Museum Of Modern Art Research Articles

Considerations in Acquisition of 3D-Printed Art

ABSTRACT 3D printing (also known as Rapid Prototyping or Additive Manufacture) is increasingly common and technically sophisticated, and is utilized in art and design, industry, and consumer applications. Museums and collectors are now acquiring works made using this technology though their preservation needs are not fully understood. This article provides an overview of the technology and related terminology, review of related conservation literature, and introduction to current efforts for the care of these works. Discussion includes the formulation of collaborative working practices, documentation during acquisition, and consideration of periodic reprinting. Case studies include a pre-accession checklist developed at SFMOMA (San Francisco Museum of Modern Art) and the reprinting of select components from Altar/Engine (2015) by Tauba Auerbach at MoMA (Museum of Modern Art) in New York. Though 3D-printed works may be found in science, history, and other collections, this study will focus on works of contemporary art and design.

George Costakis and the Confines of His Collection

Abstract As George Costakis pointed out: “One of the most important precepts for the collector is that he must precisely, even ruthlessly, define the limits of his collection, and he must resolutely remind himself that – on this particular matter – his reach should never exceed his grasp.” Known as the most famous collector of Russian avant-garde, Costakis, never lost his parallel interest in collecting lubki, religious icons, Russian folk toys and also in the art of the so-called “Non-conformists or the alternative art of the 1960s. He had a twin goal: on the one hand, to expand the confines of his collection of Russian avant-garde, by including the early sources of inspiration of avant-garde artists; and, on the other hand, to demonstrate that this art can provide inspiration to the next generation. In fact, he “exceeded his grasp” only in order to make the art of Russian avant-garde better understood, both in its historical and future context. At the same time he followed Sergei Shchukin’s ethical and educational tradition of keeping his collection in public view, turning his typical Soviet apartment into an open house and finally an unofficial museum of modern art.

Shigeko Kubota’s Multi-hyphenated Curatorial Activism

Abstract This article examines artist Shigeko Kubota’s vital role as a curator, critic, and organizer of video art during the 1970s and 1980s, arguing her historically neglected labour was instrumental to the formation of a video art community at a time when it lacked widespread institutional support. By tracing Kubota’s organizational efforts from her role as Fluxus’s “vice-president” and her curatorial work on Tokyo-New York Video Express, to her participation in important video conferences and festivals, such as the Women’s Video Festivals and the Museum of Modern Art’s Open Circuits: An International Conference on the Future of Television, the article reveals the ways in which she frequently utilized her own platform as a critic and curator to amplify the voices of underrepresented artists, particularly women and women of colour. These experiences culminated in Kubota’s role as the first and only video art curator at the Anthology Film Archives (afa) between 1974 and 1983, which deeply influenced her approach to curatorial work as a collaborative and non-hierarchical practice, and finally, reinforced her belief in video as a social medium.

Architecture of Alienation

This paper approaches the emergence, over the 20th century, of a public architecture that occupies sights/sites once associated with industry and social alienation, in this case the conversion of London’s Bankside Power Station into the Tate Modern Art Museum. Utilising Bertolt Brecht’s revolutionary theories on performance, the celebrated architecture of Herzog and De Meuron is investigated alongside ‘Double Bind’, an installation by the late Spanish artist Juan Mun?oz whose work highlights the quality of isolation in the contemporary metropolis. In investigating architecture and installation, a space is opened up between the art and architecture revealing a performativity that engages with 20th century trauma and the crisis of the modern. This spatial dynamic forms an architecture of alienation where the participants are estranged from the environment, rendering them strangers, even within familiar environments ... tourists in their own land.

Architecture, Poetry, and Everyday Life

Abstract There is an exhibition currently hanging in the penthouse of the Museum of Modern Art in New York: Far removed from the clamor of the street and the jostling of the crowd, a selection of delicately conceived and exquisitely executed drawings remind us that, even in the age of pragmatism, ideal architecture still preoccupies creative minds. From the recent past and the lived present, these studies speak of impossible futures, irresistible impulses, and inconsequential fantasies. Hoary technotopia from Archigram; satyrical dreamscapes from Superstudio; metalinguistics from Argentina's nouvelle vague; eclecticism, superrationalism, and painterly metaphor from New York's (and Princeton's) Five add up to form a picture of the whole tangled web of idealism and counter-idealism that has constituted today's attempt at visionary architecture. This exhibition raises, as do all such manifestations of the realm of utopia, questions as to the relation between art and daily life.

Innovative Approaches Using the Arts to Support Persons with Dementia and Caregivers

There is a growing movement to explore the use of the arts to enhance the quality of life for persons with dementia (PWD) and their caregivers. Viewing art can promote well-being as well as express complex emotions during times of change and challenge. Listening to music and singing has been shown to enhance morale and reduce risk for depression and loneliness in older adults. Responsiveness to music is maintained in PWD even through later stages of the cognitive impairment. Arts-based programs appear pleasant and engaging, enhancing well-being. Looking deeper, they are based on educational theory and practice and on understanding of the neurocognitive changes with dementia. Additional benefits include increasing social interactions, promoting creativity and providing caregiver support.In this session, two geriatric psychiatrists and a decorated professional artist will discuss and demonstrate the interface between the arts and dementia in three domains: 1) art museum-based activities, 2) art creation by caregivers to process and cope with the stress of caregiving and disease progression, and 3) participation in music activities. Dr. Mary Blazek will begin the session, leading symposium participants in art-based activities. She will then discuss the growing literature on visual art museum programs for PWD and their caregivers. Dr. Mark Gilbert will discuss the use of portraiture as a research method to investigate the relationships and interactions between older patients and their partners in care. Dr. Susan Lehmann will review recent work highlighting the cognitive, social, and emotional benefits of participation in music activities for older adults and PWD.“In the Moment” Art Museum Programs for Persons with Dementia and their caregiversIn 2006, New York's Museum of Modern Art developed Meet Me at MoMA, a program for shared art experiences for (PWD) and their caregivers. Museums across the globe have developed similar programs emphasizing engaging with art “in the moment” as opposed to fostering reminiscence. Dr. Blazek will begin this session leading participants in sample activities from these programs. She will discuss the genesis of these programs and their impact on the PWD, on caregivers and on their relationships."Portrait of a Process: Exploring the experience of older adults and their partners in care through portraiture"Artist, researcher and teacher, Dr. Gilbert, will discuss artworks he created during a two-year research study in collaboration with geriatrician, Dr. Kenneth Rockwood at Geriatric Medical Research, Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada. Memory Serves: Drawing Others Close used portraiture as a research method to investigate the relationships and interactions between older patients and their partners in care. Dr. Gilbert will also introduce a collection of drawings carried out by his late father, Scottish artist Norman Gilbert (1926-2019). The drawings were created as he sat with his wife of 65 years, Pat, as she lay dying in hospital of Alzheimer's related illness.“With a Song in My Heart”: How music can support emotional and cognitive well-being in persons with dementia and their care-partnersMusic plays a central role in human culture throughout the world and has the power to move us at every age. Aging musicians, from Bruce Springsteen to Billy Joel to Elton John, have enjoyed long performing careers, and performers such as Tony Bennett and Glen Campbell continued to perform in the early stages of Alzheimer's disease. Responsiveness to music is retained by PWD even into the later stages of cognitive impairment. There is growing evidence that listening to music, singing, or playing a musical instrument can have positive benefits for cognition as well as for emotional well-being for older adults and PWD. Dr. Lehmann will review recent studies that illuminate the relationship between brain health and music for older adults and will address interventions using music to support well-being in older adults with dementia.

Painting on the margins: investigating the pigments, media, and techniques of Séraphine Louis

The richly decorative and imaginative works by French artist Séraphine Louis (1864–1942) have long elicited fascination, and her working methods have often eluded art historians and conservators alike. Working in secret and outside established art circles, Séraphine employed materials such as natural resin varnishes and was said to have used household paints in addition to traditional artists' oil paints. In this study of six works in the collections of the Musée d'Art et d'Archéologie, Senlis (MAA), The Museum of Modern Art, New York (MoMA), and The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York (MMA), attention was given to Séraphine's choice of colors and paints, in addition to identifying possible additions to or manipulations of painting media by the artist. Technical imaging was carried out using UVF to visualize the extent of Séraphine's use of natural resins. Analysis of the palette relied on XRF techniques and limited sampling for analysis by Raman and µ-FTIR spectroscopies. Overall, the following pigments were identified: lead white, zinc white, carbon-based black, red and brown ochres, umber, vermilion, alizarin lake, rhodamine B lake, Prussian blue, cobalt blue, ultramarine blue, chrome green, emerald green, viridian, cadmium yellow, and lead chromates, including chrome yellow deep and light, zinc yellow, and chrome orange. THM-Py-GCMS analysis of selected samples supported the documentary evidence of Séraphine's use of household oil paints; a single instance of a cellulose nitrate enamel paint was additionally determined by µ-FTIR. The chromatographic analysis also indicated a natural plant resin in her varnishes, probably dammar in combination with pine resin. Overall, this material investigation, accompanied by the art historical record, better reveals the techniques of an experimental painter whose works have come to epitomize French outsider artists of the early twentieth century.

MoMA Goes beyond the Iron Curtain: The Eastern European Tour of The Prints of Andy Warhol

In 1990, three years after Andy Warhol’s death and one year after the fall of the Berlin Wall, the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) organized the first one-man show of this pop artist in Eastern Europe. The Prints of Andy Warhol, although never shown at the MoMA in New York, traveled to the Fondation Cartier pour l’Art Contemporain in Jouy-en-Josas, France, the Národní Galerie in Prague, Czechoslovakia, the Staatliche Kunstsammlung in Dresden, the GDR, the Mücsarnok in Budapest, Hungary, and the Muzeum Narodowe in Warsaw, Poland. The current paper analyzes the cultural–political context of The Prints of Andy Warhol. It first discusses the place of both American pop art and Eastern Europe in MoMA’s International Program (IP) and then explores the organizational challenges, art historical contents, and public reception of the exhibition. The paper concludes by examining the broader impact of The Prints of Andy Warhol on both the growing awareness of American pop art in Eastern Europe and MoMA’s cultural diplomacy in this region after the fall of the Iron Curtain.

Architecture and the development of downgraded urban areas

Architecture surrounds us daily. We notice low-rise buildings and high-rise buildings, big and small edifices but we hardly ever notice their design or beauty, not to mention their surroundings, the urban interior where they are situated. This also applies to contemporary architecture. The paper suggests focusing on objects that function as museums, especially modern art museums which become characteristic features in urban space and to which urban systems are subordinated, e.g. Frank Ghery’s Bilbao centre. This function has become important and distinct over the last two centuries. That is why it is placed in objects whose architecture is special: sometimes extravagant and often monumental in scale but always significant on an urban scale. It is because architecture is not only a costume or a shell enclosing any odd interior. It forms an integral part of the urban context which is an important pretext for making it happen. It is also a composition of volumes, their forms, functions, light, the idea contained within the entire object, and first of all, its subjective perception analysed in terms of directing public attention to particular objects with a view to making them distinct. The paper presents an analysis of some examples of European museums of modern art – including some Polish ones – as significant architecture which is a key component on the scale of a city or its fragment. The aim is to stress the importance of the activities of local authorities and architects and the decisions they make for the development of downgraded urban areas.

The Dissident Power of Queer Art and Curating in Central Eastern Europe

The text aims to explore the political, cultural and artistic implications of LGBTQ+ art and curatorial practices in Central Eastern Europe in the 21st century. Currently, queer exhibitions, are on the rise in post-communist Europe, especially those held in contemporary art centres and museums. They cast light on new queer art and activism and the volatile sexual politics in the region because of the significant increase in the number of artists working with LGBTQ themes and the topical political background of this movement and its impact on cultural debates. Curators are developing innovative perspectives on sexual, social and artistic dimensions of queer exhibitions in this geographic context still seriously affected by homophobic state policy. The objective is to feature three art shows of major queer artists which have been organised in Hungary, Poland and Estonia in the last decade. The exhibitions are: The Survivor’s Shade: The Life and Work of El Kazovsky at the Museum of Fine Art- Hungarian National Gallery, Budapest in 2015/16; Daniel Rycharski: Fears at the Museum of Modern Art, Warsaw in 2019 and Jaanus Samma. Not Suitable for Work. A Chairman’s Tale, Museum of Occupations and Freedom, Tallinn in 2016. The three artists and their exhibitions have been selected because they were organised by major cultural institutions in the capitals, they have achieved a significant social impact and huge audience and the artists have played an important role in the contemporary art scene in each country. Their work is a current manifestation of the queer artistic and intellectual culture that has been developing slowly in the region since the 1980s and has come to play an increasingly important role in recent years. The exhibitions and art of the three artists are a starting point for a broader outline of the themes and important figures in recent queer art in Central Eastern Europe (CEE). Moreover, in each case, they appear in a complex and difficult political context related to the struggle for LGBTQ+ rights. Hence, I would like to propose a thesis about the dissident power and status of queer art and curating in CEE.

Le musée, l’artiste et l’identité comme marques : le cas du musée d’art latino-américain de Buenos Aires (MALBA)

The Museo de Arte Latinoamericano de Buenos Aires (MALBA) illustrates what Robert Fleck (2014) calls the "21st Century Museum": a new type of museum built on branding. This concept is aligned with the debates that, since the 1980s, have proposed the end of the museum as an elitist place for the conservation of the canon, to make way for a museum institution conceived as a mass medium that adheres to the logic of the spectacle, as Andreas Huyssen (1994) postulates. The author describes the phenomenon of musealisation, which is evident in the increasing number of museum openings and the public’s growing interest in the museum experience. This article studies the MALBA as a paradigmatic case in which two conceptual categories coexist: a 21st-century museum conceived as a mass media. From its exhibition proposals to its communication strategies, the museum appropriates the logic of the spectacle, constituting a "star system" of Latin American art, variable according to marketing objectives. We are interested in how the institution constructs itself as a brand, and in the discursive mechanisms through which certain Latin American artists and ideas of "Latin Americanness" serve institutional positioning. We also observe how MALBA adopts some of the positioning strategies of the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA). This article therefore presents a) a study of the institutional communication strategies of the two museums; b) an analysis of four curatorial discourses of the museum’s collection (from 2010 to 2022) in order to observe the different ways in which MALBA presents Latin American art history and Latin Americanness; and c) an analysis of the construction of the MALBA brand based on the artists that make up its collection.

Magnetic and chemical biomonitoring of particulate matter at cultural heritage sites: The Peggy Guggenheim Collection case study (Venice, Italy)

Cultural heritage (CH) is heavily threatened by air pollution, especially by airborne particulate matter (PM), that acts on the surfaces of fine arts, causing artistic loss. Therefore, the monitoring of air quality assumes a central role for the preventive conservation of CH.In this study, magnetic and chemical biomonitoring of PM was applied at the Peggy Guggenheim Collection, a contemporary and modern art museum in Venice, Italy. It is located in an aquatic context, where the PM sources are considerably different, with respect to the usual vehicular-dominated urban emissions.Lichen biomonitoring is a well-established technique for the assessment of air quality, especially where PM collecting devices cannot be operated for aesthetic and practical reasons.Samples of the lichen species Evernia prunastri were collected from a pristine area and exposed for three months (November 2022–February 2023) at increasing distances from the Grand Canal, planning an outdoor vs. indoor sampling design, for outlining the diffusion of airborne PM inside the museum.In combination with lichen exposure, the leaves of Pittosporum tobira hedges were sampled for determining their efficiency as bioaccumulators.The magnetic properties of lichens showed a moderate bioaccumulation of magnetite-like particles outdoors. Conversely, the magnetic properties of the indoor samples were like those of the unexposed ones, indicating a negligible accumulation of metallic particles indoors. Pittosporum tobira leaves mostly showed diamagnetic properties, resulting an ineffective species for preventing conservation purposes. Chemical analysis did not show any significant difference between unexposed, indoor and outdoor samples. A directional gradient of bioaccumulation was not evident, thus implying that the sources of metallic PM are distant or diffused, with respect to the site.The joint use of magnetic and chemical analyses was useful for evaluating the negligible impact of airborne particulate pollution arising from the Grand Canal towards the Halls of the Collection.

IMPACT OF DIGITAL ART ON DESIGN OF ONLINE MUSEUM: USER-CENTERED DESIGN, NARRATIVE DESIGN, AND INTEGRATION OF TECHNOLOGY

This research aims to explore the means by which digital art presented in online museum exhibitions will contribute to an improved visitor experience of the museum exhibition. Theoretical and practical research methods are used, namely, analysis of scientific and professional literature on the impact of digital culture on museum exhibits, analysis of design analogs of online museums. Based on the research analysis, the influence of digital culture on art museums was established, which allowed them to go beyond physical spaces, display digital art and implement virtual reality technologies. The cases of the Museum of Modern Art, TATE, the Victoria and Albert Museum, as well as China's Palace Museum and Shaanxi History Museum have demonstrated the significant benefits of integrating digital culture into the art world. The use of augmented reality (AR), virtual reality (VR) and mixed reality (MR) in digital museum exhibitions was analyzed. It is substantiated that the impact of digital culture on art museums is evidence of the importance of digital technologies in the design of online museums. The scientific novelty lies in the fact that the design principles of digital art exhibitions of online museums have been further developed in the work, which allows them to reach a wider audience of visitors and improve the aesthetic perception of museum expositions by viewers. The results of the study can be used in their introduction into the modern practice of designing museum.

Teiji Furuhashi’s Lovers: Digital Resuscitations of the Moving Body in Tokyo and New York

This article examines the solo work Lovers (1994) by Teiji Furuhashi, a prominent member of the influential Dumb Type group in Japan’s theatre and dance scene from the 1980s onwards. Lovers was Furuhashi’s only solo work; he died shortly after its installation at a Tokyo art centre in 1994. The essay examines the work in the context of themes of mobility, migration, and shifting corporealities in Japan across the post-war decades, especially through the key event for art and technology of those decades, which was the Osaka World Exposition of 1970. Lovers was commissioned by the arts laboratory of a Japanese technology corporation, Canon Inc., and incorporated what at the time were innovations in moving-image elements within theatre and dance. But those technologies rapidly became obsolete, and the essay explores the dilemmas about the digital experienced by the curators of the New York Museum of Modern Art in ‘upgrading’ Lovers to show it in their galleries in 2016–17.

Analyzing the Relationship Between an Artist's Background and the Popularity of Their Works in MoMA

This study delves into the intricate relationship between an artist's background (including nationality and gender) and the popularity of their artworks in the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in New York. Leveraging statistical methods, including Chi-squared tests and ANOVA, significant correlations between an artist's nationality, gender, and the popularity of their artworks were identified. Time series analysis further underscored evolving trends in MoMA's acquisition patterns over the years. The research also utilized a Random Forest classification model to predict artwork popularity, achieving an accuracy rate of 0.75. The findings shed light on the dynamics of art acquisitions and offer implications for diversifying and enhancing museum collections in the future.

The NFT memento: digital thingness and NFTs in exhibition design

ABSTRACT ‘Live minting’ is an emerging trend in exhibition design which offers visitors the opportunity to mint an NFT memento in the exhibition. This paper examines three examples of this current trend in museums which include Play Record Mint (PRM), at Kunsthalle, Zurich, Life After Bob at Light Art Space (LAS) Foundation, Berlin, and Unsupervised at Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), New York. Using theories on the ‘museum experience’ drawn from scholars such as John Falk and Lynn Dierking (2011; 1992; 2008), this paper examines to what extent the NFTs in these examples contribute or challenge this idea. In doing so, this paper investigates the intersecting values associated with NFTs and argues that NFTs are a form of digital hybrid, a token that exists in a constant state of becoming a commodity, which has both potential benefits and implications for museum exhibition design.

The Institutionalization of Video Art at the Museum of Modern Art

Analysing the history of video art poses challenges due to the complex environments from which video emerged. However, some of its conceptual origins can be traced through art institutions that pioneered the integration of video art into museums. By examining key projects and exhibitions at the Museum of Modern Art, I argue that the museum’s first study grant obtained from the Rockefeller Foundation not only expanded the exhibition and collection of video work, but also laid the foundation for its institutionalization, which in turn exerted decisive effects on the subsequent history of video art.

Miroslav Zdovc: Contextualising the Archive

In this paper a case study of constructing a photographic archive in a museum context, and the ways of contextualising seemingly marginal and insignificant photographic material, is being showcased and analysed. The focal point of the paper is the personal photographic archive of Miroslav Zdovc (1929–2009), a prominent Slovenian professional photographer as well as an artist using photography who, however, did not receive a deserved place in local and regional history of photography and art. Therefore, his extensive body of work that has nearly disappeared from the public eye is now in the process of being reviewed and re-evaluated. His extensive archive consists of diverse materials: personal imagery, documentary photographs, documents of artworks, and (his own) photographic artworks. The paper thus presents the project in the making in which the curators of Božidar Jakac Gallery – Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Kostanjevica na Krki have been conducting the process of cataloguing, evaluating and finally showcasing his immense body of work. It also brings forward the most significant elements of his artistic practice that spanned from the 1950s to the 1990s, and which was changing and developing in accordance with the concurrent tendencies in photography and art.

The adoption of virtual technology in museums: the case of a modern and contemporary museum in Indonesia

ABSTRACT Museums play an important role in shaping social discourses, not only offering economic benefits but also making significant contributions in the development of social and cultural enrichment. In the current dynamic environment, museums face the challenges of innovating and adopting technologies and combining art education with market trends, and this often conflicts with their social mission. This research focuses on the perceptions of a museum’s key stakeholders of the growing trend of virtual technology, using a qualitative case study on a modern and contemporary art museum in Indonesia. The findings reveal that, despite the positive responses of using digital technologies, the museum’s key stakeholders believed that physical-human interaction is still critical in achieving the museum mission as well as in responding to market trends.

Symbolic capital and the inclusion of ethnic minority artists in Dublin and Warsaw

The dominant literature delineates that European museums tend to ‘resist’ the inclusion of immigrant and ethnic minority artists due to a Eurocentric evaluation of the art within a postcolonial setting. This study builds on this premise, but also emphasizes the significance of ‘symbolic capital’, as conceptualized by Pierre Bourdieu, in processes of inclusion and exclusion. While the evaluation of the art is of vast importance, inclusion and exclusion are also influenced by the relation between the symbolic capital of the museum professionals and the cultural and social capital of ethnic minority artists. Moreover, museum professionals in Dublin and Warsaw find creative ways of both safeguarding their symbolic capital and including ethnic minority artists. The research is based on semi-structured interviews with key museum professionals in several main modern art museums and galleries, and with ethnic minority artists, in the relatively new immigration cities of Dublin and Warsaw, as well as a review of past exhibitions.