For example, the famous "Saturday Salon" in Paris from 1905 to 1914 was a top art salon club that gathered celebrities in the world's literary and art circles. The Stein siblings, who were known as the promoters of Parisian art at the time, made an "art center" in their own apartment at 27 Rue Des Faux, Paris, which became the "show" of avant-garde art and the initial practice of the media conference scene. These successful salon owners must not only be elegant and tasteful, have a good artistic feeling, but also be appropriate and willful, in order to break the circle, cross the cross-border aggregation of various groups of people, and form their own club art style. The walls of the residence at 27 Rue du Jardin in Paris were once covered with important paintings by Matisse between 1905 and 1907, which is enough to prove the artistic tone and artistic willfulness of the owner. In fact, before the outbreak of the First World War, European literature, art, and music had always been integrated, especially the conceptual interaction and influence were extremely profound. 27 Rue Garden in Paris was also transformed from a literary "club" to an art salon club. The period from the late 19th century to the first half of the 20th century saw the emergence of a large number of private museums, widely distributed in Europe and North America. In 1906, only by going to 27 Garden Street could you see the best and most astonishing modern art. The following list is sufficient to prove the high status of its art. "Robert Delaunay, André Delange, Juan Gris, Georges Brack, Bertrand Arthur William Russell, Roger Frye, George Moore, Salvador Dali, Guillaume Apollinaire, etc.", all of them are top artists.
At 27 Rue Dus Jardins in Paris, artists want to show their faces here because of their high status as art, "so the walls of the house, wherever paintings can be hung, are crowded with paintings." At that time, it was mainly gas lamp lighting, the light source and radiation area were limited and unbalanced, the highlight and the low light were completely out of balance, coupled with the high and low levels of the paintings, resulting in some paintings not being seen at all, and it was necessary to use mobile lighting such as matches and oil lamps to see clearly, which in turn would bring about the risk of fire. "Although the space conditions at that time were limited, and the exhibition of art works was chaotic and completely devoid of quality exhibition space design and arrangement, the status of the art salon could not be shaken, and 27 HuaYuan Street was the prototype practice of the success of private modern art museums in Europe and the United States."
The second important stage is to enter the period of home museums. From home to "art house", it is an important stage in the practice of private art museums. Organically embedding the works collected systematically into various parts of the home further highlights the collector's artistic interest and professionalism. Most private art museums have a feeling: to make every effort to make a certain art fragment, such as a genre, a way of artistic creation, an artist's main work, as far as possible to restore here, in the pursuit of time idealization, and strive to revitalize a period of art history. Because it is an upgraded version of the home, the Art House "in addition to having a special exhibition room, the hall, dining room, library, living room, bedroom, and even bathroom in the house have also become a place to hang paintings and place objects." The collection and placement of its collections basically reflect the collector's personal artistic understanding, which can not only measure the level and quality of the collector, but also reflect the personality of the collector. This is known as the collector's condensed "self-image", as Walter Benjamin put it, and the owners of these museums expect visitors to experience a "deep intoxication" like their masters.
The Gardner Museum case listed in the book is a sample of the best practice. Because of "Mrs. Gardner's artistic interest, the display method is constantly reinforcing the 'femininity' that pervades the entire museum." The "meta-canon" of the Gardner Museum is completely the founder of the museum, Mrs. Gardner, with her own artistic taste to construct a new sequence of artists, constantly creating a spatial atmosphere of "hierarchical freedom and the freedom of subject matter", looking forward to creating a unique way of viewing. This allows "visitors to travel through more than 2,000 years in just over an hour: from the ancient Greek and Roman period art in the atrium to the 'Gothic and Early Italian Chambers', gradually transitioning from the '15th century' to the Renaissance artistic atmosphere created by the 'Raphael Room'." The Gardner Museum's collection is more extensive, spanning periods from the time of ancient Greece to the Period of Impressionism... The total number of collections is about 2500 pieces. "The whole museum is filled with Mrs. Gardner's strong sense of fun and art.
▲The peacock room in the Peacock Room at the Freer Museum of Art in Washington, D.C
The practice of private art museums has entered the third stage, and it has entered the mature stage. At this stage, the basic means of reconstructing and reconstructing the museum space are basically used, which not only matches the artistic positioning of the art collection, but also pursues a systematic and professional space layout and exhibition of works. When the "residential museum" and the "personal art collection museum" can no longer meet the needs of art exhibition, when the museum's knowledge production and knowledge output need the corresponding scale and energy level, creating a more professional and more matching museum space and exhibition method that matches the form of art has become a just need for museum space practice.
The Guggenheim Museum, introduced in the book, is a convincing case. Founder Peggy Guggenheim parted ways with the "Barbizon School" run by her father, and in her artistic experience of pursuing freedom, she met three important nobles. First, her friend Peggy Waldmann discovered her great interest in modernism and suggested that she open a gallery; the literary scholar Samuel Beckett said that you should collect the works of living artists; then she met marcel Duchamp, the most suitable art consultant, who taught her to distinguish between abstract art and surrealist works, so Peggy Guggenheim used the purchase of these two types of art as an initial way to intervene in modern art. She then went on to do solo exhibitions by Yves Tangi, Edward Burra, Paul Nash, Max Ernst and other important artists, opening the curtain on the modern art collection.
Today's Guggenheim has three top museums in Europe and the United States, two in New York and Venice are transformed into museums, and the Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao, Spain, is designed by Zaha, a top contemporary architect. What exactly is the Guggenheim's "Three Cities" gallery presenting? Everyone says that Peggy Guggenheim had a dream of museums, and what artistic picture was she restored by this dream?
Kandinsky, the founder of abstract art, advocated the "non-objectivity" tendency of modern art, from which ideas could grow and modern art could move towards aesthetic and spiritual heights. Peggy Guggenheim agreed with Kandinsky, arguing that the birth of modern art was "a remarkable advance from material to spiritual that has never been seen in the history of the world, until there was a shift from objectivity to non-objectivity in the art of painting."
The Guggenheim Museum pioneered the unframed display of paintings. She defends this in her autobiography Confessions of an Art Fan: "Subverting the traditional way of displaying these collections is the original intention of the museum. "Hard edges and geometric shapes are the basic forms of modern painting on a shelf, and when the content of the painting tries to break through the limitations of the frame, the boundaries must be opened. The most essential innovation of modern art is to become a whole inside and outside the painting, and the Guggenheim is to strive to do it, and the intention and meaning are incomparably unified in the creation and display of paintings. She wanted to build a suitable home for the work of Artists such as Chagall, Duchamp, Kandinsky, Miró and others.
"Nostalgia for origins, obsession with authenticity", art collection is legendary. Museums can gradually aggregate distracted masses, which is both an expectation and a reality, and it is also the birth of a "new".
Author: Wang Guowei
Editor: Zhou Yiqian
Editor-in-Charge: Zhu Zifen
*Wenhui exclusive manuscript, please indicate the source when reprinting.