PART 1 CONTEMPORARY CURATORIAL DISCOURSE
READING: The Culture of Curating and the Curating of Culture – Paul O’Neill
Guardian interview: Hans Ulrich Obrist: the art of curation – Stuart Jeffries and Nancy Groves – 2014
A Brief History of Curating – Hans Ulrich Obrist, 2018 JRP Ringier & Les Presses Du Reel
…reflect on the creative and critical possibilities offered by staging an exhibition
…How does O’Neill’s position compare to your own?
Introduction
I found this a difficult text to read because of its continuous use of complex and unnecessarily obscure language. Why make something quite straightforward so difficult to understand! I’m therefore slightly reluctant to pronounce on the ideas in the first chapter. It seems to me that so much of the text could be summarised very simply. As the heading states, the chapter is a history of curating from the late 1960s to the present. From my perspective it seems that the history of curating is the outcome of the history of art developments during that time and reflects the changes in society in general.
Looking into the subject of curation for greater understanding, I read two other texts. First, a Guardian interview with ‘Hans Ulrich Obrist: the art of curation” by Stuart Jeffries and Nancy Groves 2014:
“I think of my work as a catalyst – and a sparring partner”
Curating comes from the Latin word ‘curare’ meaning ‘to take care’.
Today, curating as a profession means at least four things. It means to preserve, in the sense of safeguarding the heritage of art. It means to be the selector of new work. It means to connect to art history. And it means displaying or arranging the work. But it’s more than that. Before 1800, few people went to exhibitions. Now hundreds of millions of people visit them every year. It’s a mass medium and a ritual. The curator sets it up so that it becomes an extraordinary experience and not just illustrations or spatialised books.”
Obrist was inspired by seeing an exhibition curated by Harald Szeemann (The Tendency Towards the Total Work of Art) in 1983. The idea of the exhibition was a toolbox or an archaeology of knowledge and displayed works by Gaudi, Beuys, Schwitters and others. “The idea was that these artists had created all-embracing environments.”
In this interview, Obrist makes an important point…the danger of the curator’s role overshadowing the work of the artist. “But, for me, it was important to be close to the artists and not subordinate their work to the curator’s vision.
Obrist: “I’m trying to expand the notion of curating. Exhibitions need not only take place in galleries, need not only involve displaying objects. Art can appear where we expect it least.”
My second point of reference was the book, ‘A Brief History of Curating’ written by Hans Ulrich Obrist. I found this a most interesting and accessible text in which Obrist interviews 11 curators. In particular I focused on the interview with the curator Harald Szeemann. His ideas particularly resonated with me “Szeemann sought…to create shows that were ‘poems in space’. Also Daniel Birnbaum wrote in the final chapter, The Archeology of Things to Come, “Szeemann’s genuine belief that art exhibitions were spiritual undertakings with the power to conjure alternate ways of organising society – a meta-artist, utopian thinker, or even shaman.” (Page 238)
…reflect on the creative and critical possibilities offered by staging an exhibition
Although the reading of the chapter by O’Neill was difficult and frustrating, I have found that the further reading I’ve done on the subject of curating has begun a change in my thought. It has made me reflect on some of the most interesting exhibitions I’ve seen in recent years. One that comes to mind is “Delacroix and the Rise of Modern Art” , an exhibition at The National Gallery in London in 2016. The curators were Christopher Riopelle, the curator of post 1800 paintings at The National Gallery and Patrick Noon, Chair of Paintings at Minneapolis Institute of Art. It was an exhibition which has stayed with me over the years because of what it taught me. As the title says, it was all about influence and so it contained an extensive collection of paintings but it was the clarity of its purpose to educate and reveal which made it so important for me.
O’Neill in his introduction to the book wrote: “exhibitions should embody theoretical and critical arguments.” This certainly described this exhibition and provided , as well, a vista of beautiful paintings for the viewer. Interestingly, I had no idea who the curators of the exhibition were until I began to research it. So it was these two aspects of curating which I recall now as I consider my own exhibition …
In contrast, I recall another exhibition, the 2018 Summer Exhibition, curated by Grayson Perry which became for me a piece of ‘performance art’, in which the role of the curator/ artist completely dominated the event. As the viewer, I felt completely excluded, so intrusive was the role of the curator.
At the beginning of Chapter 3 in ‘The Culture of Curating and The Curating of Culture, O’Neill writes, “In chapter 1, we saw how the late 1960s witnessed a shift from the idea of curating as a caring, meditative, administrative activity toward one of a mediating and performative activity akin to artistic practice”…suggesting that “the curatorial act is equivalent to artistic practice.” (page 87) The two examples I’ve given above illustrate this shift in perception of the role of the curator.
At this point with my own work and considering an exhibition, I’m gathering together the different elements of my work to ascertain where the common theme lies. Because I’m working on a theme of ‘sound’ in the context of examining another dimension to what we experience , there will be a performative element because of the ‘time’ factor. ‘Sound’ exists in the moment. But ‘sound’ also for me brings in the element of ‘memory’ which also has a time factor but in a different way.
Notes from reading Chapter 1
THE EMERGENCE OF CURATORIAL DISCOURSE FROM THE LATE 1960s TO THE PRESENT
- Curatorship begun to be understood as a constellation of creative activities.
- Curator moved from being a caretaker of collections – behind the scenes organiser and arbiter of taste – to an independent motivated practitioner
- At the same time, move toward the temporality of the event of an exhibition rather than artworks on display
- From 1987 to the present when the practice of curating became a possible area of academic study
- “exhibitions should embody theoretical and critical arguments.”
- Page 9
- Artists, critical and curators began to question artistic freedom as well as the aesthetic autonomy given them by society
- Gradual change from the role of curator-as-carer working with collections out of sight to the public to a more central position.
Page 10
- Early 20th century attempts to subvert the conventional form of an art exhibition. …the institution of art was seen as the hermetic framework within which art was produced, received and its value generated.
- Artists began to consider the social, relational and situational context of their practice and now being part of their artwork meaning :
Considering the place of the viewer and how that position could be part of the arwork
Art reflecting world issues
More active participation and engagement with the art
For the artist relinquishing some of their authorial control
Page 11
- Frederick Kiesler’s ‘Exhibition of New Theatre Technique’
Structures allowed viewers to adjust the height of the work to their own eye level
Work displayed on flexible units
Adapted to the specific demands of a particular exhibition space.
Page 16 and 17
- 1960s and 1970s artists and curators worked in parallel, making and organising toward a future moment of display…a successful hybrid of artistic research and exhibition aesthetics.
- Some saw this as an evolution, some as problematic. The work of the artist became less easy to distinquish from that of the curator at a time when artists were employing …the use of text, linguistics…conceptual art. “The word ‘art’ is becoming less of a noun and more of a ‘verb…Thinking not so much about the objects themselves as what possibilities are inherent in them and what the ideas are in them…” Robert Barry artist 1969…. An understanding of art was no longer restricted to that which was materialised as the objects of art; instead, art could also encompass the production of ideas about art. As much as art could be made present in the world, through language and the articulation of ideas, these ideas could be the primary medium, as well as the outcome, of artistic production.
Page 19
- Artists taking on functions formally those of the critic or the curator late 1960s – artists and curators working collaborately – information society
- Demystification to the changing form of exhibition production
Page 21
- An understanding of the place of exhibition and the place of the work of art as inextricably linked.
- Artists looking for curators who at least understood what they were doing.
Page 22
- Early 1970s the role of the exhibition maker had been transformed from an activity primarily involving the organisation of exhibitions of discrete art works to include various factors not directly associated with the display of works of art such as the production of knowledge. “My interests were very closely allied to working with them to devise exhibition structures and conditions that were able to show their work, which would reflect what their work was about…a gallery was not necessarily the most ideal environment to show it…my job was to find those formats, to find those new structures and conditions to be able to show their work.” Siegelaub page 25
- Communication change – artists as sender, curator as mediator, viewer as receiver.
Page 39
- 1990s Exhibitions produce temporary forms of order…In bringing order to a brief moment, temporary exhibition display function as “time capsules” in which the particular choices of the curator are fixed as a group – elected gatherings of artworks making sense to the curator at a given time.
Page 41
- Lack of curatorial knowledge…early 1990s an interest in not only establishing a curatorial history but also a space for self-positioning.
Page 49
- Curatorship is seen as a constantly shifting and adaptive discipline. Since the late 1990s …the subjective nature of exhibition making and the importance of a growing awareness of the curator’s part in shaping exhibitions.