113. The Dunedin Public Art Gallery
“What is important is not so much what people see in the gallery or the museum, but what people see after looking at these things, how they confront reality again.” — Mexican artist Gabriel Orozco
The primary function of an art gallery is to exhibit artworks for public viewing, whether historical masterpieces, contemporary works, or thematic exhibitions. We visit a gallery to see artworks that have been selected by an expert curator and presented in a sequence or arrangement designed to help us appreciate and understand them. A frame, plinth, screen, or delineated space separates the artworks from the rest of the gallery environment, while text on introductory panels and wall labels provides contextual information.
Some galleries are intended to be ‘neutral’ white cubes that isolate the artwork from its surroundings, allowing it to be viewed ‘purely’, without influence from context, colour, or history. Others are designed to stand out as works of art in their own right. Well-known examples of the latter include Frank Lloyd Wright’s 1959 Guggenheim Museum in New York City, with its spiralling ramp; I.M. Pei’s 1989 glass-and-metal pyramid for the Louvre in Paris; and Frank Gehry’s sweeping, titanium-clad Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao, Spain, which opened in 1997.
Art galleries invite us to think about the act of looking. Now that the rules against taking photographs in most galleries have been lifted (provided you don’t use a flash or tripod), we can be active image-makers as well as passive viewers of the work on display. Candid photographs of people in front of artworks can be poetic, graphically interesting, or humorous. Sometimes, the architecture is so impressive that photographers spend more time documenting the building than viewing the exhibits. A successful gallery visit inspires us to see everything with fresh eyes, ask new questions, and feel an urge to create something from what we observe.
I’ve documented other visits to the Dunedin Public Art Gallery (see posts #3 and #72). Whenever I visit this or any other gallery, I make a project of looking closely at the interior spaces between and around the works on display to see if I can find and frame the hidden art. As in the streets outside, the things created for us to see and appreciate are surrounded by other interesting compositions hidden in plain sight. We have to go looking for them. Many are visible for only a fraction of a second, but they can be seen by anyone who is paying attention.
What’s next?
We might visit another gallery.
What do you think?
Thanks for reading this post. I invite you to leave a comment below.
I'm quite liking 113b this time.
Great post, Mark. I too enjoy art galleries for all the “art” that’s not officially on show. It’s like getting double the value for your price of admission.