Museum of Contemporary Art by Artists
Authors: Schleicher Alexander 
Published: November 2014

Museum is type of building which among architectural work occupies a special place by its distinct function of documenting existence and progress of humankind, society and their environment. This is reflected in the outstanding architecture of these buildings. 95% of museum buildings arose after World War II. This authorizes us to talk about the museum as a “20th century phenomenon“ especially of the second half of it. The unprecedented growth of museums after World War II – most of them are museums of art, especially contemporary art – entitles a question which is often discussed: What is an ideal museum like as an object serving for exhibiting art and what does an ideal exhibition space for contemporary art look like? This question had only been discussed among architects and museologists for a long time. According to the nature of contemporary art and because of the fact that alongside these two determinants the exhibiting artists who actively influence exhibition space and form the final spirit of the exhibition became an important element in creation of the museum; the question what is the artists’ vision of the ideal museum is poignant. Answer to that question can be given by concepts of the ideal museum of contemporary art from the end of the 20th century created by artists. The “Bilderbude” concept by Georg Baselitz, two projects “Ideales Museum” by Gottfried Honegger, “A Place Apart” by Marcia Hafif and also concepts of museums or opinions on a museum of contemporary art by other artists provide an idea of how the artists deal with and look on this problematic. The issue of museum of contemporary art perceived by the optics of artists definitely represents an interesting example of connecting functionality demanded by the artists, significant author’s approach and philosophical ideas concerning the ideal museum of contemporary art. Museum Concepts – Thinking about Museum Museum concepts from the beginning of existence of museum buildings (in some cases even before considering a museum an individual specialized object or an institution) provide us the notice about the main themes which the actors of this problematic were dealing with at that time. While at the beginning in the museum concepts we can trace the effort to define an individual type of a museum building, an ideal museum; then we can see searching for a form which would be adequate to the building expression. Later especially in the 20th century until nowadays there have been solved more specific problems concerning the growth of the museum collections, expanding the functional structure of the museum, shape and form of the exhibition space etc. The museum topic such important personalities as for example Étienne-Louis Boullée, Le Corbusier or Ludwig Mies van der Rohe brought their contribution. The 20th century especially the 2nd half of it, if we do not only consider the narrow present scope, brought an unseen growth of museum architecture. 95% of museums arose after the World War II. [1] A great part of museums which were built in this period are museums of art, often presenting modern or contemporary art. This fact - emerging of such an amount of museums of contemporary art together with the changed form of visual art in the 20th century – the importance of depicting and documenting function of art, which until then visual art besides the aesthetical function was satisfying started to decrease, the artist were engaged in new themes, they experimented with new methods etc. – brings increasing effort of the artists to influence the final form of the exhibition spaces in the means of their specific demands and also to influence the form of the general form of the museum building. The artists more and more actively participate at creating the museum, they influence the form of the exhibition space and the exhibition itself – unlike in the past, when the museologist, curator was creating the exhibition by choosing from the collection, which he had at disposal and the exhibition was formed by them relatively independently from the artists – authors of the exhibits. The first artistic experiments, which balance on the edge of visual art and museum, have been occurring since the 20-ties of the 20th century – let’s mention for example El Lissitzky (Proun room, 1923), Kurt Schwitters (Merbau, 1923-37) or Marcel Duchamp (Boîte-en-valise, 1935-41), and they persist until nowadays. In the 70-ties Brian O`Doherty analyses from the point of view of an art theoretician but also an active artist the key exhibition space of the 2nd half of the 20th century, which he characteristically identifies as White Cube. Donald Judd – artist and at the same time a hostile critic of contemporary museum architecture (70-ties-80-ties) formulated his uncompromising point of view to the museum architecture as follows: “Forms’ for their own sake, despite function, are ridiculous. One reason art museums are so popular with architects and so bizarre, is that they must think there is no function, the clients too, since to them art is meaningless. Museums have become an exaggerated, distorted and idle expression for their architects, most of whom are incapable of expression.“ In another text he posed the question: “Why are artists and sculptors not asked how to construct this type of building?“ [2] As we can see the artists’ opinion who seem to stay unheard in the museum and their needs stay unnoticed has full legitimacy and is very interesting for the problematic of museum and exhibition space. Beginning in the 70-ties of the 20th century these opinions are given more and more precise contours. While O’Doherty only comes with a theoretical essay on exhibition space (1976), D. Judd already presents his own idea of a museum even realised through the Marfa complex in Texas (1979/1986). Let’s mention some other artists who form their ideas of an ideal museum in form of unrealised concepts. Some authors name their proposals after a bearing idea of their concept; others call them directly ideal, in the same way as it was in the beginning of the history of museum. Contemporary Art Museum Concepts by Artists Georg Baselitz: Bilderbude.