History Of Display Research Articles

Circulating casts of the Coatlicue : Mariana Castillo Deball’s unearthing of the Aztec earth goddess’s history of reproduction and display

This essay delves into casts of the Aztec earth goddess, the Coatlicue, through the lens of a sculpture, No solid form can contain you (2010), by the contemporary Mexican artist Mariana Castillo Deball. In this sculpture, Castillo Deball created a fibreglass cast of the Coatlicue and placed it on the floor. These artistic decisions highlighted two important and yet understudied aspects of the Aztec monument – its frequent disinterment and reburial, and subsequent reproduction and circulation. This article traces these connected paths of the Coatlicue, from the cycles of unearthing to its circulation through publications and plaster cast copies. To theorize the importance of these copies, this article draws on a recent article by Bruno Latour and Adam Lowe. Major political shifts within the Mexican Republic had important consequences for the status of Aztec monuments such as the Coatlicue, as presidents Benito Juárez and Porfirio Díaz recuperated them as evidence of a powerful ancient civilization. Once feared as a ‘monstrous’ icon, the Coatlicue was transformed into a symbol of national identity and occupied a place of pride in the museum. In No solid form can contain you, Castillo Deball questions the political and museological apparatuses that have dictated the status of the Coatlicue. The essay argues that her work operates within a framework set out by Erica Segre whereby Mexican artists integrated images of the pre-Columbian past to ‘interrogate identity’. To create the work, Castillo Deball used the same strategies of replication and circulation, though by presenting the work with seams left unfinished and lying on the floor, she gestured towards the constructed nature of replicas and their history of display.

Inscribing Institutional Exhibition History: On the Centre Pompidou’s Catalogue Raisonné Project

Abstract The Centre Pompidou recently instigated a think tank to examine the history of its exhibitions, giving weight to the configuration of each show as a cultural artefact. This initiative aims to critically consider and facilitate the documentation and cataloguing of all of its exhibitions, with a focus on reviewing what past initiatives have been most successful. Each exhibition, then, is considered in terms of its various manners of inscribing cultural history. This article examines the initial stages of curatorial research at the Centre Pompidou, as well as offers a critical take on how the methodologies deployed by the institution have both enhanced the historical record of exhibitions and stimulated fresh thinking around display history.

Beautiful Babies

Baby shows and baby contests in the late nineteenth century United States, beginning as a form of entertainment at agricultural fairs, were co-opted in the early twentieth century as a public relations vehicle for the eugenics movement. This article connects this history of display of the infant body with white Protestant practices of bodily display in infant baptism as represented etiquette manuals, women's magazines, and works of art. The author argues that infants became unwitting participants in practices of display that marked them as members of affluent white society.

Show Windows for Science: The Early Use of diorama at Sydney’s Australian Museum

At the start of the twentieth century dioramas were an important part of modern natural history museums, yet their history in Australia is little known and the majority no longer exist. This research looks at selected exhibits at the Australian Museum from the 1920s to 1940s to develop an understanding of the local and American influences that shaped their use. It considers how they were valued by contemporaries as tools of popular education and how they reflected the growing understanding of native wildlife as a source of national pride which was in need of protection. This little known history of display also reveals the Museum's own history and the development of museum practice in Australia during the early part of the twentieth century.

‘On Thin Ice’: The Polar Displays at the National Maritime Museum, Greenwich

The National Maritime Museum (NMM) holds one of the most important historical collections relating to Polar exploration in the UK. It includes artefacts relating to the great 19th century voyages of exploration to locate the Northwest Passage, as well as to the ‘heroic’ early 20th century expeditions of Scott and Shackleton. Many of the artefacts have a long history of display, and Polar exploration has been a near constant presence in the Museum since the 1950s.Representations of the Polar regions may seem to have little connection to British identity and Empire. However, the Arctic in the mid-19th century and the Antarctic in the 20th century can be seen as important places in their own right and central to constructing senses of national identity. There is a close link between the history of exploration and the history of Empire; Polar explorers were represented as heroic figures, providing powerful foci for the imagination of the nation. Polar exploration, Empire, science and national identity were interwoven.The impact of the end of Empire upon British culture and identity has been subject to much debate by historians. Although Empire has diminished in importance Polar exploration remained on display in the NMM, albeit in a number of different guises. This article investigates this phenomenon, the role museums play in promulgating ideas about Empire and nation, and asks what, if anything, happens to displays when Empire declines.

Art on the Line: The Royal Academy Exhibitions at Somerset House 1780-1836 [exhibition], and: Art on the Line: The Royal Academy Exhibitions at Somerset House 1780-1836 (review)

Modern modes of displaying art have wavered between historical re-creation and conceptual contextualization. Within art history, re-creations of the past and its environs, usually associated with the museology of the late nineteenth century, have now—with the development of digitized virtual realities and postmodern proclivities for the simulacrum—come back into favor. And in the museum, movements away from the blank, modernist wall have led to the dominance of a nostalgic, if not really historicist, form of display. In an ambitious exhibition at the Courtauld Gallery in Somerset House, David H. Solkin, with the assistance of Anne Puetz, has produced an exciting show that touches on these broad issues and in so doing invites spectators to muse upon both the history of display and the status of historical knowledge in exhibition spaces.

A glance at the history of display and mounting of British watercolours

Summary Outlining the rise in popularity of the British watercolour this article traces the development of specialized mounting boards with reference to suppliers' literature, in particular that of Winsor & Newton. It looks at the variety of boards available and mentions some of the aesthetic, fashionable and practical styles chosen by artists and mounters.

Resolution for a New Decade: Selecting a Computer Display

While PC‐compatible computing becomes ever more complex and confusing, some aspects do achieve clarity. One such aspect, according to the author, is the choice of display. For most users, that choice may be clearer now than at any time in the last six years. Indeed, clarity and aspect both enter into the decision: specifically, greater clarity through higher resolution, and an aspect ratio that finally makes sense. Some informal notes on the history of display “standards” for MS‐DOS computing lead up to a discussion of the current situation. There's still more than one choice to make; the author discusses the reasons why one set of choices, which the author doesn't currently use, may be more sensible than other alternatives. Don't expect equally clear‐cut advice on printers: the author briefly notes why that doesn't appear feasible at this point. That brief discussion is followed by a smorgasbord of citations from the PC literature for July‐September 1989.