Thirteenth International Conference on The Inclusive Museum

Abstract

My paper focuses on the use that has been made of objects, authentic and otherwise, by American museums in the twentieth century for the purpose of creating and communicating messages about the former Soviet Union. In my study of American exhibitions of Russian or Soviet art, I have uncovered important changes in the motivations for exhibitions that have been relatively invisible in history books. Goals for the earliest exhibitions had much less to do with the art works than with such issues as raising money for presumably starving Russian artists, and promoting a bridge between two cultures. Before the century ended, exhibitions reveal a new interest in emphasizing the revolutionary nature of this art, and using a commitment to revolutionary Russian art as a tool in establishing an identity for the museum. (Here I think of MOMA and the Guggenheim.) The exhibitions were becoming art works and ideological statements in themselves. Exhibitions change as do the reasons for them: do the new reasons reflect changed relationships between the US and Russia? Do they reflect collectors’ interests or secrets? (Here I think of Marjorie Merriweather Post’s Hillwood museum.) Throughout this history, however, we cannot overlook the role of the former Soviet Union in either allowing or disallowing, and conserving, destroying, or selling the art that eventually travels to foreign museums. It is impossible not to ask how much the typical visitor knew about the art works on display: their provenance, their condition, their authenticity, let alone their style.