Idea #952: Concept Art World

I have an idea for a conceptual art piece. But a digression first…

Today I went to the Princeton Art Museum with my family. Not much new stuff since I last visited, but the Felix Candela exhibit was nice. I was at the help desk at some point and the person there was explaining the museum layout to me: “Upstairs, we have 19th Century impressionists, and behind that the Frank Gehry exhibit, next to that [...] and downstairs there are more archaeological things, like Chinese art.”

“Archaeological”?!?

The downstairs area is a mess. In the Japanese art section, for example, contemporary photographs were placed alongside prints from the Edo era without any apparent significance. Oh, and even an American artist who has a Japanese name got into that mix. The other sections for “archaeological” findings were arranged in a similar hodgepodge fashion.

To bring it all back, this episode reminded me of a conceptual art idea I had, inspired by a concept I saw at the Sydney Biennale. The concept, which ended up not happening, is to rearrange the whole NSW museum: placing the Renaissance paintings in Impressionist galleries, putting Picassos in Aboriginal galleries, and so on.

But why do just that? Here is my idea:

The major art museums of the world should collectively, for a week, do some rearranging. All the “western” art that typically garner most of their attention can be crammed, with disregard, into the small spaces previously reserved for the local underrepresented art. Put Andy Warhol’s Marilyn right next to Raphael’s Madonna. Label the early Renaissance attempts at perspective “folk art” and Friedman’s sculptures “archaeological”. Oh, but keep the name of the gallries–call it “Asian Art” or “Aboriginal Art” or something equally generic. The remaining periodically-divided galleries can then be used to house the local underrepresented art of the appropriate period. If the museum has nothing from that period, then simply leave the gallery empty.

So what do you say, dear museum directors?