In reflection on this week’s readings, I was particularly struck by the debate on tokenism vs curatorial genius in respect to the placement of the Ringgold painting in a Picasso room within the permanent collections displays at the MoMA. This debate was discussion in multiple articles and critics seem quite torn over the issue. Regarding perspective of “curatorial genius”, the Ringgold painting is given a chance to be dwelled on by audiences drawn to the Picasso name recognition and promote dialogue between Ringgold’s work and Picasso’s. As Ringgold’s painting emphasizes the violence of race and Picasso promotes a strong colonist messaging, these two artists promote strong dialogue and even criticism to the canonization of artists like Picasso. This curatorial decision is radical and acts as a vivd critique on contemporary museum practices.
Comparatively, the argument of “tokenism” communicates the issues of hiding art created by a black woman in a room filled with the well known, colonizing artist Picasso. The integration of such a key collection piece drowning in a crowd of highly commercialized art works that have been subject of western canonizing within museums feels much like an assault to Ringgold’s art and artistic credit. As argued by Reilly, the placement of Ringgold’s piece with Picasso does raise the dialogue on how Ringgold was influenced by Picasso and even can raise dialogue on how Picasso appropriated African imagery within his Cubist style. Reilly then continues to mention though how this placement feels more like tokenism than promotion of important dialogues on diversity.
This particular tension and argument is crucial on how challenging diversification of the museum is as a task for curators. Where one curatorial attempt improves and supports one issue within the dialogue and discourse of artistic diversity, another issue is ignored and the innate problem still ever present in the institution. I was greatly inspired by the Houston museum exhibit on Latinx art. I hope more exhibits and curatorial efforts of that nature are the future of museums as they provide voice and platform for the voiceless. There are many sides of art history that have been ignored by the institution and its about time that the museum works to bring recognition to those omitted voices and approach their white washed collections very carefully.
Readings Sources:
Brown, Jeffrey, and Lena I. Jackson. “Houston Museum Highlights Contributions of Latin American Artists to 20th Century Art.” PBS, Public Broadcasting Service, 24 May 2021, www.pbs.org/newshour/show/houston-museum-highlights-contributions-of-latin-american-artists-to-20th-century-art.
Cotter, Holland. “MoMA Reboots With ‘Modernism Plus’.” The New York Times, The New York Times, 10 Oct. 2019, www.nytimes.com/2019/10/10/arts/design/moma-rehang-review-art.html.
Farago, Jason. “10 Ways for Museums to Survive and Thrive in a Post-Covid World.” The New York Times, The New York Times, 21 May 2021, www.nytimes.com/2021/05/21/arts/pandemic-museums-ideas.html.
Kenney, Nancy. “Exclusive Survey: What Progress Have US Museums Made on Diversity, after a Year of Racial Reckoning?” The Art Newspaper, The Art Newspaper, 26 May 2021, www.theartnewspaper.com/news/a-realisation-of-what-damage-we-ve-done-a-year-of-racial-reckoning-for-us-museums.
Reilly, Maura. “MoMA’s Revisionism Is Piecemeal and Problem-Filled: Feminist Art Historian Maura Reilly on the Museum’s Rehang.” ARTnews.com, ARTnews.com, 22 Nov. 2019, www.artnews.com/art-news/reviews/moma-rehang-art-historian-maura-reilly-13484/.
Smith, Charles Saumarez. “The Future of the Museum.” A Companion to Museum Studies, pp. 543–554.
Wilkin, Karen, et al. “Navigating the New MoMA.” The New Criterion, newcriterion.com/issues/2019/12/navigating-the-new-moma.
Image Source:
Reilly, Maura. “MoMA’s Revisionism Is Piecemeal and Problem-Filled: Feminist Art Historian Maura Reilly on the Museum’s Rehang.” ARTnews.com, ARTnews.com, 22 Nov. 2019, www.artnews.com/art-news/reviews/moma-rehang-art-historian-maura-reilly-13484/.