"I am for the birds, not for the cages in which people sometimes place them." John Cage
Wednesday, September 18, 2013
Why exhibit modern art?
When
reading Coomaraswamy’s beliefs on why it is important to exhibit art I came to
an understanding of modern artwork in comparison to historical works of
art. The purpose of exhibiting
historical works of art is to provide educational opportunities. We are able to learn from artwork by taking
into consideration the circumstances under which each piece of art was
created. Coomaraswamy reminds us that
the historical objects, which are displayed in museums, were not created to be
analyzed by museumgoers; they were created as common objects, which could be
used by anyone. Objects are now created
in bulk with a focus on sales, rather than attention to detail. This is why I tend to agree with
Coomaraswamy’s belief that artwork of living artists should rarely be exhibited because
it fails to provide much historical significance.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
You make a very good point here. Scharfstein would no doubt agree with Coomaraswamy about this. It is also probably relevant that Coomaraswamy, as a curator, was part of the museum world.
ReplyDelete