(Over?) Education? --- Days 15/251 to 253

Walks: SFMOMA

Distance average: 4 miles

So, Ciwt is absorbing the new look of  SFMOMA.  They have completely rehung the Fisher Collection  filling four of the huge museum's seven viewing floors with 750 out of the 1,000+ art works bequeathed by Don and Doris Fisher.  A mighty undertaking which we're told fulfills SFMOMA's agreement with the Fishers that an important exhibition of their collection would be mounted every 10 years.  Probably it was time anyway because much of the Fisher art had remained in the same place since 2016. 

For Ciwt a big  problem of the massive rehang is that the Fisher Collection introductory tours she has been giving since 2016 have been organized around the old hanging.  So, how is she doing taking in the new placements?  Well, she started a few months ago when she was invited to a special presentation of the rehanging by the curators in charge.  And she was horrified.  She thinks the story of (modern) art, its history, its evolution, the way one look of art influenced the next work, the thinking and stirrings around all that.  There is a fascinating story there, like there is in all history.  (To Ciwt)   And that story, the pretty much agreed on scholastic story modern art tells, was gone.  For instance, Sol Dewitt, Alexander Calder and Ellworth  Kelly, highly important, influential artists who had interesting real world connections with each other now occupied an entire floor grouped together by something impersonal and (to Ciwt) off-putting like "Artists Who Worked with Line and Form."  

This was very not right (to Ciwt) and her initial reaction was to reject the entire rehang out of hand.  For numerous and more adult reasons she pulled herself out of her pout and has now spent considerable time studying the new placements. Clearly prodigious multidisciplinary efforts and thinking went into the rehang project and Ciwt admires this. Without a guide like Ciwt,  modern art is truly incomprehensible to most people.  Great educational pains have been taken to teach viewers about each artist's intention or historical period or working technique.  There are multiple pictures of the artists, young and old, videos of them or others speaking about their art, individual headphones to listen for more information, extensive expanatory signage with braille tablets for the blind.  Especially if the viewer is new to modern art or Don and Doris Fisher, viewers are given abundant information and ways to access it.

But, so far in her efforts to integrate the rehang - maybe form a new tour in her mind - Ciwt is questioning whether all this education is Too educational.  In many rooms she feels more aware of the the education but not the art.  She wonders how many viewers the art is able to speak to.  Looking at the art, 'hearing' it speak, allowing it to communicate (or not) is how she herself was drawn to it. Her spirit was touched and the rest followed. There are greeting cards, posters, even coffee cups which can spark immediate connection in old, young and art ignorant souls.  No education needed.

So Ciwt, at least at this point in her integration, is wondering whether viewers are being over educated. Are they able to just look and be moved in some way first?  But, Ciwt learns intuitively by seeing and listening. Too much (factual) informaton alienates her. But in this multimedia age maybe the Fisher Collection rehang is communicating beautifully to most people. The various curators at SFMOMA are aware these ways of presenting art are a departure from tradition.  So, Ciwt is continuing to keep the doors open to her conclusions about SFMOMA these days.  Another type of education - learning how to push at her own boundaries.