Displaying which Art History? - A Study of Narratives in Art Museums' Collection Displays

A collection constitutes an essential part any museum, according to the International Committee of Museums. Internationally, collection displays and art historical narratives constitute a field in movement, and in recent years some have also caused debate and controversies. This happened when Tate Modern in London opened its new collection display in 2000, replacing the traditional art history as a chronological, formal evolution of art from ca. 1900 an onwards, with four thematic and fragmented narratives, based on genres such as the landscape painting, the history painting, the still life, and representation of the human body. In 2005, the thematic and fragmented representation of Norwegian art history by the newly established National Museum of art, architectural and design's display in the old National Gallery in Oslo in 2005 was equally criticised. The French art historian Cathrine Grenier claims in connection with the collection display elles@centrepompidou in 2009-11, presenting only female artists, that the history of modernism as a singular, linear narrative is experiencing a crisis. Therefore, she maintains that the exhibition praxis and the traditional way in which art history is presented in the art museum should be revised. When the Museum of Modern Art in New York opened its new collection display in 2019, it expressed a wish to avoid an art history dominated by a 'formerly white, Euro- and male centric narrative.' The project Displaying which Art History? - A Study of Narratives in Art Museums' Collection Display has the current collection display as its research object. The main goal is to explore the collection display as an historical narrative. Is it based on an art historical canon, a 'master narrative' of 'white males', a singular, linear, chronological, and national/transnational history, i.e., a structure focussing on the evolution of formal aspects in art - presented as an increasing abstraction and exploration of material aspects in modernism? Or does it include new perspectives such as more thematic diversity, i.e., 'multiple narratives', in which aspects regarding gender, ethnicity, the national and transnational in a non-linear structure are discussed? Does the collection display contain several perspectives informed by current developments in art history, including tendencies linked to postcolonialism, feminism and representation of female artists? In other words, which art history is presented in the collection displays of art museums? And does it include a level of reflexiveness, i.e., a meta-perspective on how museums tell art history? The goal is to study the way in which art historical narratives in collection displays are constructed. Which are the curatorial concepts? The study is a comparative analysis of a selection of collection displays in Nordic art museums, and it focuses on the art in 20th century until today. The selected cases are discussed in relation to some contemporary exhibitions also based exclusively on works of art works from museum collection. They have a very clear thematic content informed by postcolonial and gender issues, in contrast to the established and traditional art historical presentation. In addition, the study includes interviews with curators behind these collection displays and exhibition. The intention is to map and increase knowledge of how the art museums of today present their art historical narratives in a contemporary perspective.

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Samlingsvisninger og formidling av kunsthistorie er et felt i bevegelse. Kuratoren Cathrine Grenier hevder at en konsensus når det gjelder fremstillingen av modernismens kunsthistorie i museer som enhetlig og lineær, nå befinner seg i en krise. En gjennomgang av utstillingspraksis, en nylesning av modernismen og en revisjon av kunsthistorien slik den formidles i museer, er derfor nødvendig. Displaying Modernism(s) – Analyzing narratives of art history in current collection presentations har presentasjon av kunsthistorie som tema. Hovedmålet er en kritisk utforskning av samlingsvisningen. Ses modernismen som en kanon, en "mesterfortelling", en enhetlig, lineær, kronologisk og internasjonal/transnasjonal narrativ, dvs. en historie som fokuserer på utvikling av formale aspekter i kunsten - fremstilt som tiltakende abstraksjon? Eller trekkes nye perspektiver inn, dvs. tematisk differensiering og mangfold, dvs. "multiple narratives" hvor kjønn, etnisitet, det lokale, regionale, nasjonale/transnasjonale og globale diskuteres, i en ikke-lineær struktur? Studien omfatter en komparativ analyse av samlingsvisningen i Kunstsiloen,Kristiansand, hvor Tangen-samlingens nordisk modernistisk kunst fra 1920 og fremover, presenteres. Den settes opp mot det nye Nasjonalmuseet for kunst, arkitektur og design, Oslo, og Moderna museet i Stockholm, med svensk og internasjonal modernisme. Metodisk vil det anlegges et perspektiv "innenfra" i den forstand at kuratorer i museer intervjues. Dette for å få frem ulike holdninger til formidling av kunsthistorie og kartlegge praksiser. Empiri vil bestå av observasjoner av samlingsvisningene. Materialtilfanget inkluderer prosjektbeskrivelser, verkslister, dokumentasjonsfoto, tekster om utstillingene og tekster i selve samlingsvisningene, samt egne fotografier. Et aspekt er ulike typer metodiske tilnærminger til utstillingen og relevante teorier. Her vil aktuell kunsthistorieforskning samt new museology og new art history være sentrale.