nication between artists and galleries, is huge. Even more impactful,
however, has been this open-sourcing of a curatorial voice. When a
13-year-old with a smart phone and no formal beauty school training
can be the newest sensation in makeup application on YouTube, make
x-amount of millions and rack up x-amount of followers, the value of
populism is obvious. Translated into the world of contemporary art,
what makes my “eye” more relevant than someone else’s without the
art history background and museum experience?
Before “curator” was a household name, I was in the habit of needing
to explain my career choice to people as such: “I travel as much as
possible, see as much art and design as possible, and look for trends
or themes that reflect our society or our culture at this particular
time.” Art has always been a direct reflection of the world, and that
remains the same. The added dimension has now become prismatic,
so to speak. For example, if I attend a gallery opening for an artist,
along with two other people—one art/design magazine critic, and
one blogger—there will be three distinct reflections of the very same
work. While all interpretations will eventually filter down to everyone, either through a museum exhibition of that artist’s work, or an
article in print, one could argue that the immediacy of the blogger’s
post and subsequent social media footprint will have a profound impact. Perhaps that impact is reflected in the attendance to the gallery
show, sales of the work, and/or notoriety of the artist, but in a society
that values the new and the now, they clearly have the advantage.
Museum exhibitions are cumbersome, expensive and time-consuming
to organize. Work that I saw at the Venice Biennale in 2013 is only
now being included in an exhibition, three years later. It is extremely
hard to stay current with that type of lead time.
Another phenomenon contemporary curators deal with in contemporary art is the celebrity-worthy notoriety given to certain buzzworthy projects. A major piece, like Christian Marclay’s The Clock from reviewing the finished installation of Fernanda Fragatiero
2010, received such major attention via social media outlets and blogs
(including its very own Twitter handle @TheClockatMoMA) that all exhibitions, where it could be placed in a new and interesting context,
five editions and two artists proofs were immediately snatched up by as opposed to a singular approach.
institutions and collectors, making it virtually impossible to include in
And that, more than anything, seems
Overview shot of the first day of the installation
to be what separates the contemporary
curator from the cultural commentator.
Everyone is welcome to look, make value judgements, and report those to their
audience, but the added level of complexity that includes placing the work
within an historical, cultural, social context is the purview of the curator in the
traditional sense of the word. Each and
every layer of comprehension of any
work of art has a place, and arguably a
very important role, but that is exactly
what makes today’s loose use of curation such a rich and complex arena in
which to see and experience our world
through the eyes of the artist.
You can see more at:
CuratorSquared.com
Orlando’s Art Scene, v. 1.6
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