“[…] the push by artists and administrators to have art that is displayed in active communication with the outside world, rather than encased in a white cube gallery, has required conservators to rethink our objectives.”
In Seeking Balance: Conservation Values and the Artist’s Voice, the Whitney Museum of American Art’s Matthew Skopek (Associate Conservator), Margo Delidow (Assistant Conservator), and Clara Rojas Sebesta (Assistant Conservator), reevaluate the role of a conservator when contemporary artist and/or stakeholders request an exhibition design outside traditional museum standards. The Whitney’s loan agreements stress loaned artwork will receive the same care as artwork within their collection; this includes exhibiting loaned work with recommended light levels and necessary precautions that will keep the work safe while on display. But what happens when these standards infringe upon an artwork’s intent, and precautions, like warning tape, interfere with the immediate interaction between the public and the art?
For the last 70 years, the evolution of the artist’s voice has impacted traditional museum and gallery display standards. White cube galleries with climate controlled vitrines and low light levels may not appease the contemporary artist who wishes to alter the environment around their artwork. Artists’ interest to make the environment integral to the interpretation of their work was prominent in the 1950s with artists, like Robert Rauschenberg, Yayoi Kusama, Michelle Stuart, Carl Andre, and Andy Warhol. This practice continued, and in the 1960s and ‘70s the rise of commercial galleries accommodated a less restrictive and more flexible display of art. The Visual Artists Rights Act of 1990 continued to transform the relationship between the artist and collector (including museums), granting artists additional rights over his/her artwork regardless of subsequent ownership. Including the artist is decisions that impact the way in which his or her work is exhibited is now common for some contemporary museums, like the Whitney.
So how do museum professionals respond to artists who request to exhibit artwork outside traditional museum standards? The optimal choice, in Skopek, Delidow, and Sebesta’s experience at the Whitney, is for conservators to work with the exhibition design team, balancing the artist’s aesthetics with museum standards for display. If an artwork requires high light levels, the exhibition team can try to design a space to accommodate this requirement, without causing permanent damage to the object. For example, the exhibit team can install UV inhibiting window filters, window shades, track light patterns in the space, and fabricate floating walls that cover all or part of the window.
In 2016, the Whitney displayed Zoe Leonard’s How to Make Good Pictures, which included 429 books stacked in piles on the gallery floor with no barriers. Concerned the books may become misaligned from visitor traffic, conservation suggested a mounting system to secure the books. Leonard worked with a mount maker to drill holes through the stacks, insert metal rods, and then secure the metal rods to the gallery floor. The mounting system was invisible, enabling a safe display of Leonard’s work without compromising the work’s aesthetic integrity and immediate interaction with the public. Thus, consultation with the artist coupled with the museum team’s innovative thinking allowed Leonard’s work to be shown as intended.
However, consultation with the artist and/or stakeholders does not always result in a solution that both satisfies the artist and falls within museum standards. In these instances, the Whitney must warn the artist of the consequences associated with his or her desired display through legal documents. For example, an artist who may want to exhibit their art in a space with large windows will be informed of how high light levels will impact the artwork. This process becomes tricky when a contemporary artist consents to the possibility of damage via the document, but the owner of the work (private client or a gallery) finds these risks unacceptable.
Ultimately, seeking a balance between recommended display guidelines and an artist’s intent should be a priority for contemporary museums. In situations that lack this balance, the artist and/or stakeholder(s) should provide consent to the risk through legal documents. Skopek, Delidow, and Sebesta argue that it may be wise to limit the possibility for artists to waive recommended guidelines to rare cases when creative exhibit design cannot satisfy the artist’s intent. While the conservator has an obligation to the art and how it is intended to be displayed, they caution this may interfere with long-term preservation goals and conservation’s deeper ethical duty to protect cultural heritage from irreversible damage.
Follow-up:
I am interested to learn more about how the Whitney reconciles situations when the work is owned by multiple parties who cannot agree upon voiding the recommended display standards. Does it result in pulling the artwork from the exhibit if an agreement cannot be reached?
Link to abstract: https://sched.co/Iuij
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