CRTCAL EVALUATON RELOADED

PARS -

OCTOBER 2006

THE CRITICS ROLE IN THE AGE OF THE CURATOR

Ahu Antmen
The shift from artisan to artist during the 16th and 17th centuries in Europe created a high level of improvement in the status of individuals whose natural and cultural leaning was towards the more creative acts in human life. As art became to be considered something more than a menial task to decorate the world, society started to applaud the artist for creating new visions and merely being his own genius self. The age of the artist had begun. Modernism in the first part of the twentieth century acknowledged the artists special role in society to an even greater extent; but we all know that something started to change after the sixties, and even more so after the eighties. The age of cultural globalisation and art management brought with it new roles and new identities for creative individuals, extending the field of art beyond the boundaries of traditional ways of making or exhibiting it. Today, the exhibition itself has almost become the artwork, showing but also inevitably undermining individual contributions within a total work of art orchestrated by a curator, by his/ her vision and words. No doubt we live now in the age of the curator. The curator has a multi-faceted identity, echoing the inter-disciplinary work s/he carries out: There is something of both an artist and a critic in that identity. There is invention. There is production. And there is evaluation. In this paper, I will try to explore the ways in which the identity of artist, curator and critic overlap to create a kind of identity blur, and argue that it is the critics role above all to take a more critical stance in the discussion of an exhibition and all aspects of its becoming a part of the contemporary art and culture industry. The curator, the critic and the artist: Parallel training or parallel being? The title of this session is The Curator and the Critic: Parallel Training, but I would like to change it a little bit to include the artist and talk about a form of parallel being rather than only parallel training between critic, curator and artist. Im actually going to be presenting a collage of curators ideas that touch specifically on art and criticism in an attempt to understanding the formation of the profession of curator as shaped by personal and social choices in the art world; eventually creating the identity blur of which we are so familiar today. Before the cult of the curator, there was only an artist and a critic in question; their training could be parallel, but their being was certainly separate. They breathed the same air, but one was definitely the creator while the other, even in instances when a critic like John Ruskin wrote prose to surpass the artwork was the thinker. According to the Encyclopaedia of Aesthetics, criticism, as a form of philosophical inquiry, was where aesthetics was put into practice.1 Today, we could say that the practice of making exhibitions also requires a great deal of thought since its sometimes considered as a kind of criticism or at least critical effort to initiate discussion about art, culture, and society through a composition of artworks; and we could also certainly say that the practice of making exhibitions has become the main focus of inquiry for todays critics, as if the exhibit was itself an artwork. Critics, curators and artists are now so close in their endeavours that curators themselves warn against misunderstandings: for example, the Austrian independent curator and writer Robert Fleck agrees that the contemporary art exhibition has become a new medium, and that it has joined the other new art mediums invented during the twentieth century, but he goes on to say: A curator is not an artist.2 The German
1 2

KELLY, Michael (ed), Encyclopaedia of Aesthetics, Oxford University Press, 1998, Oxford and New York. FLECK, Robert, A Visual Medium (p. 63) in Words of Wisdom-A Curators Vade Mecum on Contemporary Art, ed. Carin Kuoni, Independent Curators International, New York.

CRTCAL EVALUATON RELOADED

PARS -

OCTOBER 2006

curator and museum director Jean-Christophe Ammann warns: Never confuse the art of exhibiting with art.3 The American curator Mark Rosenthal states: Visitors to a museum do not come to hear the voice of a curator but that of an artist.4 The Finnish curator Maaretta Jaukkuri says that a curators excessive engagement in the exhibition process results in curators art aimed at culture festivals and biennials.5 The American curator Mari Carmen Ramirez believes that curatorial practice entails a creative and imaginative dimension that is parallel to that of the artists, but she thinks its nave to think that the curator can take the artists place.6 Despite these efforts to draw the line, we come across many instances when not only certain gestures in the making of exhibitions, but the language being used by a curator either affirms this artistic leaning or sounds very much like an artist. Here are some quotations: - You are also a kind of artist, so one of your fundamental challenges is to create the space you want to occupy.7 Dan Cameron - Some curators seem to born organizers of exhibitions.8 Robert Fleck It seems that the myth born artist has now extended to born curator! - Individual works are building blocks that must fit together to create a shaped, focused experience of an exhibition for the visitor. The goal should be a sensual, stimulating, richly layered, multifaceted experience.9 Dana Friis-Hansen I dont think artists like the idea of artworks as building blocks as much as the curator. - Make your own definition of art.10 Yuko Hasegawa This sounds terribly like a modern artist! - As a writer, I equate curating with choosing the illustrations for a book. This wont please artists, but most exhibitions do in fact illustrate some curators ideas.11 Lucy Lippard - Curating, broadly defined, is an art.12 Fumio Nanjo - Curating is like any other art form: it only serves to express your relationship to the world.13 Jana evkov-Jir evk On the other hand , the curators stance towards art criticism or critics is not on the agenda as often, being barely mentioned in a few occasions. The Belgian curator Bart de Baere says that events in which the aim to propose a reductive concept or a list of names can do without a curator; such events can do with a theoretician or a critic, a producer or a manager.14 According to the Swiss curator Harald Szeemann, a curator is not one who critiques the works, but who wishes to present them as autonomously as they truly are.15 The American curator and professor Robert Storr finds that the curators position is more like the position of the general viewer.16 In the Words of Wisdom-A Curators Vade Mecum on Contemporary Art which is my main object of research for this paper, less than 10 of the 62 curators who have contributed to this volume define themselves as critics or writers. Yet they write excessively not only for their own exhibition catalogues, but for art magazines and sometimes even for daily newspapers.
3 4

AMMANN, Jean-Christophe, Some Suggestions for Beginning Curators, Words of Wisdom (p. 22). ROSENTHAL, Mark, Leave the Art Alone!, Words of Wisdom (p. 142). 5 JAUKKURI, Maaretta, Curating, Words of Wisdom (p. 88). 6 RAMREZ, Mari Carmen, The Creative Curator, Words of Wisdom (p. 138). 7 CAMERON, Dan, Why Curate?, Words of Wisdom (p. 38). 8 FLECK, article quoted above. 9 FRIIS-HANSEN, Dana, Notes to a Young Curator, Words of Wisdom (p.67). 10 HASEGAWA, Yuko, Art in (a New) Context, Words of Wisdom (p. 78). 11 LIPPARD, Lucy, Other Walls, Words of Wisdom (p. 102). 12 NANJO, Fumio, The Boredom & Excitement of Curating, Words of Wisdom (p. 125). 13 SEVCIKOVA Jana-SEVCIK, Jiri, Morality for Curators, Words of Wisdom (p.153). 14 DE BAERE, Bart, The Curator as a Beginning, Not an End, Words of Wisdom (p. 25). 15 SZEEMANN, Harald, Does Art Need Directors?, Words of Wisdom (p. 168). 16 STORR, Robert, ICI Questions and Answers, Words of Wisdom (p. 164).

CRTCAL EVALUATON RELOADED

PARS -

OCTOBER 2006

The framework for curating isnt very different from criticism. Here are some quotes: - The curator is now a kind of visual anthropologist no longer just a tastemaker, but a cultural analyst.17 Francesco Bonami - Our exhibitions should be like a forum where we can forge opinions, make judgments, define positions.18 Mara de Corral - I like to devote myself to focusing on individual artists, comparing and analyzing their works, and to put them in a historical context. () It is a great privilege to be able to participate in the making of art history.19 Bice Curiger - As moderator of the discussion, the curator must be able to elicit passionate, even extreme, opinions, yet keep the dialogue lucid and well paced even if the art(ist) requires the aid of a translator.20 Jane Farver - What a curator can offer is a special understanding about art, or, at least, about some particular artworks, and through them, an interesting point of view.21 Robert Fleck - Study an object and try to understand where it fits within the artists oeuvre, how it relates to the work of the artists peers, and its historical context.22 Dana Friis-Hansen - The role of the curator is not only to be a thinker, but also to be a communicator23 Yuko Hasegawa - It is most important to look at a work of art again and again and afterward to build up an interpretation, and not the other way around.24 Jean-Hubert Martin - Write clearly so that your texts are accessible to the average intelligent visitor. Let your language invite the reader in, not keep the reader out.25 Andrea Miller-Keller The keywords here are: Interpretation, communication, cultural analysis, judgment, making of art history, historical context and so on. We can talk about a borderline situation between the curator and artistic practice, but the curators position in relation to art criticism is not so very distant either. According to American curator Lawrence Rinder, students who used to pursue degrees in Cultural Studies or Critical Theory now lean towards the new academic field of Curatorial Studies.26 So there is definitely a mutual interest and a shared field, a triangular web of border-crossings between the critic, the curator and the artist; and needless to say that the situation stems from the changing role of the curator. The American curator Seth Siegelaubs observation, based on his experience within the art scene, says more than I can ever say: The world of contemporary art has changed dramatically, and with it, the role of the curator. Once upon a time, before the mid-1960s, the art world was smaller, poorer, simpler, and more marginal; everybodys role was clear and more-or-less defined: the artist made the art, the art critic wrote about art, the gallery promoted and sold art, the collector collected art, the museum stored and showed art, and the curator curated. The concept and practice of the curator was embedded in this reality. Basically, the curator was a salaried employee working for the museum. Between World War II and the mid-1960s, this was usually a (white) woman from a good background, often underpaid (men, naturally were the directors), who functioned as a bridge between the power of the rich collector (via the museum) and the rest of the art world.27

17 18

BONAMI, Francesco, Words of Wisdom (p. 32). DE CORRAL, Maria, My Own Shared Credo, Words of Wisdom (p. 41). 19 CURIGER, Bice, A Plea for Intellectual Speculation, Words of Wisdom (p. 43). 20 FARVER, Jane, Reflections, Words of Wisdom (p. 61). 21 FLECK, Robert, article cited above. 22 FRIIS-HANSEN, Dana, article cited above. 23 HASEGAWA, article cited above. 24 MARTIN, Jean-Hubert, Untitled, Words of Wisdom (p. 108). 25 MILLER-KELLER, Andrea, Sentences on Being a Curator of Contemporary Art, Words of Wisdom (p. 116). 26 RINDER, Lawrence, Curatorial Cool, Words of Wisdom (p. 140). 27 SIEGELAUB, Seth, Notes Toward a History of Independent Curating, or The Last Picture Show and the First Independent Curator, Words of Wisdom (p. 156).

CRTCAL EVALUATON RELOADED

PARS -

OCTOBER 2006

Nathalie Heinich and Michael Pollak describe this change as the invention of a singular position from museum curator to exhibition auteur, likening it to the notion of the auteur in the cinema.28 It is interesting to note from their observations that just as the notion of the auteur in the cinema is actually seen as a product of film criticism, so is the notion of the curator as exhibition auteur partly a product of art criticism: Specialized critics are increasingly attentive to the scenographic aspects; no longer content with discussing the exhibitions subject, they tend to stress the exhibition as an object in and of itself, more frequently citing the author.29 As a consequence or at least I am going to suggest that its one of the consequences of the current situation its interesting to note that with the rise of the curator we come across times in which two forms of art writing have slowly declined. One is the manifesto, generally written by artists and considered to be the imprint of the avant-garde artwork.30 Of course there is a high-time of the manifesto, beginning with the Futurists and continuing all the way to the Situationists; but can we convincingly say that artists have no need to write manifestos today? Why then do they write statements? Statements are not manifestos but explanations of their works, usually asked to be written by a curator, and they are a weaker form of writing. Perhaps not even a form. Its obvious that today the manifesto gets written by the curator. Or let me rephrase that: the curator gets to write the manifesto. The curator also gets to enact the manifesto. The last Istanbul Biennial is a good case in point. This biennial as gesture I think it deserves to be called, aimed to transform the biennials identity from a more touristically sitespecific event to a new exploration of the more contemporary culture of the city. So the exhibition, plus its text was the manifesto itself. It said: it is time to redefine how we look at Istanbul through art. Without the text explaining the idea behind the exhibition, the exhibition wouldnt have been received the same way. It can be argued that most exhibition texts, especially in biennial exhibitions, are a kind of manifesto written by a curator. The French curator Jrme Sans voices the attitude of many other curators: An exhibition is a place for debate, not just a public display. The French word for it, exposition, connotes taking a position, a theoretical position31 The other form of writing that seems to have declined in recent years is art criticism. We all know that art criticism began in the 18th century as a literary genre with Denis Diderot. As Thomas Crow explains in his introduction to Diderots work, the demand for such commentary was a product of the similarly novel institution of regular, free, public exhibitions of the latest art.32 In a most general sense, such public exhibitions resembled todays large global(ist), biennial shows: Over some six weeks in late summer, large audiences encompassing the nobility, the solid middle classes, the artisans of the city, and many fascinated foreign visitors- crowded in to see the show.33 The critics role then, as now put very simply was to voice his opinion on the exhibition, to pinpoint and analyze works of interest to enlighten the public. In time, it was those works that were made memorable by critics either on positive or negative terms that served in the making of art history. In short, the public needed a mediator. We could argue that today, that mediator seems to be the curator, rather than the critic. The curator today is not only a creative individual, but also an opinionated individual always with an agenda. It is the curator who pinpoints and analyzes works of interest to enlighten the public, and serve in the making of art history. The curator has the chance to do this not only verbally, but visually. In the long run, it is not only the making of art history, but the making of the whole culture of the practice of art itself. In a long essay titled What Happened to Art Criticism, the critic John Elkins claims that art criticism is in a worldwide crisis. Its voice has weakened and dissolved into the background clutter of ephemeral cultural criticism he says, but he thinks that an aspect of art criticism is
28

HEINICH, Nathalie-POLLAK, Michael, From Museum Curator to Exhibition Auteur (p. 238) in Thinking About Exhibitions, ed. Reesa Greenberg, Bruce W. Ferguson and Sandy Nairne, Routledge, 1996, London and New York. 29 HEINICH, Nathalie-POLLAK, Michael, article cited above, p. 241. 30 PUCHNER, Martin, Art and Manifesto in the Neo-Avant-Garde, in Edinburgh Seminar, 2006. 31 SANS, Jerome, Exhibition or Ex/position?, Words of Wisdom (p. 146). 32 CROW, Thomas, Diderots Salons-Public Art and the Mind of the Private Critic (p. 10) in Diderot on Art-II-The Salon of 1767, Yale University Press, 1995, New Haven and London. 33 CROW, Thomas, article cited above.

CRTCAL EVALUATON RELOADED

PARS -

OCTOBER 2006

stronger than ever, that its business seems to be booming, that although its ignored and out of sight of contemporary intellectual debates, it has the market behind it.34 Donald Kuspit seems to think in similar terms, but he has another argument: he believes that the public for art criticism is vanishing, and the reason for this is that the neo-avant-garde art that is institutionally presented to the public as the most important contemporary art does not psycho-dynamically appeal to it.35 Although I agree with both of these positions, what draws my attention much more is how information about exhibitions reaches the public; through what we could call the filter of the curator rather than the critic. Many of the gallery-going public may be informed by a news article based on a press release or a descriptive review, but all these are based very much on the curatorial construction of that exhibition. Within the exhibition, the brochure, the panels on the walls and the catalogue essay are also all part of the curatorial construct. As Bruce W. Ferguson points out, artworks are today treated as semiotic objects with something to say that can be coded, decoded and recoded in a critical manner like those used in academic literary criticism and cultural studies in general36 and the first decoder is the curator. I dont think Im exaggerating when I say that for the general viewer of an exhibition what is necessary is just that, and in many cases only that: a decoding of the artwork and the exhibition. Something that will create the Aha effect, and no more. In the past the art critic passed on his/ her opinion about an exhibition, today the exhibition already comes in a package of opinion that is marketed through institutional public relations. This is one of the reasons why art criticism today has weakened; and why it needs to be even stronger. Theres a significant shift in the control of the reception or the consumption of exhibitions and artworks today, a definite shift from the critics observations to the curators ideas. The curators ideas may be very critical, the artwork s/he is showing may be very critical yet a curator, however independent, still works within the general framework of certain institutions. And a curator, no matter what the extent of his/ her critical stance, is still an exhibition maker, presenting his/ her work in the form of a visualised idea, to be culturally consumed and evaluated by both spectators and critics. The curator evaluates the visual culture of our times, the contemporary scene and trends of artistic production, and the legacy of certain theories in artistic practice, but I think thats where the curators evaluation ends and should end: the rest of the evaluation the evaluation of what has been presented to the public- should certainly still be the role of the critic. The critic seems to me to be a more public figure then the curator I mean more responsible as a profession to voice critical opinion in total independence, whereas the curator, starting from A- education to Z- experience learns to promote an idea and an exhibition through certain means. A curator has parallel training with the critic in the sense of art history and art theory, but being a curator also entails art management and promotion and thus it is a totally different profession and position from what I understand art criticism to be. Artists, curators and critics are all part of a larger culture industry for sure, but as we can all see from our experiences, the wheel can turn without the critic that endangered species as Henry Meyric-Hughes called it who are the only ones who actually have the chance to remain more distant and objective. Subjectivity and judgment are intrinsically within the practice of the curator, so I will call this difficult position the practice of objectivity within subjectivity. Beyond all the manipulated coverage an exhibition gets, it is art criticism that can at least raise a question, taking an ethical stance of equal distance from all artists, curators and institutions. Im not suggesting that there should be a No Trespassing sign that says curators shouldnt enter the terrain of art or writing, but I think curating as a position in todays art culture is still a position on the inside, while a critic still has the chance to look from the outside. Being on the inside not only entails the burden of finding new ideas and a new spirit to present within a curatorial framework, but finding the space to show it, the money to realize it, the contacts to

34 35

ELKINS, James, What Happened to Art Criticism?, Prickly Paradigm Pres, 2003, Chicago. KUSPIT, Donald, Invisible Ink: Art Criticism and a Vanishing Public (p. 314) in Redeeming Art: Critical Reveries, Allsworth Pres, 2000, New York. 36 FERGUSON, W. Bruce, Exhibition Rhetorics-Material speech and utter sense (p. 176) in Thinking About Exhibitions, ed. Reesa Greenberg, Bruce W. Ferguson and Sandy Nairne, Routledge, 1996, London and New York.

CRTCAL EVALUATON RELOADED

PARS -

OCTOBER 2006

make it possible for this exhibition or the next. This inevitably creates a web of relations which a critic should at best be distanced from. I know I have spoken very much against the tide; even from quite a conservative position, but after all I am a critic, and this is a congress of art critics gathered to discuss the seemingly not so bright future of art criticism! I must say, it seems it wont be so long when the C in AICA will stand for Curator rather than Critic, since almost everyone has inevitably been lead that way. The critics are all deserting the sinking boat! I think we have to ask why. Does curating entail a great deal of intellectual stimulus? Does it entail more power? Is it more enjoyable? Is it more exciting? Does it pay better? Is it more ego-satisfying? Is it socially more rewarding? If we get a yes answer for most of these questions, I think we have some of the important reasons why people trained to be art historians, theoreticians or artists would rather become curators today and in the future, and why they are lead that way systematically, by the culture industry.
AICA Press et lauteur This paper faithfully reproduces the original script sent to us by the author, who alone is reponsible for its contents