How is art best understood in connection with its use in religious, political rituals of a culture? What is the meaning of art in relation to its ceremonial context? How can such works be portrayed in such a way that viewers in a museum will be able to understand this critical aspect of their meaning? How has modern curation become an art of it's own, and how has it made art more accessible to the public?
The Art of Ritual
...the prescribed order of performing a ceremony, especially one characteristic of a particular religion or church
...a series of actions or type of behavior regularly and invariably followed by someone
"Ritual is in fact an inevitable component of culture, extending from the largest-scale social and political processes to the most intimate aspects of our self-experience. Yet within this universality, the inherent multiplicity of ritual practices, both between and within cultures, also reflects the full diversity of the human experience. It was then neither pure coincidence nor primitivist exoticization that placed ritual at the center of the development of anthropological thought: it was instead ritual’s rich potential insights as an object of sociocultural analysis."
Cultural Anthropology,American Anthropological Association (http://www.culanth.org/curated_collections/4-ritual
Case Study: The Art of the Americas
Ultimately, curation needs to contextualize the artworks within a time period and culture, and that's sometimes difficult in our contemporary society, where people are coming more and more detached from things that they might not understand or identify with. Cecily Cullen, a modern curator, attempts to put Native American culture and indigenous identity in a new light in her exhibition "Cross Currents." The artists that she exhibits use their art to ritualize their own expression and highlight how their culture is and should be portrayed, often incorporating ritualistic art. | Contemporary Interpretation"I’m contemporary, I’m Native American and I’m an artist." |
Case Study: The Art of Africa
A small number of traditional rituals and ceremonies remain in the contemporary societies of Africa, particularly marriage ceremonies. Marriage rituals are especially complex and conventional, as they are age-old practices, and also involve the whole community and many families. Scroll through National Geographic's Photo Gallery of African Marriage Rituals by Carol Beckwith and Angela Fisher to get a glimpse of some beautifully ornate artwork and understand the context behind the photos. Often times, photography, as in this case, can also give a face to these rituals and capture the humanity within these rituals. |
The Art of Curation
... (n.) any ecclesiastic entrusted with the cure of souls,as a parish priest.
... (v.) to take charge of (a museum) or organize (an art exhibit)
... (v.) to pull together, sift through, and select for presentation
Four Steps of Effective Curation:
- Preservation, protecting the heritage of art
- Selection of new art
- Connection to art history
- Displaying and organizing the work
Albert Barnes: the Barnes Foundation
The Alliance of American Museums reports that there are approx. 850 million visits to American museums on a yearly basis.
Modern museums and exhibitions have become ritualistic in their own rights.
“It’s the curator’s job to bridge the gap between the material they’re presenting and the people they’re presenting it to. Some things are more self evident than others, and it’s the job of the curator to provide as much or as little interpretation as the material needs." | |