16
On
COntempOrary
COlleCting:
AYŞE GÜ L SÜ TER
B O TA N IC A L S E R I E S , 2 016
courtesy of the artist and Art On Istanbul
The image was taken using a diasec microscope institutiOn
withO
and a 5D camera.
ELMGREEN &
by M i r ia m L a Rosa
TR ACE S OF A
POW ER LE S S
, 16
temporalities, of different ways of
[…] what is to be with time.’ (Smit
ON CONTEMPORARY COLLECTING: refusing to talk about contemporar
INSTITUTIONS WITHOUT OBJECTS sort of unity, Smith envisions toda
a manifold series of temporalities
place, subjectivity or sociality –
‘here and now.’ In fact, it can be
AYŞE GÜ L SÜTER
and conceptualism, no well-deined a
by
BOT A N IC A L S E R I E S , 2 016
courtesy of the artist and Art On Istanbul
a prominence to become dominant of
MIRI A M L A ROSA of this crisis, contemporary art t
The image was taken using a diasec microscope large-scale photography, performan
and a 5D camera. the word ‘contemporary’ means bein
with time.
Undoubtedly, one of the key fact
(contemporary) art is the market. T
‘contemporary’ appeared in the mar
One of the central pieces of the collection of the Metropolitan 1960s, in relation to African art,
Museum of Art, New York, is Picasso’s portrait of Gertrude Stein. the criteria of Western modernism.
The painting was donated to the institution by Stein herself, contemporary art were established
and it was the irst Picasso to enter the collection. When the early 1970s for Sotheby’s and t
questioned about why she did not give the work to the Museum of Auction houses and commercial gall
Modern Art, Stein’s enigmatic reply was: ‘you can be a museum beside museums in the mechanism of
or you can be modern, but you can’t be both.’ (Tinterow, Stein, process of transforming contempora
2010) As long ago as 1947, this statement stressed a certain
dichotomy between contemporary art – at that time referred to
as modern art – and collecting institutions; a museum of modern “how can institutions,
art would have been a contradiction by deinition. Arguably, this
could be revisited today. Since the eighteenth century, museum built upon the notion
collections have gathered works that have withstood the test of longevity, deal with
of time, whilst anything ‘contemporary’ has not yet achieved
historical endurance. Whereas ‘contemporary history’ functions something so transient as
as an oxymoron, to elect artworks as museum-worthy means to
qualify them as objects to be preserved for what Fisher called
contemporary art?”
‘the future’s past.’ (Fisher, 1991, 6) Such a past is that of art
history and implies that works entering museum collections are
projected into the future and recognised as role players of a the Metropolitan Museum. At that t
predicted history. universally meant ‘modern’ and a cl
In 2001, during the 7th Istanbul Biennale, Elmgreen & Dragset sections arose only around the 199
ELMGREEN &
provided a clever and ironical reference to Stein’s statement. developed the tendency to divide t
TR ACE S OF A
The artists displayed a full-scale model of a typical modernist impressionist, modern, post-war, an
POW ER LE S S
Kunsthalle descending into the ground, with the sign ‘TEMPORARY art as we know it is therefore a ra
On
COntempOrary
COlleCting:
AYŞE GÜ L SÜ TER
B O TA N IC A L S E R I E S , 2 016
courtesy of the artist and Art On Istanbul
The image was taken using a diasec microscope institutiOn
withO
and a 5D camera.
ELMGREEN &
by M i r ia m L a Rosa
TR ACE S OF A
POW ER LE S S
, 16
temporalities, of different ways of
[…] what is to be with time.’ (Smit
ON CONTEMPORARY COLLECTING: refusing to talk about contemporar
INSTITUTIONS WITHOUT OBJECTS sort of unity, Smith envisions toda
a manifold series of temporalities
place, subjectivity or sociality –
‘here and now.’ In fact, it can be
AYŞE GÜ L SÜTER
and conceptualism, no well-deined a
by
BOT A N IC A L S E R I E S , 2 016
courtesy of the artist and Art On Istanbul
a prominence to become dominant of
MIRI A M L A ROSA of this crisis, contemporary art t
The image was taken using a diasec microscope large-scale photography, performan
and a 5D camera. the word ‘contemporary’ means bein
with time.
Undoubtedly, one of the key fact
(contemporary) art is the market. T
‘contemporary’ appeared in the mar
One of the central pieces of the collection of the Metropolitan 1960s, in relation to African art,
Museum of Art, New York, is Picasso’s portrait of Gertrude Stein. the criteria of Western modernism.
The painting was donated to the institution by Stein herself, contemporary art were established
and it was the irst Picasso to enter the collection. When the early 1970s for Sotheby’s and t
questioned about why she did not give the work to the Museum of Auction houses and commercial gall
Modern Art, Stein’s enigmatic reply was: ‘you can be a museum beside museums in the mechanism of
or you can be modern, but you can’t be both.’ (Tinterow, Stein, process of transforming contempora
2010) As long ago as 1947, this statement stressed a certain
dichotomy between contemporary art – at that time referred to
as modern art – and collecting institutions; a museum of modern “how can institutions,
art would have been a contradiction by deinition. Arguably, this
could be revisited today. Since the eighteenth century, museum built upon the notion
collections have gathered works that have withstood the test of longevity, deal with
of time, whilst anything ‘contemporary’ has not yet achieved
historical endurance. Whereas ‘contemporary history’ functions something so transient as
as an oxymoron, to elect artworks as museum-worthy means to
qualify them as objects to be preserved for what Fisher called
contemporary art?”
‘the future’s past.’ (Fisher, 1991, 6) Such a past is that of art
history and implies that works entering museum collections are
projected into the future and recognised as role players of a the Metropolitan Museum. At that t
predicted history. universally meant ‘modern’ and a cl
In 2001, during the 7th Istanbul Biennale, Elmgreen & Dragset sections arose only around the 199
ELMGREEN &
provided a clever and ironical reference to Stein’s statement. developed the tendency to divide t
TR ACE S OF A
The artists displayed a full-scale model of a typical modernist impressionist, modern, post-war, an
POW ER LE S S
Kunsthalle descending into the ground, with the sign ‘TEMPORARY art as we know it is therefore a ra
