research: history of the white cube
it was MoMA’s first director Alfred Barr who finally cemented its strategy for display. That’s not to say that the New York museum was the first to pull together these various threads; as McClellan notes, the Harvard Art Museum and the Wadsworth Atheneum both mounted exhibitions in the early 1930s that utilized the white cube approach. “But MoMA,
... See moreAbigail Cain • How the White Cube Came to Dominate the Art World
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
... See moreNiklas Maak • The white cube and beyond Museum display
How were the unwritten rules of conduct in a museum developed and communicated? The answer I now give in the book is that it happened indirectly, through the interior design and layout of the rooms.
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
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
In 1976, artist and critic
set the art world abuzz with a three-part essay published in Artforum . Titled “Inside the White Cube,” it gave a catchy new name to a mode of display that had long ago achieved dominance in museums and commercial galleries.
Abigail Cain • How the White Cube Came to Dominate the Art World
This was epitomized by Benjamin Ives Gilman, the secretary of the Boston MFA from 1893 to 1925, who published the first empirical study of museum-going in 1918. He had a number of suggestions to combat what he termed “museum fatigue,” including changes in display that would keep visitors from crouching or bending over to see works clearly
Abigail Cain • How the White Cube Came to Dominate the Art World
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.
Niklas Maak • The white cube and beyond Museum display
Then in the 1920s discussions in which white received connotations of infinite space started to emerge, mainly among Constructivist artists and architects. This coincided with temporary exhibitions becoming increasingly important in the museum, and with them the moveable partition wall and flexible groundplan.