HOW
TO VISIT AN ART MUSEUM
Copyright © 2014, 2024 Johan Idema
Concept and text: Johan Idema (www.johanidema.net)
Editing: Steffie Verstappen (Original Edition), John Loughlin (The Expanded Edition)
Proofreading: Sarina Ruiter-Bouwhuis (Original Edition)
Design Original Edition: Vandejong, Judith van Werkhoven Redesign The Expanded Edition: Studio Spass
This publication has been made possible by the support of the De Gijselaar-Hintzenfonds.
BIS Publishers
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ISBN 978 90 636 9727 3
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopy, recording or any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the copyright owners. Every reasonable attempt has been made to identify owners of c opyright. Any errors or omissions brought to the publisher’s attention will be corrected in subsequent editions.
HOW TO VISIT AN ART MUSEUM
The expanded edition
Johan Idema
“Idema challenges us to shape our own view, rather than to necessarily agree with him. After all, sparking the right questions is much more inspiring than providing clear-cut answers.”
—Wim Pijbes, former General Director Rijksmuseum
“This book […] acts as the strong hands of a massage, working out the kinks that have the potential to inhibit museum visitors from having fulfilling art viewing experiences.”
—Sarah Ann on Goodreads
“Practical tips for getting more out of your museum visit and, b etween the lines, an exhortation for museums themselves to be more creative.”
—Jan Paul de Bondt, VPRO
“Interesting, thought-provoking. I’m going to use some of the author’s suggestions next time I visit an art museum.”
—Theresa on Goodreads
“A booklet that fits in perfectly with these times. Like no other, Idema knows how to capture the spirit of the times in this work and ensures that we are handed tools at lightning speed to add value to our next exhibition visit.”
—Yves Joris, TZUM
“A wake-up call for curators and museum directors.”
—Lorianne van Gelder, Parool
“Not only do museums have to do their best, so do visitors.”
—Rutger Pontzen, Volkskrant
“A light-hearted guide aimed towards the bemused museumgoer…. The book is practical as well as fun-spirited.”
—Katherine Oktober Matthews, GUP Magazine
“In a witty and intelligent way Idema invents all possible ideas that could make museumgoers’ experience fuller.”
—Books on Art
THE MOMENT WE STAND EYE TO EYE WITH AN ARTWORK, WE EXPECT SOMETHIN TO HAPPEN.
ONCE INSIDE THE ALLERY, YOU ARE ON YOUR OWN. THE MUSEUM ASSUMES THAT THE ACT OF VIEWI N ART IS SELF-EXPLANATORY.
AS WE ARE ENTERIN A POST-PATRIARCHAL ERA, MANY FEEL IT’S TIME TO WRITE WOMEN BACK INTO THE HISTORY OF ART.
MASTERPIECE OR NOT, WHAT ULTIMATELY COUNTS IS WHETHER A WORK IS ABLE TO RAB YOUR ATTENTION.
MUSEUMS ARE LESS AND LESS A NEUTRAL SPACE, IF THEY EVER WERE.
STOP START ACTIN WANDE R IN ,
The only way to understand art is to go to a museum and look at it, according to French painter Renoir.
His suggestion gave birth to the idea of a book dedicated entirely to the act of visiting an art museum. The original edition of How to Visit an Art Museum (2014) became a bestseller, inspiring thousands of readers worldwide to pursue a rewarding museum visit. Since then, the world has changed and so has the art museum.
This expanded edition of How to Visit an Art Museum offers newly added tips for a rewarding and truthful visit. The added advice lets you tackle new and current challenges that make the art museum an even more exciting, if not testing, place to spend time. How do you react to exhibitions dominated by white male artists? How to deal with art museums sponsored by the fossil and addiction industries? Now more than ever, the art museum is a place to question what you see.
About the white cube
If it wasn’t for the white cube, this book wouldn’t have been written. That’s why it’s important for you to know a thing or two about it. When the white cube first appeared in the 1970s, it was meant to be a large, clean, neutral—and thus pure— white space. A place free of context. Inside the white cube, it would be just you and the artworks, nothing in between, alone together, in silence. But something went wrong: the white cube became an end in itself. The white cube gave museums and artists an excuse to focus on art for art’s sake. As a result, the white cube’s enclosure started to feel like isolation, its cleanliness like sterility, and art museums in general like laboratory-like spaces. More than merely being a space, the white cube came to represent a way of presenting art. And one that profoundly shapes your museum experience to this day.
INTRODUCTION
Now, more than fifty years later, you might think things have changed. Just look at all the wonderful art museums that have been built or renovated since, museum professionals will say. And they are right: some white cubes now have windows, while others boast spectacular architec ture. What remains, however, is the etiquette museums follow to “serve” us their artworks. While art has reinvented itself in many ways throughout the past half-century—growing more diverse, complex and absurd than ever before—museums continue to display art in the same monotonous, minimalistic manner. This prompted famous art collector Charles Saatchi to describe the white cube as “antiseptic” and “worryingly oldfashioned and clichéd.” And it’s even getting worse, as the white cube now seems to be regarded as the only way to present art.
Drifting from artwork to artwork
Too much purity harms the museum. Art needs to be connected to the real world in order to have meaning. “It’s not that art should be seen only in rutty bombedout environments,” art critic Jerry Saltz justly remarks, “but there are other ways, both in space and behavior.” Paradoxically, the serenity and strictness of most art museums hardly tolerate for them to explain or contextualize art. Clean walls and silence don’t allow for a proper story, conversation, performance, party, or any other approach that helps you to understand and appreciate art. Nevertheless, this may just be the kind of guidance that many of us need in order to feel more comfortable at the museum.
Most art professionals and aficionados have full faith in the white cube. They believe it encourages the best way to behave around art. There is, however, a much larger group of museumgoers that feels differently. They enter the museum with the hope or even expectation that they will have a worthwhile experience. Once inside, we see them drifting from artwork to artwork, spending an average of ten or perhaps twenty seconds with each object. Their faces reveal interest, but also weariness. Observe them a little longer and you will notice that many of them seem lost, overwhelmed, bewildered, or even bored. “Our encounters with art do not always go as well as they might,” philosopher Alain de Botton notes: “The way the establishment presents art to us doesn’t invite us to bring ourselves into contact with works.”
You can take charge
The museum functions as the prime location at which our ideas about art take shape. Why is it then that there are so many fabulous books on digesting art, but not a single one that informs you about how to use the museum in your best interest? Our encounters with art can be rewarding, even illuminating. But don’t be fooled. It’s a misconception that simply being in the museum, in the presence of great art and merely contem-
“The only way to understand art is to go to a museum and look at it,” French painter Renoir suggests. But once inside, this is easier said than done. What do you do when the label simply reads “Untitled, 1973”? How do you react to exhibitions dominated by white male artists?
How to Visit an Art Museum is a pragmatic and imaginative handbook which shows you the sense and nonsense of museum etiquette. The original edition (2014) became a bestseller, inspiring thousands of readers worldwide to pursue a truly rewarding museum visit. This expanded e dition offers newly added tips that let you tackle current challenges such as the male gaze, fossil museum sponsors, and the lack of diversity on gallery walls. Now more than ever, the art museum is a place to question what you see.
Find out how you can use museum guards to your advantage. Learn how to relate to art from male artists who treated their muses as scum. Explore how kids are able to offer you glimpses of the world that’s hidden behind an artwork. How to Visit an Art Museum shows you how a little courage and creativity can make your museum visit truly worthwhile and truthful. Because, ultimately, the art museum is what you make it.
spublishers.com
“In a witty and intelligent way, Idema invents all possible ideas that could make museumgoers’ experience fuller.”
—Books on Art
Johan Idema is director of the ArtPublic Foundation and a passionate promoter of innovation in the art world.
