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Exhibition as Archive: Beaumont Newhall, Photography 1839-1937, and the Museum of Modern Art.
- Source :
- Visual Resources: An International Journal of Documentation; Jun2002, Vol. 18 Issue 2, p145-152, 8p, 2 Black and White Photographs
- Publication Year :
- 2002
-
Abstract
- Critics have regarded Beaumont Newhall's tenure as the MoMA's curator of photography in the late 1930s as the first manifestation in the Photography Department of a larger problem at the MoMA as a whole: the attempt to define by fiat a 'modernist aesthetic' in photography as it had in the other arts. Newhall's first large-scale exhibition, however, belies this interpretation. Photography: 1839-1937, used a wide range of images and innovative display strategies to illustrate the entire domain of photography (X-rays to movie stills) rather than define or promote a high art separate from the popular origins of the medium. This inclusiveness, I argue, was based on the theories of Alois Riegl, a late nineteenth century art theorist who eschewed value distinctions between so-called high and low art. By applying Riegl's theories to this seminal exhibition, Newhall re-defined the role of the modern curator to that of an archivist: one who gathers, but leaves the creation of meaning to the viewer. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
- Subjects :
- MUSEUM curators
PHOTOGRAPHY exhibitions
ART exhibitions
MUSEUM exhibits
Subjects
Details
- Language :
- English
- ISSN :
- 01973762
- Volume :
- 18
- Issue :
- 2
- Database :
- Complementary Index
- Journal :
- Visual Resources: An International Journal of Documentation
- Publication Type :
- Academic Journal
- Accession number :
- 33009953
- Full Text :
- https://doi.org/10.1080/01973760290011806