TED 2008 -- Thomas Krens

(I'm liveblogging from TED 2008, in Monterey, CA) Presenter: Thomas Krens, director of the Guggenheim Foundation on rethinking museums.

After showing slides of works by Da Vinci, Michelangelo, Rubens, Manet, Picasso, Mondrian, Warhol, Gehry, 1948 Indian Chief motorcycles, Krens asks: How do these objects of beauty tie together? How do we experience art, truth and beauty? Do art museums work as a territory for encountering these ideas?

The art museum is an 18th century idea (the encyclopedia) in a 19th century box (the extended and recycled palace) that more or less fulfills structural destiny sometime toward to end of the 29t century.

Art museums conjures up a Greece that never existed. It belies the fact that these sculptures were colorfully painted. Museums should be agents of agitation, social information and cultural change. Museums as platforms and networks of exchange.

Trying to establish bridge to Middle East. Wants to work with Abu Dhabi. The ruler of Abu Dhabi has a master plan to divide main island (1/2 size of Manhattan) into six centers. Wants Guggenheim to design cultural center of island with museums, parks, artist installations, a Yale cultural campus, a wold cultural forum, performing art centers, and grand canal through the island dividing it into 19 pavilions. Guggeneim Abu Dhabi is much bigger than Bilbao and will extend into desert.

[#1 posted by joelklabo , February 28, 2008 12:34 PM]

when did art enter the realm of the pretentious?

[#2 posted by chicagoandy , February 28, 2008 1:00 PM]

". . . that more or less fulfills structural destiny sometime toward to end of the 29t century."

What the hell does that mean?

[#3 posted by inboulder , February 28, 2008 1:03 PM]

Would a tighter Jobesque mock turtle be more or less truth? Have you ever attended a freshman philosophy course on the day they studied ascetics, did you find that lecture overly sophisticated?

[#4 posted by arkizzle , February 28, 2008 1:16 PM]

#1

Ahhhhhhhhhh - ha ha h ah aha ha ha hah aha ahah ha ha!

When has the interpretation of art not been pretentious?

That is directed at all the critics and historians who try and teach the 'meaning' of various works, instead of describing the themes of the work and it's context in the time and environment in which it was created. Anyone deciding they can discern the one true meaning of a piece of artwork is both pretentious and misguided.

There are a lot of great teachers out there, but a lot of bad ones too.

[#5 posted by unutterable , February 28, 2008 1:22 PM]

Ironically, Krens just announced his resignation - supposedly because of pressure from the Gugg's board, but I suspect that your mocking comments hurt his feelings.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/28/arts/design/28muse.html

He was heavily criticized for organizing non-art shows about fashion and motorcycles. What a putz.

[#6 posted by your neighborhood librarian , February 28, 2008 2:59 PM]

Putz yes, but such a hypocrite as well.

The Gugg under Tom was about money, money, um, money, and prestige, and not so much an "agent of agitation, social information and cultural change". Him making that statement kind of makes me sick. Those poor curators.

[#7 posted by gd23 , February 28, 2008 3:08 PM]

It certainly is surprising to think that all the classical greek scultpure and architecture could once have been brightly painted. I remember seeing traces of the paint in the interior of a cathedral, and my idea of how cathedrals looked 'back in the day' was transformed.