Fenner, David. Art in Context: Understanding Aesthetic Value. Athens: Swallow Press/Ohio University Press, 2008.
“Anyone who has ever visited an art museum knows that all sorts of efforts are taken to provide “proper framing” for enhancing art-appreciation experiences. The paintings are lit well – not too brightly but in such a way that glare is minimized and viewers do not have to strain to see. Natural light is frequently available, but it is diffused. The rays of the sun are not permitted to touch the paintings and other delicate artifacts; if they touch sculptures, they do not linger for long. This is certainly for the continued health of the artworks, but it has the added benefit of providing excellent lighting for viewers: natural light is considered the “truest,” and diffused light eliminates glare. The same is true of temperature. While a constant temperature (and humidity level) is essential to the continued well-being of the artworks, it has the added advantage of providing viewers a level of comfort. This level of comfort allows the viewer to avoid fanning herself or wrapping up tightly in her coat (although many art museums probably require the wearing of sweaters or cardigans). Without having to think about being too hot or too cold, the viewer can direct her attention more fully to the artworks. Art museums are traditionally composed of many rooms. Modestly sized paintings tend to be in modestly sized rooms; very large paintings regularly can be found in larger halls. Rooms have enough artwork to encourage a long stay in each, but the fact that there are more modestly sized rooms than large halls has advantages for viewing. First, the viewer is not overwhelmed by the number of works immediately available; this encourages her to take time with each room and probably added time with particular works in a room. Second, the viewer is not overwhelmed by variety. Most art museum curators group together works from the same period or works that have a similar style or national origin. Not feeling overwhelmed, feeling at ease, allows viewers to linger comfortably, considering the works for as long as the like. The rooms in art museums tend to be painted a netural color, but attention has been given to how the room’s decorations will enhance rather than detract from an art-appreciation experience. Generally speaking, the rule in constructing and decorating an art museum is to provide a venue, a context, that will substantively contribute to the art-appreciation experiences of museum patrons. This usually means that such a venue is grand enough to focus attention away from the cares of the world – the ecclesiastical correlate phrase would be “to provide a sense of the transcendent” – yet simple and neutral enough to focus attention onto the artworks. There are functions to be served in the design of art museum spaces, and what I have written above is only one viewer’s sense of these functions and how they are served. All we really need is the most common sense of what art museums are like to see that such spaces are essentially spaces of decontextualization.
Human beings do little without purpose. Perhaps we do nothing outside of service to some function or other. When we go to the bother – the expense, the care of design – to create an art museum space, we do so very purposefully. We work to create proper framing for art-appreciation experiences, and this proper framing may most succinctly be described as a kind of blank slate – blank not in the sense of being stark but in the sense of directing focus away from itself. Essentially what the art museum designer wishes to do is to provide an uncontextualized space or, if that is a theoretical impossibility, to provide a space where the context is all about pointing to the artworks, the artworks on their own, separate from the cares of the world, separate from their use as instruments of political reform, national pride, social commentary, sexual arousal, psychological exploration, or religious proselytism. Although the contents and styles of individual works may have effects in these categories and others, the art museum spaces in which the works are displayed are generally designed only to point to the works. Whatever viewers take away from these works is their own deal. Art museum designers mean for art museums to be decontextualized spaces. Francis Sparshott writes, “An art museum, like [a] lab, is a carefully neutral environment, with its oatmeal-colored walls…[W]e are not just introduced to paitings in our museum tours, we are introduced to a specific practice of picture seeing.” Kathleen Walsh-Piper, a museum educator, writes, “The very existence of an institution devoted to collecting, preserving, exhibiting, researching, and interpreting works of art demonstrates the concept of “setting aside an object for aesthetic contemplation…The building, whether a grand temple, a spare modern tower, or an intimate historical structure, is frequently designed to encourage a feeling of separateness from the everyday world, a place in which to marvel.”
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