Art and The Power of Placement is a book by Victoria Newhouse that investigates, compares and critiques galleries and the exhibition of artworks. She discusses how the context of the gallery/museum and the placement decisions of the curator can affect the meaning and presence of an artwork as it is perceived by the viewer.
Newhouse splits her approach into three main areas of interest; How Place Affects Perception, How Display Defines the Object and How Installation Can Affect Modern Art where she devotes a good proportion of the book looking at the exhibitions of Jackson Pollock because his work is representative of a wider range of artworks and according to Newhouse, 'reveals a vulnerability to the conditions of display, similar to that for earlier art'.
She is able to examine Pollock's exhibitions in detail by looking at how his work has been displayed over the course of 50 years by dipping into extensive installation photos/films and plans documented for each exhibition/gallery.
One thing that hits you as you leaf through those central pages is how much galleries have changed over that time; becoming more simpler, whiter, lighter and bigger over 50 years. The biggest step appears to happen between the late sixties and early eighties.
Newhouse uses the later part of the book, Placing Art, to discuss 'the most basic aspects of art display' and covers wall texture, wall colour, frames, labels, scale and light. She ends the book by looking at The Choice of Visual Context.
The book is a highly detailed and beautifully illustrated investigation into the intricacies of presenting art.
If you are reading this blog and feel you can add something to my research then please comment… even if you are correcting me or don’t agree with something that I say.
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