Exhibition suspicion
Martin Gayford questions the point of art shows. Should they educate or give pleasure — or both?
It’s all a bit true. But Haskell saw the other point of view. Right at the end of the book he described an exhibition of 150 assorted masterpieces of Dutch art held in Paris in 1909. It was a good example of a pointless display, extending art history in no way at all. But Proust went to see it, and it inspired the famous passage in which his character Bergotte dies gazing at the little patch of yellow — mysteriously and exquisitely beautiful like a butterfly — on a wall in Vermeer’s ‘View of Delft’.
The exhibition was one of the kind that Haskell felt should not be encouraged, but without the sense of occasion it provided, Proust would not have left his study in broad daylight and gone to see that picture. Art is more important than art history, and one of its purposes is giving pleasure — which means it must be seen. Of course, the best exhibitions help us to understand art as well as enjoy it, while the bad ones do neither. But, crowded and sometimes crowd-pleasing though they may be, blockbusters are here to stay.
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May 16th, 2008 12:36pmYou might as well ask what is the point of theatre, or fiction, or poetry, or film, or any creative output for that matter.
It makes a nonsense of observing "But Proust went to see it, and it inspired the famous passage..." So? just one creative work inspiring another one, which, according to the thesis of this rather odd article, would be pointlessness inspiring pointlessness.
One point of blockbusters is that they bring the world's masterpieces to within arm's reach. I'm unlikely to visit China or Russia in the near future but now I've had the opportunity to see these works in person.