Page 71 - Studio International - June 1966

serving. The artists of the past now provide, collec- have the time to do it, and the money to pay en- function has not been considered, but used as an
tively, for the very handsome support of a vast trance fees, it seems ridiculous to have (how many excuse for a fashionable 'interesting' structure.
apparatus of buildings and functionaries who are there, 2,000 ?) all those Turners locked away To summarize : we have at last a guide to good
seldom take much trouble to encourage, by pur- at the TATE, or to keep the BRITISH MUSEUM'S museum layout in the work of Scarpa, a very
chase or exhibition, artists of the present. sacred cellars inviolate. particular genius. His solutions are not entirely
The lively and regular exchange and circulation personal. They can be copied, and have been
of exhibitions would be of immense benefit to Given the example of the Italian museums, with extensively diffused in Italy. They aim at a series
provincial galleries. Here there is always a lack of very similar problems and existing plant, why is it of experiences in relation to works of art which
money and initiative, and often of space. Some of that Britain shows up so poorly? The objects in the require, in part create, an intensely private aware-
the Arts Council's new found bounty might be well great museums are displayed with an unbelievable ness. The problem of increasing numbers of visitors
spent in providing halls for circulating exhibitions lack of taste or organization. Display is the respon- tends to work against such subtlety, but there is no
in provincial cities. The purposeful diffusion of a sibility of the Ministry of Public Building and way back to the arrangements of miscellaneous
general culture would probably be more valuable Works. Perhaps 'worthy' is the epithet the depart- jumble characteristic of the last generation, and of
than the continued concentration of works of art ment would aspire to, but the recent arrangements, present British galleries. Rather the time has come
in London. and most of the old ones, in the national collec- to take the pressure off the great collections by a
Even if one can see the pictures in the NATIONAL tions are not worthy. They are simply despicable. greater diffusion of our hoarded objects. The first
GALLERY basement, they would gain a larger and Brawne has been able to find only three examples necessity is a network of galleries capable of
more meaningful audience as part of a touring from Britain, two of them unbuilt projects, the receiving, and even originating, travelling exhibi-
exhibition, backed by an historical and social third the COMMONWEALTH INSTITUTE. The latter is tions. Then a determined effort to distribute the
explanation. National museums are sitting on quite possibly the worst display space yet. The art goods.
cellars full of treasure, often carelessly catalogued gallery is dull, unexceptional, but the main space Museum keepers are in a fine gentlemenly pro-
and in one case liable to flooding. with its assertive structure and irregular form fession, and a very civil service one to boot. Per-
At a time when more people want to see art, and makes display design almost impossible. The haps they might try to live a little, dangerously. q

Above Above right
Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam: the Maison de la Culture, Le Havre:
epitome of the living museum, the a small provincial museum, with
Stedelijk's programme of changing space for travelling shows. But the
exhibitions and social involvement is an glass wall and assertive modernism
example to us all. The glass-walled don't help the display designer.
temporary exhibition gallery is, how-
ever, a failure. The light works well Right
with structure and constructions, but The Commonwealth Institute, London:
the inevitable jumble of screens makes imagine the display designer's
painting display awkward. problems within this space.
Below
Opposite
Mies van der Rohe's project for Berlin:
Scarpa's rearrangement of the Museo
here the main display area is sensibly
di Castel Vecchio, Verona.
put in the basement under the terrace,
leaving the building as an entrance
hall.