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The role of the curator

A curator is someone who supervises the development or selection of a collection of art for a gallery or a museum.

Curators are often required to research new and upcoming artists and will recommend certain artists for acquisition and promotion. A curator will be responsible for organising exhibitions and catalogues, and the promotion of particular shows or artists.

Focus questions

When an installation is being placed in a museum context who should supervise and have final say in the installation in regard to placement of parts, lighting and signage? Discuss with reference to a particular artwork.

Following are references to and comments on, a number of articles on the role of the curator.

Thomas, D. “Being a curator” Art Monthly Sept 1999 No 123 p4.

Thomas discusses the role of the critic and curator and how these have changed in the time that he has been employed at the Art Gallery of NSW. He explains his understanding of the role of the curator and the need to be impartial. This is a valuable insight into the workings of a large art world institution from a person who has experienced it all “from the inside”.

“Today, it would be unthinkable for an art museum curator also to be an out-of-hours art critic. It would be seen as an impossible conflict of interest. How could I objectively review Art Gallery NSW exhibitions perhaps even exhibitions of which I had been curator?........a curator/critic might offer different insights into art of the past than the artist/critic who besides being too exclusively interested in the here and now could also dwell too long on such technical matters as drawing and paintcraft.”

Thomas also discusses the role of a collector/curator for a large institution and how this must be related to the education, preservation and promotion of artworks from that institution.

Rendle-Short, F “On the edge” Art Monthly Dec 1999-Feb 2000 No 126 p15.

This article records the challenges of working as an independent freelance curator.

“While in the past, curators in institutions would have been seen as the keepers of the collection those who shape and give voice to the collection now they are a point of public contact so that their primary connection is not as it is with the audience. Curators in the larger institutions have taken on public service qualities.

In smaller institutions and contemporary art spaces the definition changes......the director and curator are often synonymous.... and the role is more one of facilitation, collaboration and coordination between artist, audience and institution.”

Sylvester, D. “Curator and Critic London.” Sydney Morning Herald Sat Nov 20 1999

“Art today is surrounded by explanation and contextualisation. It is curated. A curator is someone who organises exhibitions and museum displays.

But in contemporary art, the curator has become a far grander figure, a super-curator who uses the position of curating exhibitions, selecting and presenting contemporary art, to manipulate taste, powerbroke careers of artists and become as much of a star as the artists themselves. At its best, curating is an art of juxtaposition, scholarship and display that brings old art to life and makes new art surprise us all the more. At its worst, the curator stands between us and the art (like the texts on the wall).”

Auty, G. “Artists only need apply” Art Monthly no. 28 p. 17 April 2000

Auty questions the need for curators and believes that artists could choose art more readily and with greater expertise than a curator.

Autry complains that a large portion of taxpayers’ money which could be better spent on projects like the Venice Biennale is being spent on curators.

“Artists may be hoping that the money will go to them, but I am wondering if it might go to critics. Or ex-critics.”

This is a somewhat tongue-in-cheek reference to the control of the large art institutions.

See also Kroneneberg “Other voices: the freelance curator in Australia” Art Monthly Sept 1994 No. 73

Research

For additional reading, locate and read articles written by newspaper critics such as Giles Auty, John MacDonald, Bruce James and Sebastian Smee.

References

Autry, G. “Artists only need apply” Art Monthly No 28 p. 17 April 2000

Barrett, T. “Criticizing Art” Mountain View, California, Mayfield Pub 1994

Bonyhardy, T. Dirk and Grease Eureka Street vol 9 No 6 July 1999 p34.

Hirsh, E.P. Writing about Art Sth Melbourne, Addison Longman 1996

Feldman, B. Varieties of Visual Experience Prentice Hall 1987

Green, C.”How do we Assign Value in Art?” Talk Given at Art Gallery of NSW Dec 1999

Hill,P. “They came they saw they bought the lot” Saatchi Collection, Art Monthly p27 June 1995 No 80

Hill, P. “How to write about art and still get a kick out of looking at it” Art Monthly July 1998 No 111 p17

Hill, P. “Can Art writing be taught? Pt 2” Art Monthly No 117 March 1999 p24

Kroneneberg “Other voices: the freelance curator in Australia” Art Monthly Sept 1994 No.73

Mc Phee, J. “Eye for an Eye: the Art of Appreciation” Australian Art Collector Issue 12 April 2000

Mendelssohn, J. “The Artist and the Critic” Artlink Vol 19 No 2 June 1999

Nelson,R. “Criticism and Impotence” Art Monthly Dec 97-Feb 98 p12

Patrick, K. editorial Contemporary Visual Arts Issue 27, 2000,

Rendle-Short,F “On the edge” Art Monthly Dec 1999-Feb 2000 No 126 p15

Sylvester, D. “Curator and critic London”. Sydney Morning Herald Sat Nov 20 1999

Thomas, D. “Being a curator”. Art Monthly Sept 1999 No 123 p4

Wilson, K. ‘Confirming prejudices validating fears” Art Monthly March 98 No 107 p4 (reviews Giles Auty of the The Australian)

Useful Texts

Berger, J. Ways of Seeing Pan 1972

Carrier, D. Artwriting Amherst University of Massachusetts Press 1987

Carrier, D. Principles of Art History Writing University Park, Pennsylvania State University Press 1991