by Jon Lackman | 26 March 2007 | Museums
The latest issue of Revue de l’Art (n. 154) is devoted to “the presentation of the work of art.” Introducing the issue, Etienne Jollet writes: “One might imagine that [this question] has been well explored. It seems to us however that much remains to be done. First, because the question arises even before the arrival of the museum … also, because it would be reductive to consider this subject as just a study of reception: it seems necessary to equally consider its connection to creation. Contemporary installation practices, in particular, invite us to consider the question of presentation as a gesture whose paternity can, in certain cases, revert entirely back to the artist. The very notion of presentation and its implicit idea that the work is available to the spectator’s gaze is torn to bits by the forms of intervention that we’ve been introduced to by certain contemporary artists (such as Rirkrit Tiravanija, Felix Gonzales-Torres, Chrisinte Hill). But we should study creators’ interest in art installation throughout art history: Poussin took an interest in the ‘cornices’ (frames) that Parisian connoisseurs placed his works in, as well as in their introduction into the heart of the Grand Gallery.”
