Assignment
In order to better understand the purpose of an exhibit, it is important to experience a museum exhibition. For this stage, you will visit a special museum exhibition either physically or virtually and describe how this experience will critically inform your work on this project.
I. Step I: Find a museum exhibit. Look around your local area to find a museum that you can visit. Focus on museum collections that display works of visual art that fall within the context of the class. The special exhibit should look at work by women artists or include work by women artists. A 2017 exhibition at the Hirshhorn Museum on Yayoi Kusama is a good choice, or this 2018 exhibition on Women Artists in Paris at the Clark. Ideally, look for a museum that is displaying work that relates to the artist that you have chosen to research. This could be from the same time period or art that is similar in subject.
Note: The museum exhibit should be a special exhibition. Special exhibits differ from the museum's collection as they are specially curated experiences where the curator displays a select group of artworks in order to express something. For instance: this current exhibition on Rosa Bonheur celebrates her work painting animals. Thus the special exhibition attempts to tie the content and formal elements of the artworks to the context of place. If you need help finding an exhibition, please email Professor Cantor.
II. Step II: Visit the Special Exhibit either physically or virtually. While it is encouraged that you visit the museum in person to fully experience the formal elements of works of art, this may not be possible in all cases. We will be producing the final exhibit in a digital format, so you will need to visit the exhibition with an eye to answering the following questions:
i. What is the theme/focus of the exhibit?
ii. How does the curator (the person who organized the exhibition) introduce the theme?
iii. How does the curator tell a story about this theme with the arrangement of works of art and the text used throughout?
iv. What comparisons are made across works of art on display and how are these comparisons made?
v. Does the curator allow the viewer to form independent conclusions or make independent comparisons?
vi. How does the curator express any references or guide the viewer to other relevant material?
vii. What can you take-away from this experience that you might use in how you develop your exhibit and conduct your research?
viii. What do you want a viewer/reader to take away from your final product?
III. Step III: Find an essay from the exhibit. Find a curatorial essay describing the intentions of the special exhibition published through the museum either online or in a brochure within the museum. Read it and compare it to the visual experience. How does the essay reflect and expand your understanding of the experience in viewing the artworks?
IV. Step IV: Give reflection that summarizes your experience. This summary should be between five and seven sentences(paragraphs) making an argument about the experience, a brief critical analysis of any curatorial essays and what conclusions you have formed through this experience.
My chosen artist is Judy chicago
Current Exhibitions (clarkart.edu)
The Exhibition - Yayoi Kusama: Infinity Mirrors | Hirshhorn Museum | Smithsonian.