Public Art and Museums in Cultural Districts

237 Pages·2018·22.216 MB·English

by  J. Pedro Lorente

Public Art and Museums
in Cultural Districts
Museums and public art have traditionally taken significantly different
approaches to customer engagement, but throughout history they have also
worked together in some urban contexts, notably as landmarks of so-called
cultural districts. Public Art and Museums in Cultural Districts reviews their
changing interactions in many different types of cities since the Enlightenment,
or even before, going back to the etymological origins of museums and
monuments in classical antiquity.
The type of historical enquiry presented within the volume is not intended
as a total narrative, but the international study cases considered convey a
global panorama of the shifting paradigms set in different periods by some
cultural neighbourhoods and emulated worldwide. Blurring boundaries
between art history, museology and urbanism, this critical account explores
past tensions, achievements and failures, giving insightful consideration
to present policies and pointing out reasonable recommendations for the
future regarding public heritage. Presenting for the first time insights into
the role of collections of public art as landmarks of cultural districts, this
book considers collections displayed outdoors from the double perspective
of curatorial outreach and civic values.
This book will fill a gap in the existing museum studies literature, hitherto
mainly focused on indoor collecting and curatorial policies but increasingly
more and more attentive to their outside context. As such, the book should
be of great interest to academics, researchers and students working in the
fields of art, heritage, museum studies and urban history. It should also be of
value to professionals working in the museum and art sectors.
J. Pedro Lorente is Professor of Art History at the University of Saragossa,
Spain.
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For more information about this series, please visit: www.routledge.com/
Routledge-Research-in-Museum-Studies/book-series/RRIMS
Public Art and Museums
in Cultural Districts
J. Pedro Lorente
F irst published 2019
b y Routledge
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© 2019 J. Pedro Lorente
T he right of J. Pedro Lorente to be identified as author of this work
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ISBN: 978-0-8153-5957-9 (hbk)
ISBN: 978-1-351-12030-2 (ebk)
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Contents
List of figures vii
A cknowledgements x
1 Introduction: museum borders and disciplinary boundaries 1
PART I
Monuments on the fringes of museums 9
2 Art districts in the visual culture of the Enlightenment and
Romanticism 11
2 .1 Classical statues and museums in the urban epicentres
of art capitals 15
2 .2 Museums and monuments as cultural lures for urban
expansions 25
3 Statues of great artists erected near museums 41
3 .1 The first urban monuments devoted to artists; pioneering
cases adjacent to art institutions 42
3 .2 Setting monumental trends in art districts at the turn
of the century 49
3 .3 The apex and last stages of those icons, relegated by
other forms of cultural branding 57
PART II
Modern arcadias 69
4 High culture on urban heights: the mouseion ideal as
city crown 71
4.1 Cultural promontories in urban utopias from antiquity
to the nineteenth century 72
vi Contents
4.2 The Mathildenhöhe: high court and Gesamtkunstwerk 74
4.3 Ill-fated derivations, from cultural urban crown
to museum with broad views 82
5 Modernity expands into green fields 101
5.1 Gardens as extensions of museums in Rodin’s period
and his legacy 102
5.2 Urban museums with sculpture gardens: a typical dream
of the Modern Movement 110
5.3 Seeking greener pastures : modern art expansion in parks
or rural estates 119
PART III
Museums taken to the streets 131
6 Open air museums as an urban phenomenon 133
6.1 The rural genesis of open air museums – of ethnology
rather than art 134
6.2 A political and urban landmark: Museo de la Castellana
in Madrid 140
6.3 What’s in a name? Proliferation of the so-called museums
of outdoor sculptures 145
6.4 An unambiguously urban trend of the present: museums
of street art 155
7 Dialectics of museums/public art articulation at the turn
of the millennium 165
7 .1 Conceptual ‘antimonuments’ and institutional critique
within museum environments 166
7 .2 Postmodern return of monumental statues as popular
attractions 178
7 .3 Public art as an interface: overcoming boundaries
between outdoor and indoor exhibition space 188
8 Epilogue: heritology, a new discipline for the study of public
art and museums in cultural districts 204
R eferences 207
I ndex 221
Figures
1.1 Facade of the Municipal Museum of Calais with Rodin’s
monument to the Burghers 4
2 .1 Charles Natoire: Artists drawing in the inner court of the
Capitoline Museum, Rome 16
2 .2 Unknown author: Piazza della Signoria 19
2 .3 Hubert Robert: Entrance to the Musée Napoléon 22
2 .4 Hubert Robert: Artist drawing antiquities in front of the
Louvre’s Petite Galerie 24
2 .5 James Pollard: Trafalgar Square, London 27
2 .6 Johann Heinrich Tischbein the Elder: Friedrichsplatz and
Museum Fridericianum, Kassel 29
2 .7 Statue of Daoiz and Velarde by the facade of the Museo
del Prado ca. 1890 34
3 .1 Museum Square in Seville and monument to Murillo
by the Prado Museum in Madrid 47
3 .2 Monuments to Velázquez and Raffet in the Jardin de
l’Infante by the Louvre 51
3 .3 Boucher monument (also featuring the statue of Velázquez
in the background) in the Jardin de l’Infante by the Louvre 52
3 .4 Monument to Meissonier in front of the entrance to the
Louvre; monument to Gérôme at the Jardin de l’Oratoire
by the Louvre 53
3 .5 Velázquez monument in front of the western facade of the
Prado Museum; monument to Goya by the northern
entrance to the Prado Museum 55
3 .6 York City Art Gallery, with the Etty Memorial in the square 57
3 .7 Statues of the Louvre’s Campo Santo 59
4 .1 Panoramic view of the Mathildenhöhe hill in the opening
exhibition of 1901 76
4 .2 Expressionist figures by Bernhard Hoetger in the forecourt
of the Wedding Tower and exhibition building on the
summit of the Mathildenhöhe 80
viii Figures
4.3 Rodin’s estate on a hill of Meudon 84
4.4 Drawing of the ideal garden city, structured in concentric
circles around a central square, bordered by public
buildings, including a museum/art gallery 88
4.5 Osthaus’s estate as Stadtkrone with public buildings; design
by Bruno Taut 90
4.6 Dionisio González: Musée à croissance illimitée
(Le Corbusier) , 2013 94
4.7 Aerial view of the Maeght Foundation, with the houses
of Saint-Paul de Vence in the background 95
5.1 Western facade of the Musée du Luxembourg 104
5 .2 Entrance to the Musée du Luxembourg with a display
of sculptures outdoors 105
5.3 Sculpture garden of the Musée Rodin in Paris, Rue de
Varenne 107
5.4 Facade of the Walker Art Centre, Minneapolis, inaugurated
in 1944 114
5.5 Sculpture garden of the Gemeentemuseum, The Hague 116
5.6 Sculpture garden of the Neue Nationalgalerie in Berlin 117
5.7 Beeldentuin Middelheim Museum, with the manor house
and orangerie in the background 121
5 .8 The Hakone Open-Air Museum, Giuliano Vangi “Grande
Racconto” in front of one of the museum buildings 125
6 .1 Open Air Museum of Hecho, with sculptures by Tramullas
and other artists 139
6 .2 Museum of Public Art, 40 Paseo de la Castellana, Madrid 141
6 .3 Open Air Museum of Sculptures, Paris, by the Seine 146
6 .4 Museum Park of Sculptures, Providencia, by the Mapocho
River 147
6 .5 Sculptures in Plaza de San Pedro, part of the Open Air
Museum of Aracena 150
6 .6 Entrance to Leganés Museum of Sculptures, featuring a
work by Pepe Noja 153
6.7 Bilotti Open Air Museum in the pedestrian streets
of Cosenza’s city centre 154
6.8 Mural by Matilde Pérez with a vandalized sign at the
Open Air Museum of Valparaíso 156
7.1 Environment by Dani Karavan beside the Ludwig Museum
in Cologne 169
7.2 Facade of the Los Angeles County Museum featuring an
outdoor collection with interpretative panels 173
7.3 Main entrance to the Marseilles Museum of Contemporary
Art, with some Conceptual artworks 174
7 .4 Piazza with artworks by the new entrance to the Museo
Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía, Madrid 176
Figures ix
7.5 Installation by Julian Opie in front of the Hugh Lane
Gallery of Modern Art, Dublin 178
7.6 Hammering Man by Jonathan Borofsky, in front of the
Seattle Art Museum 181
7.7 Guggenheim Museum, Bilbao, with P uppy by Jeff Koons 183
7.8 Plaza Botero and Museo de Antioquia in Medellín,
Colombia 185
7.9 Curro González: As a monument to the artist , at the
Centro Andaluz de Arte Contemporáneo, Seville 188
7.10 Sculpture Museum, Marl, with collections inside and
outside 189
7.11 Lyons Museum of Contemporary Art, with artworks
by Combas, Henri and Kirkeby 193
7.12 Labelled outdoor collections of the Museum of
Contemporary Art, Bogotá 195
7.13 National Maritime Museum, Greenwich, with Nelson’s
Ship in a Bottle by Yinka Shonibare 199