A large part of contemporary museum experience involves a negotiation with new, participatory modes of cultural consumption. In 2023, for instance, after three decades, the Reina Sofia allowed for the Guernica to be photographed.
There could be an idea here for a museum edition of the popular board game Guess Who, if only product designers would take note. From across the museums of the world, pick out its most distinguished showcase. Now, do a picture gallery of its neighbours. Guess which artwork abuts Picasso’s 1937 masterpiece Guernica in room number 205.10 of Madrid’s Reina Sofia museum? Who flanks Vermeer’s Girl with a Pearl Earring in Hague’s Mauritshuis? As for the dour Lisa Gherardini in Louvre’s Salle des États, known to the world as the mysterious Mona Lisa, is she touched by the miracle and festivities in Veronese’s canvas that hangs opposite? The Wedding Feast at Cana is, after all, one of the finest representations of late Renaissance painting.
As things stand though, only the first among equals seems to have recall value. The rest of the artwork — a wealth of them really — stand forgotten in the mad rush to catch a glimpse of the celebrity among them. It’s one of the reasons Paris’s Louvre has announced its decision to shift the Mona Lisa from its present location to an exclusive subterranean room of its own. Museum authorities are in consultation with France’s culture ministry for a potential solution that gives both Leonardo da Vinci’s masterpiece and those of other Renaissance masters currently sharing space with it, maximum display. According to the museum’s estimate, about 80 per cent of its daily footfalls are for the Mona Lisa. In 2023, the museum had close to 8.9 million visitors.
A large part of contemporary museum experience involves a negotiation with new, participatory modes of cultural consumption. In 2023, for instance, after three decades, the Reina Sofia allowed for the Guernica to be photographed. From selfie-taking hordes to environmentalists hurling soup as protest, to the fleeting, underwhelming glimpse of the painting, wondering why the prima donna of the art world is such a letdown, the Mona Lisa’s particular challenge has been multi-pronged. A room of its own might allow more elbow room for such deliberations.
© The Indian Express Pvt Ltd
First uploaded on: 01-05-2024 at 06:50 IST
