The Business of Art

My research has thus far steered me along the path of the Tate Modern 2 (TM2). With the announcement of the extension earlier this year the Internet is full of articles and sites critiquing, reporting and analysing the proposed plans. However I have found little on the proposed funding of the extension. As I mentioned in a previous blog, the Transforming the Tate Modern website reads as an enticement to potential patrons and sponsors to get in on the ground floor, for a great cultural partnership. This extensive site does offer the reader the motives for the extension, proposed advantages of its design for the art community and the local community. It reinforces the local rejuvenation it is believed these designs will create. This website is interesting from an architectural point of view, but in the history of the business of art it is not the most appropriate site.

The majority of information available on the Internet in relation to the TM2 is largely subjective viewpoints. These identify the mood of the public, especially architects and gallery professionals but on the whole they lack depth and critical analysis. Many read like newspaper articles or reviews, predominantly focusing on the aesthetic and community factors. The fear that the new wing will be an eyesore is recurrent, alternating only with the praises of the architects Herzog and de Meuron (there seems to be no middle ground). All this is helpful, and discusses a diverse spectrum of concerns that need to be taken into account when a new museum is been created but lacks the art historical context I am looking for. In this sense I’ve had trouble finding a way to source this aspect of my research.

As I progressed through my research I found that there was not as much information available on the Internet on the National Museum of Australia (NMA) as I had first thought, and by no means did this fit into the art historical framework that I was looking for. What I did find usually discussed the goals, which the completed museum has or has not fulfilled. Particular attention is paid to the role of the Australian government in the funding and support of the project. Once the successes are discussed the historical aspects of the NMA highlight the alignment of the museum opening with the centenary of Federation and its status as the first national museum of Australia. Many of these articles are didactic and dry, their language is different to that used to discuss art museums or galleries.

The language used to discuss the Guggenheim Museum Bilbao was more familiar. However, after class discussions I decided to drop Bilbao as one of my case studies as I felt my research may double up on another student’s research.

The decision to refocus my research came after ‘discovering’ what I consider a to be a great research site. I had previously decided to go a-field for information on TM2 as I felt that the “Transforming the Tate Modern” website was the Internet incarnation of a spruiker. This week I came back to the Tate Online home page and within its research pages I found the Tate archives. These focus on the history of the Tate in all its manifestations; the Bloomsbury group and the American (London resident) art critic Barbara Reise. These pages are very extensive, each with their own sub-pages. Page after page is filled with historical artefacts and documentary photographs available for viewing and downloads.

The text is informative and complemented well by the images. An interesting page is the timeline of the Tate’s branding. From simple words to crests and buildings to today’s cult spay paint effect. In our modern society the branding of a product, museums/galleries can be considered products, is the most memorable characteristic. If brand stays in our memory, then the marketing department has fulfilled their job requirement.

When I went into the history pages the first thing that struck me was the central role that the buildings themselves, the containers of the Tate, have played. All four buildings pre-dated the residency of the Tate. In fact, I would argue that the Tate’s revival (recycling) of disused public buildings has become their trademark. The buildings of the four Tate are as marketable a brand as the spray painted Tate logo. The Tate Modern, with its chimney and Michael Craig-Martin’s ‘Swiss Light’ adorn postcards all over London. The new focus of my research is to analyse the process of selecting and converting a prison (Tate Britain); a power station (Tate Modern); a dock-side warehouse (Tate Liverpool); and a gas works (Tate St. Ives), into first class art galleries whose very structure is iconic, a brand in itself.

The pages of the Tate archive give an insight into the process of selecting the buildings, the funding for the projects, whether the construction was completed in stages and the considerations made about and with the community before, during and after the conversion process. This website reminded me of my first blog “Architecture for art’s sake.” I see the incorporation of the physical presentation of the institution with the same aesthetic ideals inherent in the art as a hypothesis of this notion.

Tate Britain
 Tate Archive, 2003.