Pittsburgh Post-Gazette: In the opulent, cool light of the Carnegie Museum's Hall of Statues, someone who could almost be mistaken for a high school senior is directing staffers to hang large arresting-looking canvases on each wall -- just so.
"No, make the center line 61 inches," says Tina Kukielski -- who is actually 34 and a veteran of the New York art scene -- to the blue latex-gloved art handlers who swiftly, deftly move Nicole Eisenman's "Brooklyn Biergarten II" to the correct height.
Just so.
3 comments:
This article provided a great insight into the work that went into the Carnegie International. After experiencing the Carnegie International this past weekend, it is very clear that a huge amount of effort, time, and planning went into the exhibit. It was also interesting reading about the role of the curator in an art exhibit. As the article clearly showed, being a curator requires a multitude of skills and talents. I think the job of a curator is very intriguing, since it requires both an artistic and a managerial mindset. I completely understand why the Tina Kukielski's favorite part of curating is when the art actual starts to be installed in the exhibit. After traveling the world to find worthy pieces of art, planning where each piece will be shown in the museum, and managing the "behind the scenes" aspects such as shipping the art to the museum, I am sure seeing everything come together must be exhilarating and rewarding.
Even though this article starts out gawking at how a small woman could be fully in command of her job it is an interesting look at a field that the public eye does not generally pay attention to. Curation is a fascinating field in which you have to know astronomical amounts of information and be able to put that information into use. I like that Kukielski criteria for interesting art is "if it provokes questions in me." Art should spark something in you and make you think twice you shouldn't just be able to walk by pieces and not consider them.
I had never really thought about what a curator really does, other than supposing that they picked what goes where, until now. It seems like their jobs are quite a lot more wide-ranging than I thought -- like Jess said, it's a fascinating mix of art and execution. I also really like Kukielski's approach to her job -- being curious about everything and willing to learn anything else. In the article, she brought up the question of what art even is -- is anything that provokes questions art? And why are some of those questions worth the astronomical amounts that they are?
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