The two “national” collections that we’ve considered, the National Gallery of Art and the “Origins of Western Culture” exhibit in the Smithsonian’s Natural History Museum, present the sorts of objects and cultures usually labeled by the survey books as “Western art” (whatever that means). This weekend I'd like you to consider how non-western art is collected and displayed in the Smithsonian. This involves all the display, labeling, and provenance issues we’ve discussed so far. But it also raises a second, difficult set of issues: how to present material from another culture entirely. How do our different national museums handle material from western and non-western cultures? What assumptions do they reveal? Susan Vogel’s article in the reader, “Always True to the Object, In Our Fashion,” will help you think about this.

Visit: In the next few days, please visit these three (or two, depending how you count) adjacent, subterraneously connected Smithsonian museums: the National Museum of African Art, the Sackler Gallery of Asian Art, and the Freer Gallery of Asian Art. The Freer and Sackler are “sibling galleries” of Asian art, meaning they are two separate collections that share a staff and library. The Sackler and African are both new galleries built at the same time by the same architect using a similar design concept.

• In the National Museum of African Art: Please compare one of the permanent shows (eg. “Ancient Benin,”“Personal Objects” or “Images of Power and Identity”) with “Ethiopian Passages.” How is the artist treated in each? Throughout the NMAfA: Please notice the extraordinary amount of labeling and educational materials presented. Are objects exhibited as “aesthetic objects” or as “artifacts of culture”?
• The Freer Gallery of Asian Art’s donor had an agenda--he wanted to show the potential importance of Asian art to American artists. How is Mr. Freer presented by the gallery? What peculiarities might you see concerning his collecting and requirements for this museum? How does the museum handle his “east meets west” agenda? Are the American and Asian works treated differently, or as parallel? Where do they connect? Is the architecture appropriate?
• In the Sackler Gallery of Asian Art: Please look particularly at the Bada Shanren show. What do they have to do to make this Chinese artist accessible to an American audience? What are the hurdles? How does this compare with the presentation of the contemporary artist Isamu Noguchi?

COMPARE, in a short paragraph each:

• The predominant media in each museum. How are they similar and different from the media in the National Gallery? What special display problems do they represent?
• The artist. How did the National Gallery treat the individual artist? What are the organizing principals of the Freer, Sackler and African Museum? How do the different museums reflect different cultural assumptions? Different periods and academic fashions?
• Labelling: In the National Gallery, there is almost none. What about in the African Art museum? Sackler? Freer? Enough? Too much?
• Interpretation: What attempts are made to educate a presumably ignorant audience? How is the art “spun”? How much attempted revisionist history do you sense in this or that exhibit?
• Contextualization. Review Susan Vogel’s article, “True to the Object, In Our Own Way.” Comments?
• The role of the bookstores--do spend time at the African and Sackler bookstores--they’re splendid!
• The museums' architecture. Oh my! Why is it so peculiar? Does it work? Is it appropriate for each collection?

Write-up: Two-ish pages comparing the points raised above. Due in class Tuesday, July 15.

Getting there: All three museums are located on the Mall, just behind the Smithsonian Castle on Independence Avenue. Take the Metro Orange/Blue lines to the Smithsonian stop--they’re right there. Open, like all Smithsonian museums, 10 AM to 5:30 PM. The bookstores close at 5 PM. Enjoy!

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