LOOKING AT MUSEUMS AND ART GALLERIES WITH A CRITICAL POINT OF VIEW

Assignment: Picking one artwork from a museum of your choice and talk about its context and label

This assignment pushed me into critically looking at the way artworks are displayed in museums and galleries. Some of these museums ,as the Fitzwilliam ,are indeed very familiar to me,as I've visited several times both the permanent collection and the temporary exhibitions.
However, having to pick one artwork and reflect on what the label was telling me and how the painting was "introduced"to the public, made me aware of the gaps that some description actually presents. Tthis exercize was the starting point of a reflection that did not end there. After a few weeks, I've travelled to London with a few collegues to see the Hokusama exhibition at the Victoria Miro gallery.

Gaining access to the exhibition was very complicated and we manage to go because we were gifted a few tickets. The exhibition really disappointed me as having heard of such a great artist,I was expecting to have a little introduction to her work and what this specific exhibition was aiming at.
Unfortunately none of that happened and I was suggested that everything was planned to be like this, without a precise "guideline"for the whole thing. However, a small conversation I had with one of the staff members in the gallery conviced me that the exhibition was more of a commercial event that an actual learning experience. I asked how come there were no labels or anything and I was told that that was an art Gallery therefore they were not interested in labelling the works.