Art Exhibition Research Articles

Exploring Innovative Approaches and Interventions to Address Misconceptions and Promote Effective Visual Arts Education in Secondary Schools in Ghana

Visual arts education is important in developing students’ creativity, critical thinking, and cultural awareness. However, in Ghana, visual arts subjects at the secondary school level often need help with challenges such as lack of resources, large class sizes, and misconceptions about the value of art education. This study aimed to explore innovative approaches and interventions that could address misconceptions and promote effective visual arts education in Ghana’s secondary schools. A qualitative document analysis and thematic analysis were conducted. Relevant policy documents, national curriculum frameworks, and previous research studies related to visual arts education in Ghana were analyzed to identify existing challenges, opportunities, and recommendations. Key emerging themes included misconceptions about visual arts subjects, lack of resources, training for art teachers and large class sizes that do not augur well for hands-on learning. The analysis also identified recommendations such as integrating visual arts across the curriculum, promoting art exhibitions, and leveraging community resources and partnerships to support visual arts programmes. This study provides insights into existing challenges in visual arts education in Ghana’s secondary schools and highlights innovative approaches that could help address misconceptions and strengthen visual arts programmes. Integrating visual arts across subject areas, promoting art exhibitions, improving teacher training, and leveraging community partnerships may help promote effective visual arts education.

Hand Embroidery and Visual Communication Nexus: Analysis of Temitayo Taofeek Badru’s Embroidered Works

Art has passed through a series of changes right from the first man in the cave, and artists through the ages have also explored different methods and materials. Such an aspect is the art of hand embroidery. Hand embroidery is a form of decorative stitches for embellishment on worn apparel and garments that was widely used in the past. This paper examines selected embroidered works by Temitayo Taofeek Badru. These artworks are coded with African philosophy, especially Yorùbá proverbs, sayings, myths, folklore and aphorisms, and social issues in society. This is to establish the development of creativity in embroidery works and artist's contributions to contemporary Nigerian art. The paper also discusses the biography and artistic development of the artist, classifies the selected works into expressionistic and Realistic styles, and analyses the symbolic forms of the works. Data were collected through oral interviews with the artist and participant observation method. Data were also gathered from journal articles and art exhibition catalogues of the artist. Descriptive and formal methods of art historical studies were used to analyse the data. The study revealed that Badru grew up in an environment that encouraged his artistic development. It was found that the artist mostly uses expressionistic and realistic styles in his embroidered works and that he sometimes combines the use of threads and acrylic paints for the realistic style he adopts. The paper concludes that Badru has taken Textile Art to a new dimension through the use of hand embroidery for artistic innovations, which has equally contributed to the development of contemporary Nigerian art.

Bullshit (Sometimes) Makes the Art (Slightly) More Attractive: A Field Study in Gallery-Goers

Vague, impressive language used in descriptions (bullshit) is thought to make art seem more profound and valuable to the viewer. We studied the effect during art exhibitions in real-life gallery-goers who saw paintings of four artists, each with either simplified, neutral, or bullshitty description. We crafted a typical description of each painting, which we later manipulated in terms of language. A simplified description was modified to be concrete and simplistic, while a bullshitty one was very abstract and vague. After analyzing over 1500 ratings, we found the expressive language of descriptions had a negligible effect on the perceived quality and monetary value of art ( R2 marginal ≤ 1%). We conclude that, at least for experienced gallery-goers, the description accompanying a painting has little influence, and the art speaks for itself.

Beyond Reality: Exploring User Experiences in the Metaverse Art Exhibition Platform from an Integrated Perspective

With the rise of the metaverse, digital transformation is profoundly affecting the field of art exhibitions. Museums and galleries are actively adopting metaverse technologies to present artworks through virtual platforms, providing audiences with novel opportunities for immersive engagement and art experiences and shaping high-quality user experiences. However, the factors influencing user engagement in the metaverse art exhibition platform (MeAEP) remain unclear in the current research. This research combines the information systems success model (ISSM) and the hedonic motivation system adoption model (HMSAM) to construct a theoretical model that provides insights into the factors influencing MeAEP users’ intention to engage and their immersion behavior, with a focus on the sustainability of the art exhibition. We quantitatively analyzed 370 users that experienced MeAEP and analyzed the data and measurement model using SPSS 27 and partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM). The results showed that information quality (IQ), system quality (SQ), and perceived ease of use (PEOU) significantly and positively influenced perceived usefulness (PU), curiosity (CUR), joy (JOY), and control (CON). PU, JOY, and CON have a positive and significant effect on Immersion (IM). Finally, PU, CUR, JOY, and CON had a positive effect on behavioral intention (BI). In conclusion, only one of the twenty hypotheses was not supported. The research findings not only enrich the academic and managerial theories related to the metaverse and art exhibition platforms, but also provide practical insights for administrators, developers, and MeAEP designers to create higher-quality and more immersive art content, as well as provide constructive ideas for the sustainability of art exhibitions to further enhance user experience.

Conceptual approaches to the design of advertising and information support for the exhibition of contemporary art

The article discusses the principles of the artistic organization of advertising and information support for international periodical exhibition projects of contemporary art of the XX-XXI centuries, the development of which is due to a wide range of artistic practices and the search for effective and dynamic means of communication with the audience. The object of research is the media of information about the exhibition project - printed materials, outdoor advertising, digital media, information content of the exhibition environment. The purpose of this article is a comprehensive analysis of conceptual approaches to the design of advertising and information support for modern Russian and foreign periodic exhibition projects. The periodicity allows us to trace the dynamics of the transformation of individual elements of the exhibition design, their relationship with the ideological content of exhibitions, to identify expressive means and artistic and imaginative solutions for the design of advertising and information support, to identify general cultural factors influencing its formation. In order to reproduce the holistic development of the advertising and information support of the biennale, the article uses a systematic approach, formal stylistic and comparative methods. The analysis of the elements of the graphic design of the international exhibition systems and the Ural Industrial Biennale of Modern Art made it possible to identify the specifics of the exhibition identity, the connection with the conceptual content and organizational structure of the projects. The author of the article comes to the conclusion that the development of the design of advertising and information support, as a synthetic activity, is due to the constant creative search for new conceptual content of the exhibition and the rethinking of compositional means of graphic design of media about the project, experiments with new materials that involve visitors in a discussion about the nature of modern art.

Introduction: Stevens and Germany, Stevens in (West) Germany

ABSTRACT: This first of two special issues on "Stevens and Germany" addresses a neglected topic. Five contributions by Philip McGowan, Gül Bilge Han, James Dowthwaite, George Kovalenko, and Christoph Irmscher explore the broad contours of Wallace Stevens's relation to Germany, spanning from youthful identification to tempered wartime and postwar reflections. The contributions also highlight moments in the poet's life and writing, including his visit to a German art exhibition in 1909 and his later genealogical research into the maternal, German side of the family. A related topic of scholarly neglect, at least in the United States, has been the postwar (West) German reception of Stevens. Not until the end of the Cold War and the fall of the Berlin Wall was his poetry able to slough its initial reputation as elitist and conformist. A series of new translations, most of them appearing in the twenty-first century, have helped revitalize German interest in the American poet.

Epistemological shifts, power imbalances and conflicts at documenta fifteen: decolonial cultural policy conceptions beyond Eurocentric universalism

ABSTRACT Focusing on the epistemic dimension of exclusionary institutional structures in the German cultural sector in relation to cultural production, this article searches for decolonial cultural policy conceptions that are critical of knowledge-related power imbalances and their entanglements. By taking the international art exhibition documenta fifteen in Kassel in 2022 as a case study, the paper examines the community- and collectivity-based practices and methodologies introduced by the Indonesian artist collective ruangrupa. In particular, this empirically grounded inquiry focuses on ruangrupa’s lumbung values as a proposition of epistemic pluriversality. In this way, it also reveals various conflicts that occurred before and during the fifteenth edition of the exhibition, arisen from epistemological differences in perspectives, narratives, aesthetics and artistic methodologies between colonial and capitalism-critical cultural practices and Western art institutions. Following the tenets of the decolonial turn and decolonial thought, the paper explores alternatives to the dominant Eurocentric universalism of knowledge through the example of documenta fifteen, transcending the binary of either/or and advocating pluriversality as a universal option, rather than Eurocentric universalism as a singular totality, as proposed by Walter Mignolo. Following Catherine Walsh, the quest for the recognition and dissemination of pluriversal perspectives is intrinsically linked to the search for other ways of knowing, thinking, theorising and being that resist totalising power. In doing so, the authors ultimately seek to outline some attributes of decolonial conceptions of cultural policymaking, aiming at reducing epistemological inequalities in accessing cultural production for marginalised and racialised artists and cultural practitioners.

Research on the New Curriculum Module and Exhibition Evaluation Mechanism of Art Education

In response to the deepening reform in the field of education in China, major art education colleges have conducted in-depth analyses of learning topics such as art education and art communication, based on their own educational and teaching needs, academic demands, and operational characteristics. The aim is to establish a cognitive concept that differs from the general depth and cognitive level of thinking, tending towards essential analysis, and to consider art education as the ultimate goal of its own disciplinary development. A new pattern of art education in the public art education bureau’s large classrooms has been gradually constructed. Building upon this, this article analyzes and studies new ideas for setting up art education curriculum modules, the new language of art education dissemination and exhibition, and the new development of art education dissemination and exhibition. The objective is to provide references for education departments and institutions at all stages and to offer theoretical assistance for improving the effectiveness of art education.

The Role of Padepokan Ciliwung Condet in The Development of Betawi Cultural Tourism Ciliwung Condet

This research aims to examine the role of Padepokan Ciliwung Condet in developing Betawi cultural tourism in the Ciliwung Condet area. Betawi cultural tourism has great potential as a tourism attraction that can make a positive contribution to the local economy and preserve regional culture. Padepokan Ciliwung Condet, as a center for Betawi arts and cultural activities, is the main subject of this research. The research method used is qualitative with a case study approach. Data was collected through in-depth interviews, direct observation and documentation studies. The research results show that Padepokan Ciliwung Condet has a significant role in developing Betawi cultural tourism. The Padepokan functions as a place for training in traditional Betawi arts, art exhibitions and a cultural information center. In the context of tourism development, Padepokan Ciliwung Condet plays a role in creating an authentic and memorable tourism experience for visitors. Its existence also contributes to the preservation of Betawi arts and culture, as well as promoting local community participation in the tourism industry. This research provides recommendations for increasing the role of Padepokan Ciliwung Condet in the development of Betawi cultural tourism, including more effective marketing strategies, improving infrastructure, and closer cooperation between related parties. Thus, it is hoped that the development of Betawi cultural tourism in Ciliwung Condet can have a sustainable positive impact on the local community and preserve the regional cultural heritage.

Not Just a Women Artists’s Show: Curatorial Challenges for the Exhibition of Women Artists in a Public Collection

Using a practical case study co-curated by the author and Garazi Ansa as a departing point for reflection, this article addresses a number of questions that arise when organizing exhibitions of female artists in collections. First, it examines the danger of falling into categories such as “women artists.” Second, it discusses the possibilities for the exhibition to have an impact on other activities of the museum, such as collecting. Finally, it proposes alternatives to extend the curatorial purpose on time by other by-practices, such as editing children’s book about the exhibited artists.

Fenomen wielkich wystaw – przekaz pokoleń i wyraz kultury historycznej swoich czasów

The aim of the article is to reflect on the phenomenon of great art exhibitions, gathering exhibits, mainly paintings, exceptional from the perspective of national cultural heritage, which collectively represent a defined generational message. The reflection included the best‑known exhibitions of recent decades, being an expression of the historical culture of a time of great changes in the life of Polish society at the turn of the 21st century. These are two exhibitions at the National Museum in Kraków, the first exhibition ever by Marek Rostworowski, “Polish self‑portrait” (1979); the second is an exhibition of Marek Szczerski’s work entitled #dziedzictwo/heritage (2017); a jubilee exhibition organised by the National Museum in Warsaw in collaboration with the Louvre‑Lens Museum, the National Museum in Poznan and the Adam Mickiewicz Institute on the centennial of regaining independence, entitled “Poland. The power of the image” (2019‑2021). This reflection also includes the monumental exhibition organised collectively by the Royal Castle in Warsaw and the Martin Gropius Bau in Berlin, with the participation of the curator Anda Rottenberg, entitled “Side by side. Germany‑Poland 1000 years of history in art.” (2012).

Digital art exhibitions and psychological well-being in Chinese Generation Z: An analysis based on the S-O-R framework

In the post-pandemic era, there has been a heightened global focus on the mental health challenges facing individuals, with a particular emphasis on innovative and effective therapeutic approaches. Despite the extensive body of research within the realm of art therapy addressing individual psychological healing, the potential of digital mediums in this field has been largely overlooked. This gap is especially pronounced in studies targeting the unique demographic of Generation Z, known as ‘digital natives.’ This study aims to investigate the role of engagement in online digital exhibitions as a potential restorative intervention for enhancing the mental well-being of Generation Z users. Grounded in the Stimulus-Organism-Response (S-O-R) framework and the theory of restorative environments, this research examines the psychological responses of Generation Z participants to online digital art exhibitions, particularly from the perspective of website aesthetics. The impact of these responses on users’ place attachment and loyalty behaviors is also explored. Utilizing a structural equation modeling approach, an online digital art exhibition was deployed on the ZEPETO app, a platform popular among Chinese Generation Z users. Participants were subsequently invited to partake in an online survey post-exhibition, yielding a dataset of 332 valid responses. The findings reveal that: (1) the four design elements of website aesthetics (coherence, novelty, interactivity, immersion) significantly influence the perceived restoration among Generation Z users, with immersion being the most influential factor; (2) perceived restoration and place attachment are crucial predictors of loyalty behavior; (3) perceived restoration has a positive impact on the place attachment of Generation Z users towards online digital art exhibitions. This study demonstrates that online digital art exhibitions can facilitate an emotional healing journey for Generation Z, contributing to the alleviation of psychological stress and the promotion of psychological well-being. Moreover, digital technology exhibitions have the potential to transcend human creativity and imagination, offering a unique and promising pathway for future research and practices in design related to emotional healing.

Debating the Bascom controversy: revisiting the expropriation and repatriation of the Ifẹ̀ bronzes

AbstractIn 1937–38, the American doctoral candidate William R. Bascom conducted anthropological research in the sacred Yorùbá city of Ilé-Ifẹ̀, Nigeria. Bascom’s visit was a decisive moment in the history of African art, as, in 1938, he observed the chance discovery of unique copper and copper alloy heads, two of which he acquired and exported to the USA. Bascom’s actions in 1938, and his subsequent conflicts with British officials who demanded the return of the heads in the 1940s, have become matters of controversy and scholarly debate. Historian Robert Tignor and anthropologist Simon Ottenberg have presented contrasting arguments regarding the affair. This article draws on material from several archives to shed further light on this discussion, resolve remaining areas of dispute, and explore what the study of this controversy tells us about the nature and practice of anthropology, the impacts of Western exhibitions of African art, and early cultural preservation and repatriation efforts of the late colonial period. At a time when colonial-era collecting practices are facing increased critical re-examination, and with intensified calls for the repatriation of Nigerian cultural patrimony in Western museums, this article reflects on how the study of this controversy contributes to present restitution efforts.

Perceptions and Learning Motivation of Indonesian Students: Multiple Regression Analysis of The Practice of Organizing Film Festivals in Indonesia

Purpose: The purpose of this study is to investigate the forms of events that occur in a film festival where the audience is at the center of the dynamics of the contemporary environment. Theoretical reference: Nowadays, the development of the practice of curation is not only seen in activities at museums and art exhibitions, but also in the practice of other activities, such as film festivals. The selection process, work selection, and archiving are all key steps in the process of fusing ideas with the aesthetic form that will be shown. Thus, this study aims at exploring the events form where the audience is at the center of the dynamics of the contemporary environment in a film festival. Method: This study used a survey method involving 306 students with film concentrations from five state universities in Indonesia. The data were analyzed using Heteroscedasticity Test, Normality Test, One Sample Kolmogorov-Smirnov test, Multiple Regression Analysis, T-Test, and Simultaneous Test (F Test). Result and Conclusion: This study revealed that several factors influence perceptions and learning motivation shown by students in the practice of curating and reviewing films in the organization of film festivals. Implication of research: Based on the results of this study, the influence was considered insignificant; the researchers obtained 7.8% of the simultaneous effect of the variables of perception and learning motivation on the practice of organizing film festivals in Indonesia. Originality/value: In this study, the researchers seek to investigate new cultural forms in film festival programs, especially film festivals in Indonesia, to help them capture social concepts as inspiration for helping audiences understand the point of view at the film festival, as well as appreciation from the audience, stakeholders and filmmakers in exploring the form of events in the field during the film festival.

Социальная проблематика очерков М. Горького о кинематографе в историческом контексте

The research aims to determine the peculiarities of the notion of cinema at the initial stage of its existence. The essays and short stories by M. Gorky published in the newspapers ‘Nizhegorodskii listok’ and ‘Odesskie novosti’ during the All-Russia Industrial and Art Exhibition 1896 and articles of this period published in the Nizhny Novgorod press served as the research material. Classical and new works on Gorky studies and film studies are involved. The research is novel in that it is the first to address the short story ‘Revenge’ and to restore the journalistic context associated with it. Through a comprehensive analysis of Gorky’s essays on cinema and the short story ‘Revenge’, the mechanism of transformation of journalistic texts into a literary one through the problem-thematic and figurative-motivic complexes is traced. The involvement of a wide range of articles in the synchronous press makes it possible to detect the deep involvement of the writer’s works in the contemporary social and everyday context. As a result of the research, the range of Gorky’s texts related to cinema expands, the social origins of Gorky’s attitude to cinema and his notion of screen art as an illusory ideal world opposed to the harsh reality of life are revealed.

The Dalmatian Motifs of Miroslav Krleža: Space, Culture and Conflict in the Borderlands

The aim of this article is to deal with the disputable role Dalmatia played in the Croatian-Italian-Serbian borderlands, referring to the foremost Croatian and Yugoslav writer Miroslav Krleža. Although he is mostly associated with the Croatian North, i.e., historical Croatia-Slavonia, called sometimes the Panonian cultural complex, his engagement in the discourse of Dalmatia after World War Two cannot be underestimated. In the period 1950-1951 Krleža prepared two exhibitions of medieval art (one staged in Paris as L’art médiéval Yougoslave and the other in Zagreb as Zlato i srebro Zadra) and wrote two introductions to their catalogues. In them, he builds a concept of a separate “South Slavic civilisation” that “negates” the bipolarism of Roman-Byzantine competing cultural models (Slavia Romana vs. Slavia Orthodoxa, according to Picchio). Referring to the spatial approach to literature, I attempt to situate the post-war Yugoslav discourse, radically confrontational and militaristic, within historical antagonistic discourses (Croatian-Italian-Serbian).

SupaVenezia From SupaStore: Between Art, Commerce, and Spatial Dynamics

This exhibition review reflects on the spatial and curatorial concepts, interior spatial qualities, and precedent design processes of SupaVenezia, which was held at the A plus A Gallery in Venice from 31 August to 25 September 2022. It examines the design of the display system at the exhibition while addressing issues pertaining to domestic, participatory, and white-cube settings. The review explores the intersection of art, commerce, spatial, and displays design dynamics in relation to the manifestation of the SupaStore’s initial curatorial philosophy. Additionally, it reflects on the variety of spatial experiences provided and the manner in which a small-scale local gallery behaves and survives in the shadows of a monumental event—the 59th International Art Exhibition of Biennale Arte 2022, curated by Cecilia Alemani and produced by La Biennale di Venezia 2022—while drawing comparative reflections with similar scenarios such as Berlin Biennale and Documenta in Kassel.

Real-walk modelling: deep learning model for user mobility in virtual reality

This paper presents a study on modelling user free walk mobility in virtual reality (VR) art exhibition. The main objective is to investigate and model users’ mobility sequences during interactions with artwork in VR. We employ a range of machine learning (ML) techniques to define scenes of interest in VR, capturing user mobility patterns. Our approach utilises a long short-term memory (LSTM) model to effectively model and predict users’ future movements in VR environments, particularly in scenarios where clear walking paths and directions are not provided to participants. The DL model demonstrates high accuracy in predicting user movements, enabling a better understanding of audience interactions with the artwork. It opens avenues for developing new VR applications, such as community-based navigation, virtual art guides, and enhanced virtual audience engagement. The results highlight the potential for improved user engagement and effective navigation within virtual environments.

Hungarian Representative Exhibitions and the Rhetoric of Display in the 1920s

This article examines the series of art exhibitions organized by the Hungarian government in the 1920s. After examining the bureaucratic framework of the exhibition, the article then discusses the materials displayed at five different exhibitions, organized between 1920 and 1927. While much of the material displayed remained the same, the rhetoric, particularly the catalog essays that accompanied the exhibition provided insight into the organizers’ goals and the governmental ideology underlying that rhetoric.

Entertainment as an attributive feature of modern culture

Entertainment culture becomes a structural and typological unit of festive/everyday culture, which uses it every day in the “loop” mode: television show programs, presentations of new boutiques in shopping centers, city fairs, art exhibitions, performances at concert venues, calendars with the slogan “Every day is a holiday”, computer games (as the advertisement says, “The best anti-stress game of all time!”), and so on. Certainly, in this entertainment cycle, a person’s acute perception of festivity becomes dulled, and fatigue from constant heightened emotionality appears. A person gets tired of both entertainment and games. In this sense, “Homo ludens” is not just a concept, but a problem identified and outlined by J. Huizinga, which became obvious in the 20s of the 21st century. The article examines the features of modern culture as a screen, visual culture, directly related to such an attribute as entertainment.