National Gallery Essay - Wps
National Gallery Essay - Wps
National Gallery Essay - Wps
1.On pp 1- 4 Diepeveen discusses the exterior and the interior of the museum.
First, walk outside around the two buildings that comprise the National Gallery of Art.
Analyze the architecture of these buildings- its sense of stability, prestige, grandeur,
power, permanence , and glory that Diepeveed sees as the function of the classical style
of the museum architecture. Illustrate three of these terms with the description of an
image (you may also provide the actual image, but this is no substitute for your
descriptive connection to Diepeveen). Next , choose three interior elements he discusses,
and analyze how they apply to the National Gallery.
What is not seen in an art museum? Diepeveens starts by mentioning the obvious
things :administrative offices, conservation labs, workshops, or vaults. Than, he moves
on to the less noticeable aspects: no demographical proportion among the visitors (very
few poor, ethnic, religious, racial minorities) and types of works not presented
(anonymous work after the Renaissance, work by women before 20th century, work of
minorities; work that is not portable or durable and mass-productions.) On page 28 he
expands on this, saying that it is not a simple matter of quality to determine admission or
exclusion from the art canon. The two most important discriminations that influenced the
making of the canon in history were racism and sexism. These attitudes shaped society
and art much before the museum as an institution engaged in them. Women , observes
critic Linda Nochlin, have always been discouraged from being artists; when they did
dare to take upon this road they were not allowed to be members of an academy or to
paint certain popular trends. The same happened to racial minorities.
Diepeveens expands further on the aesthetic vocabulary the Western canon
privileges- which includes certain materials like oil pant, bronze , or marble , and
excludes objects like quilts or mass production decorative objects. Hard to enter the
canon as well are objects that are ephemeral and non-collectible, such as Sarah Sze’s
1999 “Many a Slip” ,made of matchsticks, razor blades, fish hooks, cotton swabs, or
grass. Such a work can only be photographed, not displayed in the museum. Exceptions
to this rule are constituted by “Avantgarde Art” - art that challenges the premise of what
was previously considered Western Art. (Diepeveens, Art Museums: Organizers of
Culture , pp 8, 28-30)
In my visit to the National Gallery of Art, I had to agree with Diepeveens on
many aspects. First of all, although I did see female portraits and sculptures, I haven’t
seen one work made by a female artist. I have also not seen any works made by ethnical
minorities such as blacks, Asians, Pakistanis, Mexicans, Indians or other such people. The
artifacts presented were organized as follows: in the West Building the West Sculpture
Hall focused Galleries 1-13 on Gothic and Ars Nova Italy, Galleries 17-28 on Spain and
Italy of the 16th century, Gall 29-36 on 17th-18th cent Italy, Spain, France, Gall 35-41 on
Netherland and Germany in the 15-16th century, and Gall 42-50 on 17th century Dutch and
Flemish paintings. Than , in the East Sculpture Hall Gallery 52 focused on 18-19th
century Spain, Gall 53-56 on 18-19th century France, Gall 57-61 on British painting; from
62 to 71 the Galleries presented American art, Gall 72-79 presented a Special Exhibition
of armors and weapons from Imperial Spain, and Galleries 80-81 French art from the 19th
century. On the Ground Floor, passing the Garden Café and Shop, Galleries G43 and G42
presented decorated carpets from the Gothic era, while Galleries G1-G9, G20 and G41
displayed Chinese Porcelain (the only non-Western art presented in the gallery); than
Galleries G10-G13 and G39 showed Sculpture and Decorative Arts from the 17-18th
centuries. G14-G19 presented 14-15-16th century Sculpture, G23-G29 prints and
drawings, and G30-G34 photographs.
From this presentation of the Western building we notice that the greatest focus is
on European- more precisely Italian and French- and national American art. As time
periods, we also notice that nothing before the Gothic Medieval era is mentioned. Also,
the preference is accorded to paintings, followed by sculpture; little room is left for other
types of work. In the Eastern building Besides these aspects, I noticed that the visitors
present at the museum were generally middle class people- students or middle and senior
ages-, that could be white (for the most part), black or even Asian (although in lesser
numbers). Also, an observation that I made to my surprise was that a big percent of
visitors were females.
Moreover, the art itself focused almost in exclusivity on white people: I found a
single artwork in the West Museum that presented a black person: “Allegory of Africa”,
sculpture made by Frederic- Auguste Bartholdi (French, 1834- 904). Also, with a few
exceptions, I haven’t seen portraits of poor, working people: the persons depicted in
artworks were middle-class or higher. The struggles of the working class, minorities or
feminism are left out from the history of art as the Gallery presents it. What the institution
does focus on is Canonic names such as Titian, Raphael, Rembrand, mythology, religion,
landscapes, and portraits of higher status people taken out of context. This is what is it
decided to present as “history of art”.
3.How is the art you encounter organized in the National Gallery? What
organizational concepts (chronology , geographical location, gifts of a particular donor
etc) do you see in operation? How do these organizational concepts attempt to shape
your understanding , as a visitor, of what constitutes art (and history of art) ?Diepeveen
on pp 12-15 analyzes the limitations of chronology as one example of organizing
principle. Conduct your own analysis of at least two other organizing principles you
notice.
4. What information does the Gallery offer to visitors to help them understand the
art they are viewing? How does the information provide besides each piece of art help
you (or not)? Why does the information about the art include information on how the art
was bought and who donated it? How does this information support and/or detract from
the educational mission of the gallery? What value does the information provide?