![]() YFY: We certainly have, in the past, tried to marshal artworks to speak to larger issues of nationhood and identity. It was the most-visited show of old master paintings in the world that year. Although they are close in appearance, in size, and in date, we’ve never thought to put them side-by-side because Vermeer is inherently “Dutch” and Velázquez very “Spanish.” But what do those concepts mean, and what would we have achieved by hanging them separately, on opposite sides of the room? By pairing them together, I wanted to push back against this enduring narrative of national schools-of art revealing the soul of a nation-to underscore similarity rather than difference. But what kind of integrated story could I, as the exhibition’s curator, create with these crowd-pleasing masterpieces so inherent to the construction of national identities? Take, for example, The Little Street by Vermeer and the Villa Medici landscapes by Velázquez. The exhibition was initiated by the directors of the Rijksmuseum and the Prado to celebrate the Prado’s two hundredth anniversary, and the selection of works was not governed by a central premise but rather a desire to share extremely important works of art central to the respective histories of Dutch and Spanish art to our eager audiences. I felt this very clearly with Vélazquez, Rembrandt, Vermeer: Miradas afines en España y Holanda, which included major loans from the Rijksmuseum, including Rembrandt’s The Syndics and Vermeer’s The Little Street, among others. ![]() How has your curatorial vision shifted in the last few years as museums seek to attract new audiences and remain relevant while contending with outdated hierarchies and value systems? What kinds of tensions do you perceive in your curatorial ambitions?Īlejandro Vergara: Tensions between a curator’s goals and the audience’s expectations, as well as those of the institution, always inform exhibitions. Yao-Fen You: The past year has proved to be incredibly challenging for museums as we continue to navigate the dual pandemics of a deadly virus and corrosive racism.
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