The set of photographs gathered together by the Biblioteca de Arte-Fundação Calouste Gulbenkian as Exposições is a particularly interesting one to have on a site devoted to exhibiting photographs in new ways.

Exposições displays a selection of documentary photographs of exhibitions, taken by Portuguese photographer Mário Novais (1899–1967). They are documentary in what is often seen as the driest sense: they simply record the exhibition itself, without the human eyes that it is there for. But here and there among the collected photographs are some that begin thinking about what it is to exhibit.

This photograph from a 1957 exhibition celebrating recent Portuguese philosophers, writers, and the like does not let the gallery-goer forget for a moment that the objects here are to be placed in a particular context: they are about writing and books (plural), not, say, objects of beauty in their own right.

Biblioteca de Arte

This next exhibition, however, seems to want to focus us at least as much on the (modernist) drama of the present—presumably as it has been created by the life of Infante Henrique (Henry the Navigator), 500 years and more before. A remarkable companion image can also be found in the set.

Biblioteca de Arte

In this wartime exhibition, Third Reich documentary material is appropriately displayed (if one permits the museum an opinion) behind bars. Yet to the Flickr viewer—with the habit of seeing image first, title and description later, and able often to absorb only the visuals when the rest is in one of the many other languages on Flickr than one’s own—there is also the more generalized idea of an exhibition behind bars: one with which we are forbidden to interact.

Biblioteca de Arte

And then there is this label-less exhibition (which reminds me that the “new” mode of label-less exhibition at the Art Gallery of Ontario is not, perhaps, so new after all). Unless the original mid-’50s exhibition goers, who could only look at these beautiful 18th-century objects and wonder at them, we can do more. We can ask questions about them, lean in close, and label them ourselves.

Biblioteca de Arte

Welcome to the first Carnival of the Commons! This series explores various happenings at the Commons’ institutions, be they online or at their facilities, and collects intriguing posts from their blogs. This first carnival has everything but the kitchen sink in it, while in coming weeks we will feature more thematic selections. This is your at-a-glance report of happenings around the Commons.

Institutions’ Workflow

• George Eastman House posts an introduction to the ARTStor Digitization Process, a nonprofit online database of art images.
• The DNA (Digital Nationaal Archief) movie illustrates the Nationaal Archief’s digital ambitions.
• Informative articles from the National Library of New Zealand introduce their new Manuscripts & Pictorial website.
• The Brooklyn Museum updates us with an new installment of Purchasing a Major Work of Art for the Collection.
• Want to know how to implement an internal Wiki? Powerhouse Museum explains their process.

Blog Blog Blog!

• A wonderful post from the Australian War Memorial’s blog about Minnie Augusta Rattigan, who helped feed and entertain soldiers on leave in London during the First World War. A terrific adjunct to their currently running exhibit, Advancing to Victory, 1918.
• At Face to Face, the Smithsonian celebrates the 250th wedding anniversary of U.S. President George Washington and the first First Lady, Martha Washington.

Go Visit!

See below the fold for events at the institutions.
(more…)