Narratives of Display at the National Gallery, London

Abstract

This article looks at the history of methods of display at the National Gallery, London, since the appointment of Kenneth Clark in 1934 and traces the changing philosophies and attitudes to the collection through an examination of the surviving documentation. In describing the different approaches to the display, it is possible to deduce an archaeology of changing ideas as to how works of art should be viewed: either in isolation from their surroundings, as was the orthodoxy during the 1960s or surrounded by richly opulent, neo‐Victorian interiors, the orthodoxy of the 1980s, or with supplementary information on the contents of individual galleries, as introduced in 2004.

O auge das reconstruções de expografias e de museografias históricas após a crise do cubo branco moderno

“…Uma contrarreação foi o heritage hang, tão em voga durante os anos oitentas, quando a Manchester Art Gallery e a National Gallery of Scotland retomaram as montagens vitorianas, com os quadros pendurados uns encima dos outros, estofando as paredes, luxuosamente revestidas com tecidos (Clifford, 1982). Seguindo a iniciativa, a National Gallery of London redescobriu o esplendor decorativo das suas altas abóbadas, que foram ocultadas com falsos tetos completamente lisos (Smith, 2007). Depois, soubemos que essas "reconstruções" arbitrárias de interiores vitorianos simplesmente inventavam luxuosas redundâncias, sem se basear em pesquisas históricas para recuperar de maneira fidedigna a arquitetura interior do respetivo museu em determinada época (Whitehead, 2012).…”