Page 23 - Studio International - February 1974

PROFILE

During an exhibition of graphs showing the
results of a survey of the John Weber Gallery
public (taken 7-24 October, 1972), a second poll
was conducted by Hans Haacke 28 April to 17
May, 1973, again at the John Weber Gallery.
The visitors to the show were requested to
answer 21 multiple choice questions, printed on
both sides of a key sort card, by punching out
the answers of their choice. The questions
inquired about the visitors' demographic
background and opinions on socio-political and
art issues. The questionnaires were provided in
two file trays sitting on either end of a long
table in the centre of the exhibition. Punchers
were hanging from the ceiling above the table.
The punched cards were to be dropped into a
wooden box with a slit in the top. Throughout
the exhibition intermediate results of the new
survey were posted as part of the show.
During the time of the polling, the other
galleries sharing the same address with the
John Weber Gallery at 42o West Broadway in
New York's Soho district, had the following
exhibitions : Hanne Darboven at the Castelli
Gallery, John Baldessari at the Sonnabend
Gallery and Miriam Shapiro at the Emmerich
Gallery. Simultaneously to the first part of the
Haacke exhibition a show of works by Robert
Ryman was held in the front room of the John
Weber Gallery. Later this was replaced by Steve
Reich's music scores, displayed on the occasion
of several concerts in the Gallery. The public of
each of the galleries in the building usually also
visits the exhibitions of the other galleries.
In the tabulation, all questions without an
answer or with mutually exclusive answers were
counted as 'no answer'. Mutilated cards and
cards with answers that were obviously not
serious were not counted. Figures in per cent
were rounded to the nearest full number.
1324 questionnaires were tabulated during
the 14 days of the exhibition. Since the total
number of visitors is unknown, the ratio of
participation cannot be ascertained. It is open to
speculation whether non-participating visitors
differed essentially in their demographic
backgrounds and opinions. The results are only
a representation of the 1324 who responded. For
these, however, it is a full representation, a
profile not based on samplings.
The significant increase in 'no answer'
tabulations from question 9 onwards might be
explained by the fact that these questions were
printed on the back side of the card. The
answer 'patrons of museum' in the tenth
question seemed to have been understood in two
conflicting ways : as major donors to museums
(museum terminology) and as visitors of
museums. The write-in answers (`other') for
this question were all of a very general type
(mankind, posterity, art, the artists, the public,
etc.) not referring to an organized or otherwise
clearly identifiable group, able to act as such.
HANS HAACKE
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