The white cube and beyond Museum display

Museums also need to look and feel different. You and I grew up in a world where, no matter where you went, all museum installations looked the same, featured the same artists, told the same fake version of history. There must be a radical rethinking of how we tell stories and what it feels like to go to a museum. From wall labels to immersive expe

For one, museums hadn’t considered the problem of storage when they were first built, which meant there was no place to put the art except the walls. Then there was the question of selection—who would be responsible for deciding which works remained hanging and which did not? Professional curators didn’t exist in the 19th century; in fact, it was t

“Even in the middle of the 19th century, it was generally recognized that museums should isolate works of art on walls to avoid overcrowding and to accentuate quality for visitors,” Andrew McClellan, a professor of art history at Tufts University, told me. “It was recognized that crowded walls hampered proper appreciation of individual works of art

So it was that Eastlake replaced an earlier grayish-green hue with red, based on the latest research into sensory physiology. “The interaction with the golden frames and the mainly cooler colours of the paintings themselves led, according to this research, to a harmonious effect in the beholder’s visual experience,” Klonk claimed.

“The trick is to find a space for everything, so each work has a chance to breathe. It means hanging less and thinking about the thematic connections and the sight lines.”

'1V1useum and mausoleum', in Adorno's famous phrase, were associated by more than phonetics. Today, however, their authority as the curators of national treasures and the dictators of distinction and taste is challenged.