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Lost in the hubbub: London galleries patronise us with this PR-led populism Lost in the hubbub: London galleries patronise us with this PR-led populism
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Rembrandt gazes out of the darkness. He wants you to sense the very soul behind his eyes. But how can you when people are struggling for space and listening to a thousand audioguides all around you? Where is the profundity in jostling to look at the season’s hottest masterpieces in a noisy, bad-tempered blockbuster exhibition?Rembrandt gazes out of the darkness. He wants you to sense the very soul behind his eyes. But how can you when people are struggling for space and listening to a thousand audioguides all around you? Where is the profundity in jostling to look at the season’s hottest masterpieces in a noisy, bad-tempered blockbuster exhibition?
I did not have to cope with the crowds to see Rembrandt: The Late Works at the National Gallery last autumn, but even the early view for newspaper critics was quite intense. Visitors who did buy tickets told me they struggled to enjoy the art through the hubbub. I suppose that’s why I never went back for a second look.I did not have to cope with the crowds to see Rembrandt: The Late Works at the National Gallery last autumn, but even the early view for newspaper critics was quite intense. Visitors who did buy tickets told me they struggled to enjoy the art through the hubbub. I suppose that’s why I never went back for a second look.
The exhibitions scene in London relies too much on big names and safe bets to pull in huge numbers of visitors. Our experience of art is being pummelled by a PR-led, high-concept populism that is trivialising and making banal what ought to be surprising, revelatory and even occasionally difficult encounters. Britain’s top galleries are not serious enough or clever enough in the shows they feed a public they tend to patronise.The exhibitions scene in London relies too much on big names and safe bets to pull in huge numbers of visitors. Our experience of art is being pummelled by a PR-led, high-concept populism that is trivialising and making banal what ought to be surprising, revelatory and even occasionally difficult encounters. Britain’s top galleries are not serious enough or clever enough in the shows they feed a public they tend to patronise.
No wonder a simmering dissatisfaction is starting to burst through the galleries’ assiduous media strategies. This week the Royal Academy’s announcement of its January 2016 blockbuster Painting the Modern Garden: Monet to Matisse was greeted with groans. What, more Monet? The editor of the Burlington magazine confessed a “fatigue” with the same famous names being trotted out again and again because they “draw people in”.No wonder a simmering dissatisfaction is starting to burst through the galleries’ assiduous media strategies. This week the Royal Academy’s announcement of its January 2016 blockbuster Painting the Modern Garden: Monet to Matisse was greeted with groans. What, more Monet? The editor of the Burlington magazine confessed a “fatigue” with the same famous names being trotted out again and again because they “draw people in”.
Personally I can take a lot on Monet – what’s not to like about his shimmering contemplative bottomless water garden? – but the really irksome thing about the way our big museums and galleries now operate is right there in the dates. This exhibition opens next January. Why is it even news six months in advance? Why the press breakfasts, pumped up interviews and remorseless cavalcade of advance publicity? Personally, I can take a lot on Monet – what’s not to like about his shimmering contemplative bottomless water garden? – but the really irksome thing about the way our big museums and galleries now operate is right there in the dates. This exhibition opens next January. Why is it even news six months in advance? Why the press breakfasts, pumped-up interviews and remorseless cavalcade of advance publicity?
“Museums have voracious and very effective media departments,” acknowledges, Tim Marlow, the Royal Academy’s artistic programmes director. “They target broader sections of the papers than the arts pages. If it’s then decried in the press as a hyped blockbuster you have to plead guilty.”“Museums have voracious and very effective media departments,” acknowledges, Tim Marlow, the Royal Academy’s artistic programmes director. “They target broader sections of the papers than the arts pages. If it’s then decried in the press as a hyped blockbuster you have to plead guilty.”
The Royal Academy is probably paying for the success of its own hype machine, which is one of the best. Its Rubens exhibition this year was, like next year’s Monet garden show, hugely publicised months in advance and generated tons of noise only to get rotten reviews when it finally opened and turned out to contain lots of mediocre Rubens imitations and not much of the great man himself.The Royal Academy is probably paying for the success of its own hype machine, which is one of the best. Its Rubens exhibition this year was, like next year’s Monet garden show, hugely publicised months in advance and generated tons of noise only to get rotten reviews when it finally opened and turned out to contain lots of mediocre Rubens imitations and not much of the great man himself.
In fact, galleries themselves are wrestling with ways to resist the pull of famous names and stupendous queues. Visitor numbers alone are no way to judge the success of a show, says Caroline Campbell, the National Gallery’s head of curatorial. Her ideal for an exhibition is a “life changing experience. To just measure the visitor numbers is not sensible. You do need to be challenging the audience as well.” In fact, galleries themselves are wrestling with ways to resist the pull of famous names and stupendous queues. Visitor numbers alone are no way to judge the success of a show, says Caroline Campbell, the National Gallery’s head of curatorial. Her ideal for an exhibition is a “life-changing experience. To just measure the visitor numbers is not sensible. You do need to be challenging the audience as well.”
Yet the National Gallery’s Soundscapes, which opened to poor reviews this week, is like the RA’s Rubens, an exhibition that’s all sound and fury - literally as it brings sound art up against oil paintings - but contains little to justify the posters on the tube or the cool publicity attracted by the involvement of Jamie xx. Yet the National Gallery’s Soundscapes, which opened to poor reviews this week, is like the RA’s Rubens, an exhibition that’s all sound and fury – literally, as it brings sound art up against oil paintings – but contains little to justify the posters on the tube or the cool publicity attracted by the involvement of Jamie xx.
The problem in short is not blockbusters in themselves. Rembrandt and Leonardo and no doubt Monet are worth the fuss, and the fight to see them. What is poisoning Britain’s exhibitions is the PR sophistication that has become so deeply ingrained in the way galleries and museums operate, that exhibitions - large and small - are now planned like television programmes, all big brash concepts and all too often, a by the numbers familiarity. The problem in short is not blockbusters in themselves. Rembrandt and Leonardo and no doubt Monet are worth the fuss, and the fight to see them. What is poisoning Britain’s exhibitions is the PR sophistication that has become so deeply ingrained in the way galleries and museums operate, that exhibitions – large and small – are now planned like television programmes, all big brash concepts and all too often, a by-the-numbers familiarity.
Marlow - who as a leading art broadcaster knows all too well how TV works - draws this very analogy. Marlow – who as a leading art broadcaster knows all too well how TV works – draws this very analogy. “I absolutely loved Bronze at the Royal Academy a few years ago. Everything about that show was fraught with the possibility of failure.”
“I absolutely loved Bronze at the Royal Academy a few years ago. Everything about that show was fraught with the possibility of failure.” It was an almost impossible attempt to make an exhibition just about the way artists have used bronze, but the curator got such great loans that it was a five-star sensation. Now, however, “I do get quite a lot of proposals that say ‘let’s do Terracotta’. It’s the formulaic, reality-TV approach.”
It was an almost impossible attempt to make an exhibition just about the way artists have used bronze, but the curator got such great loans that it was a five-star sensation. Now, however, “I do get quite a lot of proposals that say ‘let’s do Terracotta’. It’s the formulaic, reality TV approach...” One gallery that has resisted the pressure to turn art into hype is the Courtauld, a London institution with a strong commitment to serious art history – it’s linked to the academic Courtauld Institute – and a small space that would make blockbusters impossible anyway. It puts on genuinely passionate, insightful small shows that actually matter, about such eye-opening subjects as Picasso’s first visit to Paris, the erotica of Egon Schiele, and Goya’s drawings – hardly dry subjects, but looked at with real intelligence and above all excellent loans. How come the tiny Courtauld can so regularly put on more worthwhile exhibitions than the big bombastical venues?
One gallery that has resisted the pressure to turn art into hype is the Courtauld, a London institution with a strong committment to serious art history - it’s linked to the academic Courtauld Institute - and a small space that would make blockbusters impossible anyway. It puts on genuinely passionate, insightful small shows that actually matter, about such eye opening subjects as Picasso’s first visit to Paris, the erotica of Egon Schiele, and Goya’s drawings - hardly dry subjects, but looked at with real intelligence and above all excellent loans. How come the tiny Courtauld can so regularly put on more worthwhile exhibitions than the big bombastical venues?
“You trust your audience,” says its director, Ernst Vegelin. “We believe they will be interested in exhibitions that are serious.”“You trust your audience,” says its director, Ernst Vegelin. “We believe they will be interested in exhibitions that are serious.”
And this is the only way to make really great exhibitions. Cut through the calculated marketing strategies and follow the genuine passions of curators who really know about art.And this is the only way to make really great exhibitions. Cut through the calculated marketing strategies and follow the genuine passions of curators who really know about art.
Newspapers too have a responsibility here. It’s all very well accusing the RA of being hype merchants - but isn’t that because the media respond to such shallowness and help to perpetuate it? The Courtauld usually has to rely on reviewers to publicise its shows because they don’t attract masses of advance coverage and this is also true of the Royal Academy itself when it puts on a brilliant exhibition about a lesser known artist, as it did recently with a show that totally changed perceptions of the Renaissance genius Giovanni Battista Moroni. This got no hype. Newspapers too have a responsibility here. It’s all very well accusing the RA of being hype merchants – but isn’t that because the media respond to such shallowness and help to perpetuate it? The Courtauld usually has to rely on reviewers to publicise its shows because they don’t attract masses of advance coverage and this is also true of the Royal Academy itself when it puts on a brilliant exhibition about a lesser-known artist, as it did recently with a show that totally changed perceptions of the Renaissance genius Giovanni Battista Moroni. This got no hype.
“There was virtually none of the preview word of mouth,” recalls Marlow. But good reviews brought in an enthusiastic audience that went away charmed. This exhibition put Moroni in the big league where he belongs - it actually mattered. “There was virtually none of the preview word of mouth,” recalls Marlow. But good reviews brought in an enthusiastic audience that went away charmed. This exhibition put Moroni in the big league where he belongs – it actually mattered.
“The public want to be surprised,” agrees Marlow. And the truth is that Britain has many exhibitions that do surprise. The Royal Academy’s admirable survey of the magical American dream artist Joseph Cornell and the Courtauld’s sparky Unfinished, an examination of the fascination of unfinished art, are two you can see right now. The trouble is, these are rarely the exhibitions that draw the most attention or the biggest crowds. Close the PR departments. Burn the press packs. Trust our intelligence, curiosity and patience. That way we’d have more exhibitions that mattered and fewer that make an empty noise.“The public want to be surprised,” agrees Marlow. And the truth is that Britain has many exhibitions that do surprise. The Royal Academy’s admirable survey of the magical American dream artist Joseph Cornell and the Courtauld’s sparky Unfinished, an examination of the fascination of unfinished art, are two you can see right now. The trouble is, these are rarely the exhibitions that draw the most attention or the biggest crowds. Close the PR departments. Burn the press packs. Trust our intelligence, curiosity and patience. That way we’d have more exhibitions that mattered and fewer that make an empty noise.