What is the role of the art curator?

Question

I keep seeing people talking about the increased importance of curation in art today.What is going on here, has any philosopher discussed this trend or possible problems linked to curation of art? Especially in relation to the internet.

Answer 1

The "problems" of art curation are the inherent problems of anything done that is subjective, that is put in the hands of someone whose choices may differ from another person's handling of the task. The friend who says "You gotta see the Hockney show at MOMA while it's still up, it's great" may not refer to just the fact that the friend (and presumably you) loves Hockney, but the "show" itself - - the works chosen and the manner in which they're presented. If that same Hockney-lover were to see a different sort of presentation of the same artist - - perhaps not favorite works of that particular viewer, or presented in a way that lacked cohesion, logic, fluidity, etc - - he/she might say it's not worth the price of admission. You can buy a coffee-table book of that artist and keep it forever, after all.

I think curating may possibly have something to do with a comment that a friend/colleague of mine once made. We were setting up window displays for a prominent department store on Fifth Avenue in New York City, and he said, "the way you set things up has to tell a story." When the museum-goer or window-shopper is presented with a linear visual experience, they trust that they will be, in a sense, entertained, that they will see what they expect and want to see, but also be treated to some twists and surprises as well.

Why is there considered to be an "increased" importance today on the role of the curator? In short, every generation is a more sophisticated audience than the previous one. In times past, it was enough to see, in person, works or art renowned enough to be familiar from history books. Now, the audience wants more. More history, more personal insight into the artist, more intrigue. Technology has moved on from the docent leading groups to a personal handset you can carry around the museum so you can focus more on what you want to focus on, and skip what you're not so interested in. And it is of course due to technology that art is more and more an immersive experience, through which the curator is the conduit.

Which brings us, naturally, to the internet. It has been scarcely more than thirty years since the internet has been a factor in general daily life, and in those thirty years, exponential changes have morphed the way it affects everything we do in every way. If there are traditions and accepted formalities to museum curatorship, then the internet counterpart of that will see an overthrow of any such tradition as soon as it becomes "established". This entire topic can only lead, at this point, to the role of non-fungible tokens (NFTs) as an internet-born facet of the art world, but that subject would digress too far to be addressed in this "ask an expert"'s limited scope of the question at hand.

To summarize, my answer regarding the current role of curators is that they are relied upon to provide a presentation of artwork that simultaneously entices newcomers and satisfies experts in the given field, and that function will not change. What will change, and is changing as we speak, is the technology they must utilize in fulfilling those needs.