[BCMA] CMA Clip Serv: In digital age, why have an art gallery?

[Moderated BCMA subscriber listserv.]

EDITORIAL 
In digital age, why have an art gallery? 
Liz Wylie, Kelowna Capital News, Wednesday, February 22, 2012 

In this age of instantly available information of all kinds, there have 
been huge strides made in the proliferation of images of works of art 
on the Internet. Most recently among these is Google´s high-profile 
Art Project, on which we can see high-resolution images of 
masterpieces from some of the world´s great art museums-the 
Hermitage, Versailles, London´s National Gallery, the Met in New 
York, the Uffizi in Florence-with 360-degree tours of the rooms in 
which the masterworks are installed. 

These sorts of experiences bring a whole new level of wonder to 
armchair travel. In fact, some might posit, why bother going to see 
original works of art anymore when the reproductions are so terrific? 
Is the notion of manoeuvring one´s physical body into a building that 
is equipped with special ventilation and security to look at works of 
art hopelessly old-fashioned? Could we argue that those who say 
there is no replacing the real thing are just being precious and 
nostalgic about the original? 

In a similar vein, we have been told that some musical performers 
prefer their sound on studio-made CDs rather than as they perform 
live, as flaws can be tinkered with and the recording perfected. So 
some music we hear on CD is not "original" or real in that sense. Is 
art the same, better seen on screen than in real life? 

Taking this idea further, if we eliminated bothering with looking at 
real art, then art galleries could just become storage facilities, thereby 
freeing up space and funds. 

Of course to art curators, this kind of thinking is anathema, spending 
our careers as we do making original art available to the public in 
exhibitions. In our experience it is dangerous, really, to think to 
ourselves that we have "seen" a work of art when we have only seen 
it in reproduction, in whatever type of reproduction, even on the 
online Art Project. 

One of the great joys of going to museums is discovering works of art 
that you have seen only in reproduction and making them your own: 
Now you know what the surface of a painting is like, how big that 
print really is, and what it feels like to move around that sculpture you 
have always loved. 

Another consideration in favour of travelling to see works of art that 
are still in their original settings, is that when art is removed from its 
initial context, it can be said to suffer an "aura loss." 

One thinks of the many works of art that were rounded up from small 
churches in Tuscany and brought into the rather inhospitable rooms of 
the Uffizi museum in Florence. This keeps the pieces safe and makes 
it convenient for visitors to Italy to see them in one handy spot, but 
the works have lost their moorings, and there is no longer any original 
context to assist in constructing cultural meaning. 

Certainly people report that their experience of real works of art in 
their original settings is like none other. One thinks of famous 
examples such as Michelangelo´s frescos on the ceiling of the Sistine 
Chapel in the Vatican, or Byzantine mosaics in their churches, and the 
suite of dark paintings installed in the Rothko chapel in Houston. 

In the case of contemporary art, if the place of origin has been the 
artist´s studio, the situation is a bit different, as works may have 
always been intended for a "white cube" museum environment. Some 
contemporary artists, of course, prefer to find places and ways to 
insert their work into entirely other sorts of environments, and for 
good and provocative reasons. 

The notion of removal of context for art is only one aspect involved in 
the disembodied images of works of art floating in the ether that is the 
Internet. Without real texture and materials, without any physical 
information to tell us of the scale of the works, we are only being 
given a few aspects of the entire experience. To get the whole meal, 
we need the real deal. To this end, people invented the art museum. 

In Canada most galleries were formed in 1967 as Centennial projects, 
and often they began as rooms in the town library. From then the 
network has grown and now Canada boasts some fabulous and huge 
art museum facilities. No matter how large or small in scale, any 
community is enhanced by having its own gallery, and Kelowna is no 
exception. 

What the Kelowna Art Gallery provides our community, then, is a 
place to support and promote the work of local artists, not just by 
exhibiting them, and by having our curator meet with them, but as a 
place where original works of art from other places may be brought to 
a safe and secure environment and made available to all members of 
the community. 

By all means, use the Internet for research. But don´t let surfing 
replace the real experience of original art in your world. 

In fact, why not go ahead and embrace original art in your life and 
where you live? Visit your local galleries often, and go to visit artists´ 
studios to get to know and give support to their work. For original art 
to function it needs an audience, and welcoming art into our lives can 
only serve to enlighten and enrich ourselves as human beings. 

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