What makes a gallery or museum successful? Definitely a wide range of factors, from the nature of the work of art (be it a costume, a statue, a painting or smaller objects like vases or jewellery) to the display supports that may be used; from the features of the exhibition space to the degree of engagement that the artwork on display, but also the captions accompanying it, may offer to visitors.
The Calouste Gulbenkian Museum (Av. Berna, 45A, Lisbon, Portugal) has currently got an exhibition about displaying techniques as deviced by famous architects and designers.
"Art on Display 49-69" (until 2nd March 2020) has got a precise starting point - the display solutions found for the opening of the Museum in 1969.
The exhibition was indeed inspired by the 50th anniversary of the Calouste Gulbenkian Museum, but also stands independently and aims at investigating the way we look at art and the way in which art is presented to us by curators and museums.
When it opened in 1969 the Gulbenkian Museum was recognised as a successful model and it was considered as timeless and in this exhibition curators Penelope Curtis and Dirk van den Heuvel attempt to make comparisons and juxtapositions between the Gulbenkian and other events located in other country such as Italy, The Netherlands, Britain and Brazil, with spaces designed by Franco Albini and Franca Helg, Carlo Scarpa, Lina Bo Bardi, Aldo van Eyck and Alison and Peter Smithson, architects who respond in original ways to the challenges of creating new spaces for mass entertainment.
Curators look for example at how Franca Helg and Franco Albini tried to bring paintings into the real world, removing the frames with which paintings had been fitted posthumously and making them lighter.
Carlo Scarpa also took paintings away from the wall, creating stands for them, while Lina Bo Bardi used thin metal supports stabilised with cables, as well as some light screens, coming up with democratic approaches that broke with the past and produced shock and curiosity in the visitors.
In Holland, Van Eyck tried multiple ways of introducing new ways of presenting art, most notably in the maze or labyrinth he created in 1965 out of concrete blocks. His concern to make the experience of looking at art more playful are echoed in the Smithsons' designs for the Tate Gallery with a huge number of recent artworks assembled in rooms designed to disguise the museum itself.
Rather than looking at specific art objects, the event at the Calouste Gulbenkian Museum analyses the language of display and the structures designed both for permanent museums and for temporary exhibitions, wondering if the experience of art should be shocking or comforting, if it should be isolating or if it is more enjoyable to consider it as a collective moment to be shared with other people.
Curators do not provide definitive answers, but invite visitors to take in the museum spaces where they move, the arrangements of objects and the display cases, and consider how an exhibition works, and in which ways a designer or an architect can emphasise an environment through intriguing and visually striking elements. In April 2020 the exhibition, an associate project of the Lisbon Architecture Triennale 2019, will reach out to more visitors, travelling from Lisbon to Rotterdam where it will be held at the Het Nieuwe Instituut.
Image credits for this post
1. Calouste Gulbenkian Museum. Islamic East gallery, 1970. Photo: Mário de Oliveira
2. Calouste Gulbenkian Museum. Hall, 1980. Photo: Manuel Ventura
3.Calouste Gulbenkian Museum. Renaissance Art gallery, 1970. Photo: Mário de Oliveira
4. Calouste Gulbenkian Museum. Works by René Lalique, 1970. Photo: Mário de Oliveira
5. Calouste Gulbenkian Museum. Far Eastern gallery, 1970. Photo: Mário de Oliveira
6. Calouste Gulbenkian Museu. Rest area, 1970. Photo: Mário de Oliveira
7. View of the Museu de Arte de São Paulo collection on the 'crystal' easels, 1970
MASP Research Centre Collection
8. Franco Albini and Franca Helg, Palazzo Bianco, Genoa, 1949–51. Fondazione Franco Albini, 29/51
© Fondazione Franco Albini. All Rights Reserved
9. Students visiting the Museu de Arte de São Paulo, 1983
MASP Research Centre Collection
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