Posts tagged modern art
Vienna's Mumok (Museum of Modern Art) online resources
Vienna’s Museum Moderne Kunst (MUMOK)
The link above is to the English page featuring videos, podcasts and library search. For those who can handle German, the German page has back issues of the museum’s magazine and newsletters. I’m adding it to the list I’m compiling of ‘Museum Multimedia’. Any other illustrious examples I should add?
Free! The Guggenheim has put 65 modern art books and catalogues online.
From OpenCulture:
In recent days, the museum has made 65 art catalogues available online, all free of charge. The catalogues offer an intellectual and visual introduction to the work of Alexander Calder, Edvard Munch, Francis Bacon, Gustav Klimt & Egon Schiele, and Kandinsky. Plus there are other texts (e.g., Masterpieces of Modern Art and Abstract Expressionists Imagists) that tackle meta movements and themes.
Now let me give you a few handy instructions to get you started. 1.) Select a text from the collection. 2.) Click the “Read Catalogue Online” button. 3.) Start reading the book in the pop-up browser, and use the controls at thevery bottom of the pop-up browser to move through the book. 4.) If you have any problems accessing these texts, you can find alternate versions on Archive.org, which lets you download books in multiple formats – ePUB, PDF and the rest.
This is how I feel at MOMA.
Does anyone agree? How do you feel about Modern Art?
How do you feel when you walk into a Modern Art Exhibit?
I had the unfortunate experience of moving from what felt like quiet (but enjoyable) enjoyment of more “old” pieces (12th century to early 20th century or so), things that were not too Modern and then towards a Modern gallery that was all white, and very quiet. People seemed afraid to whisper or talk. I had stopped by the children’s section before moving to the Modern Art section, and suddenly, no one talked, or smiled! But some of the art was funny, and absurd - I wished other people had reacted.
I must say: it’s much harder for me to look at something painted by Van Gogh, or El Greco and assume I could replicate it than some Modern Artworks I’ve seen. But does that make it any less artistic to you?
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-12308952 — Asked by Anonymous
Alain de Botton’s piece on the BBC website asks the question “Why are museums so uninspiring?”.
I think the first thing to mention is that he seems to be talking from the central European perspective of museum = art. I’m not sure that that’s the case for a British public. If you say ‘museum’ to most Brits they will think immediately of artefacts and relics rather a gallery.
Modern museums typically lead us into galleries set out under headings such as “the 19th Century” or “the Northern Italian School”, which reflect the academic traditions in which their curators have been educated.
To a certain degree I agree with him: art galleries aren’t the most accessible. I am art enjoyer of the “I-know-what-I-like” sort, and this can make (especially modern) art perplexing. I want to understand, I want to be told what the artist was thinking and I need some interpretation from on high to draw out meanings and connections. Then I can decide whether I agree or not. But I don’t think this is what he is talking about. He doesn’t strike me as the kind of man who would admit that he sometimes doesn’t get what it’s about.
I think if you expect to go into an art or history museum and experience awe the same way the faithful do in a church, you are inevitably going to leave disappointed and uninspired. It’s a rather big ask of museums - all with different collections, structures, sizes and missions - to step into the giant space of the church, with its divine mysteries, clear rituals, sense of community and established hierarchies.
Do we even want that? I don’t and I can’t imagine that you will find all artists willing to have their works presented in this way either.
These curators should co-opt works of art to the direct task of helping us to live: to achieve self-knowledge, to remember forgiveness and love and to stay sensitive to the pains suffered by our ever troubled species and its urgently imperilled planet. Only then will museums be able to claim that they have properly fulfilled the noble but still elusive ambition of becoming our new churches.
If you disregard that he only talks about art under his broad sweep of ‘museum’, I would argue that museums are helping us live: the International Slavery Museum is an incredible example when talking about forgiveness and activism, but so too is the British Museum with the explicit links it draws and celebrates between ancient cultures and modern cultures, or the museum of London which has underlined that ‘Londoner’ is a bright, vibrant, diverse and - ultimately - fluid description.
It feels a little bit like Mr. de Botton has accidentally stumbled into this area without checking out what museums really are doing in this direction or at least trying to do. He seems to be completely unaware that there is a whole field of museological thought and a whole body of literature he could have tapped into to at least give more concrete examples of what can be done. Does he really think that people would have a more lasting museum experience if asked to look at something and be patient? Those who know museums already know that the people who read text labels tend to be the more patient audience members anyway.
See also: http://myseum.posterous.com/alain-de-botton-and-the-ever-decreasing-circl
From the BBC’s coverage of the Royal Academy’s 242nd Summer Exhibition.
