Page 48 - Studio International - May June 1975

enclosure is suitable for changing with current events. Of course some of
exhibitions, a fully flexible system of wall the most simple and unlikely buildings,
panels or screens cannot really be justified such as the well-known Kensington
for the display of particular or Gardens Tea House or some of the
permanent collections. A new gallery for warehouses in Covent Garden, achieve a
such a collection should perhaps be marvellous rapport with modern works of
tailored to the exhibits themselves. art with great ease and elegance. Maybe
Although the Burrell Collection at this is so because the buildings are so
Glasgow is not one of modern art we elemental themselves that the possibility
illustrate the new building proposed, see of conflict with their contents is
page 208 as an example of how well this automatically ruled out.
problem can be dealt with. Here the There seems to be an awakening
range of exhibits is large (only part of interest amongst some contemporary
the collection was recently on show at painters in architectural forms not
the Hayward Gallery). The architect has represented in perspective. Likewise the
proposed accommodation for the avant-garde architects from the '20S
collection in the new gallery with an onwards have usually preferred to
ingenuity and a total absence of pedantry, illustrate their buildings in axonometric
the latter too often evident in gallery projections. Perhaps this means that
design. there is, in one aspect at any rate, a
We show three examples of how common conception of space more akin to
seemingly uncompromising volumes can that of Giotto than of Brunelleschi. Both
be transformed for a particular artists and architects of the modern
exhibition where skilled architects are movement would have agreed with
commissioned to design the installation. Pirenne 14 when he says : 'The alleged
Of the examples, one at the Hayward and possibility of producing a complete,
two at the Tate, it will be noticed that perfect, imitation of visible reality is a
there is a formal sensitivity to the subject myth. The opposite belief, namely that
matter, and the ambiguity of the original there are no permanent optical laws
space is quite transcended. relating to human vision, and that the
For an architect, there is a well known evolution of art must be explained
traditional conflict of interest when entirely on subjective grounds, for
designing a gallery; on the one hand the instance, on the basis of varying concepts
spaces in which works of art are exhibited or intuitions of space, is another myth'.
should in no way compromise the exhibits We have tried in this introduction to
and should tend to be neutral but not to state both the complexities of display and
the extent of being self-effacing. On the conservation of modern art. Knowing the
other hand a sense of place and an difficulties of the relationship of art and
attitude of celebration of the exhibits is a architecture in the Modern Movement
real requirement. Providing such a sense we have also attempted to note some of
of celebration may easily become a the magical moments when the
disaster if not satisfactorily coupled with a difficulties seemed to have been overcome.
sensitive understanding of the Le Corbusier's exhibition pavillion at
in all their complexity and the demands Zurich 1965 (and also his project for a
they make on the spaces where they are to similar one in Stockholm (ff 13, 14, 15,
be situated. i6) show how a common identity between
Of the fourteen new buildings art and architecture can be made in
illustrated a few can be said to succeed in poetical terms. Another identity can be
resolving all the complex requirements of assumed in technology. Ozenfant's15
a gallery. It seems that even the good illustration of the electric power station
buildings do not attract one immediately (fig 17) uncannily anticipates Piano and
by their presence and often the buildings Roger's Centre Pompidou. 14
which show an external bravura let one "A Continuing Experiment', Ed. James
down sadly upon entry. One of the more Gowan, Architectural Press 1975.
obvious conclusions it seems possible to Quotation from the conversation between
make is that if a new gallery for modern Quinlan Terry, James Gowan and
art is to be really successful it must be Raymond Erith.
Foundations of Modern Art — Ozenfant.
sympathetic to the art it is to contain. Paris 1928. English Translation 14 J. Rodker.
But, since the nature of art is changing at 3 Ozenfant op cit.
a greater rate than ever before, it may well 4 Museums Association Information Sheet
mean that the building should not be only No. 6 Conservation and Museum Lighting
a permanent structure but also allow for a — Garry Thomson.
variety of kinds of enclosure both internal 5 'Who will take the responsibility for our art
and external to be assembled in treasures' —Hugh Leggatt. Times 27.12.74.
accordance with the limits given by the 6 'Sad state of affairs for the guardians of our
administrator and the desires of the heritage' — Andrew Faulds. Times 15.1.75.
Encyclopaedia of Modern Architecture —
architect and the artist whose works are to Thames & Hudson, 1963.
be shown. After all one of the best 8 Modern French Painters — R. H. Wilenski.
exhibition galleries this country has ever Faber & Faber 1940.
known was designed as a temporary 14 Gids voor Nederlands Architectur —
building and was dismantled in Hyde Rotterdam 1959.
Part after its use for the Great Exhibition "Modern Nymphs — T. Lowinsky and
of 1851 (fig 12). It was only saved by R. Mortimer Etchells and MacDonald. 1930.
Paxton's initiative in setting up a company 14 Unit One — Herbert Read London 1935.
to re-erect it at Sydenham, in quite a 14 Circle — Ed. J. L. Martin, Ben Nicholson
varied form, in 1852. and N. Gabo — Faber & Faber 5937.
14 The New Museum — Michael Brawne.
Whatever the kind of enclosure now
Architectural Press 1965.
required it must be vital enough to 14 Optics Painting and Photography 14
complement the images, objects or actions Pirenne, Cambridge 1970.
it houses and have the ability to keep pace 16 Ozenfant op. cit.