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The Power of Display: A History of Exhibition Installations at the Museum of Modern Art
Mary Anne Staniszewski
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Overview
Art historians, traditionally, have implicitly accepted the autonomy of the artwork and ignored what Mary Anne Staniszewski calls "the power of display." In this groundbreaking examination of installation design as an aesthetic medium and cultural practice, Staniszewski offers the first history of exhibitions at the most powerful and influential modern art museum--The Museum of Modern Art in New York. Focusing on more than two hundred photographs from the visually rich but overlooked history of exhibitions, Staniszewski documents and deciphers an essential chapter of twentieth-century art and culture and provides a historical and theoretical framework for a primary area of contemporary aesthetic practice--installation-based art.Staniszewski treats installations as creations that manifest values, ideologies, politics, and of course aesthetics. Incorporating analysis of display techniques used in department stores, natural history museums, non-Western art galleries, and the international avant-gardes' exhibitions of the first half of the century, she makes visible both the explicit and the covert meanings found in exhibitions.
Synopsis
Art historians, traditionally, have implicitly accepted the autonomy of the artwork and ignored what Mary Anne Staniszewski calls the power of display. In this examination of installation design as an aesthetic medium and cultural practice, Staniszewksi offers a history of exhibitions at the most powerful and influential modern art museum - The Museum of Modern Art in New York. Focusing on over 200 photographs of the visually rich but overlooked history of exhibition, Staniszewski documents and deciphers an essential chapter of 20th-century art and culture and provides a historical and theoretical framework for a primary area of contemporary aesthetic practice - installation-based art.Editorials
Library Journal
The visitor to today's typical art museum is accustomed to seeing single paintings (or perhaps small groups of works) hung on pristine white walls. As Staniszewski points out in this fascinating examination of exhibition design at the Museum of Modern Art, these concepts are themselves part of what made MoMA "modern." In tracing key exhibitions at MoMA from its founding in 1929 through the 1990s, Staniszewski shows how the concept of modern installation of art evolved in Europe and was transferred to MoMA. In focusing on a few key exhibitions, she details how the museum worked to educate its audience. The design of museum exhibitions is an art that, when well done, is transparent to the viewer; this does not mean, however, that the manner in which the works are installed does not help to delineate and strengthen the ideas of the curator. A fine revision of the author's dissertation, the book is clearly written with only slight slips into the academic jargon that can mar MIT's art theory books. Recommended for larger art collections.--Martin R. Kalfatovic, Smithsonian Inst. Libs., Washington, DCEleanor Heartney
In researching this book, which grew out of her Ph.D. dissertation, Staniszewski unearthed thought-provoking materials which tell a fascinating, little-known story. But The Power of Display is not simply a history.Staniszewski's larger objective is an exploration of the ideological implications of museum installation design. She sees the dissapearance of innovative exhibition setups at MOMA as a symptom of larger historical amnesia.Art in America
Book Details
Published
October 1, 2001
Publisher
MIT Press
Pages
408
Format
Textbook Paperback
ISBN
9780262692724