research: history of the white cube
I think that the word museum triggers a specific cultural behaviour – devout, silent. I believe that exhibiting in a white cube is by now an exhibiting in both senses of the German translation, ausstellen – on the one hand a ‘showing’, on the other a ‘switching off ’ of aesthetic reviving energies.
Niklas Maak • The white cube and beyond Museum display
What is important in my opinion is that the room is honest, so there is no patronising.
*Niklas Maak
*When is a room honest?
*Charlotte Klonk
*Well, as soon as what is being aimed for becomes obvious to the viewer. What remains too subliminal, for example, are the colour nuances in the new display of the collection in the Nationalgalerie. If visitors a
Niklas Maak • The white cube and beyond Museum display
Love this idea that we spend time optimising and finding the right background colour to show work
Cognitive psychology is one of those fields of discussion which was, at least historically, of great importance for the exhibition of art. The first director of the National Gallery in London, Charles Eastlake, preferred hanging paintings against a background of red material, something he introduced in the middle of the nineteenth century (previous
... See moreNiklas Maak • The white cube and beyond Museum display
On the one hand, of course, the conditions of perception are more consciously acknowledged in environments created by artists, but on the other hand the framework of the exhibition space itself is pushed further into the background. For functional reasons, the artistic interventions make the neutral museum-container even more necessary than before.
... See moreNiklas Maak • The white cube and beyond Museum display
We can draw the same parallels to how different designers have different needs for how they want to display and present their work to their clients and so it’s workflows job to create a flexible enough space for that to successfully take place
Installation view of works by Gustav H Wolff and Giorgio Morandi at Documenta 1, Kassel, curated by Arnold Bode 1955© Documenta Archive, Kassel.. Photo: Gunther Becker
In the 1950s and 1960s life in the bungalow appeared quite open because the situation in the Federal Republic itself promised to be open and democratic. Then, however, people noticed that the neighbours were also building new houses, and that these were coming closer and closer to their property lines. Seeing as there was no need to be quite that o
... See moreNiklas Maak • The white cube and beyond Museum display
I don’t think that’s pathetic at all, because if you try to understand what a new kind of experience is created by doing so, then it is not a romantic but a revolutionary gesture. What had previously been enjoyed only by the king and his entourage was now suddenly made accessible to all.