Be A Curator

The role of the curator is examined in this Art Collector Set.

Who is a curator?
How does a curator put an exhibition together?
What influence does the public have on the selection of artworks for an exhibition?

The artworks included in this Set are from the Walker Art Center exhibition titled 50/50: Audience and Experts Curate the Paper Collection.

This Set is designed for middle and high school students and it is complemented by an art activity written in a PDF format. You will find it attached to the last slide at the end of this presentation.

You can find out more about each work by clicking on the "More Info" button in the Present mode.
Feel free to make this Set your own. As a registered user of ArtsConnectEd you can duplicate any published Art Collector Set to your own account. Once a Set is duplicated you can edit the Set and its slides. Click here to learn more about duplicating a published Set.

Who is a curator?

The curator of a public or private collection of art is responsible for interpreting and presenting artworks to the community.The root of the word is "curare," which in Latin means to care for. Traditionally, the curator is the overseer of a collection.

In the exhibition 50/50, the dynamic debate between expert and amateur is opened up to the public. People voted for their favorite artworks among 200 works on paper in the Walker Art Center's collection. It is these pieces, hung salon style, above and below each other, that make up the largest part of the exhibition. Also in the same space, the curator, Darsie Alexander installed a smaller selection of her favorites.

View of 50/50

The left side of this gallery shot shows the public's preferences and the right side depicts the works chosen by curator Darsie Alexander.

What are some of your general observations about this installation?

Two people are poised in front of an interactive kiosk in the gallery where information on individual artworks is available. It functions as a interpretive tool replacing wall labels that often identify the artworks one by one.

Why do you think this strategy was used for this exhibition?

No title (Where was I?)

A contemporary art curator develops relationships with living artists and collects a number of works by them over time. This exchange between the artist, curator, and the public sets up a ripe opportunity for everyone to consider the events of our time.

What, when, and why did a particular occurrence happen and how does it affect us?

Why do you think the work of Raymond Pettibon was chosen by the curator?

What current issues are suggested by this artwork?

Artist: Raymond Pettibon
Date: 1987
Medium: Drawings and Watercolors, Drawings
Size: framed 23 x 15.5 inches
Institution: Walker Art Center
Accession #: 1998.3

Who Am We?

Contemporary art is involved with the theme of globalism. What does it mean to create, view, and collect art from different places in the world? How have new technologies changed the way art is valued in the world? How has the balance shifted between the individual and the masses? Where does the ordinary citizen stand in the debate between the amateur and the expert? Who qualifies as an expert? Why is someone called an amateur?

This work, Who Am We?, invites the viewer to zoom in on a portrait of a Korean school boy. Then, step back and experience this print from afar. What comes to mind?

Artist: Do-Ho Suh
Date: 1998
Medium: Prints, Edition Prints/Proofs
Size: sheet 26.1875 x 41 inches
Institution: Walker Art Center
Accession #: 1999.4

Untitled (Set Three)

Contemporary art has become cross-disciplinary and that means an artist works in different areas of practice. For example, Trisha Brown has been working in dance, performance art, visual art, and film/video.

In this piece Ms. Brown used her feet to make these marks on a plate, which was turned into an edition of 3 prints.

Is this a documentation of her dance or a gesture drawing?

Artist: Trisha Brown
Date: 2006
Medium: Prints, Edition Prints/Proofs
Size: each of 3 25.5 x 22 inches
Institution: Walker Art Center
Accession #: 2010.31.1-.3

study for Gulf Stream

Curators can reveal the artist's intention by supplying context, such as the information given in a wall label or exhibition catalogue.

Standing in front of a painting, someone may ask,

"How did the artist get his/her idea?" "Who were his/her influences?" "Is there something else I should know about this work?"

Knowing that the artist Kerry James Marshall researched Winslow Homer's painting Gulf Stream from 1899 makes this painting meaningful. Notice how Mr. Marshall appropriated the scene of a stranded Black man marooned at sea in shark-infested waters and reinterpreted the narrative through the lens of his own identity as an African-American. In Kerry James Marshall's version, the Black family is skillfully navigating the current together.

Social commentary is part of the conversation in this work.

Pose a question about this work.

Artist: Kerry James Marshall
Date: 2003-2004
Medium: Drawings and Watercolors, Unique Works on Paper, Mixed media
Size: sheet 38.75 x 47.5 inches
Institution: Walker Art Center
Accession #: 2005.37

Untitled #15

How does a portrait capture the essence of an individual? How does it convey the spirit of the times?

Describe this person: Where does she live, how old is she, what does she do?

The artist Melba Price lives and works in Minnesota. How are local cultural connections important to the curator and the public?

Artist: Melba Price
Date: 2008
Medium: Drawings and Watercolors, Gouaches/Watercolors
Size: sheet 12.5 x 16.5 inches
Institution: Walker Art Center
Accession #: 2009.22

View of 50/50

The public democratically chose all of the artworks displayed on these two walls.

What are some themes that come to mind when scanning these walls?

What makes a work 'popular'?

The following 6 slides pair works together to get a conversation started. While the pairings aren't formally curated by an expert, when you identify and articulate relationships between artworks, you are undertaking the work of a curator.

Please respond to the next series of slides by:

identifying a theme
speculate why it was chosen by the public
write down all responses

One

Piscine á minuit, Paper Pool 19, David Hockney

Covered Car – High Street, Robert Bechtle

Title: Piscine á minuit, Paper Pool 19
Artist: David Hockney
Date: 1978
Medium: Prints, Edition Prints/Proofs
Size: overall installed 72 x 85.5 x inches
Institution: Walker Art Center
Accession #: 1983.130.1-.6

Title: Covered Car - High Street
Artist: Robert Bechtle
Date: 2001
Medium: Drawings and Watercolors, Drawings
Size: sheet 19.75 x 27.5 inches
Institution: Walker Art Center
Accession #: 2002.64

Two

Title: Hen House
Artist: Amy Cutler
Date: 2002
Medium: Drawings and Watercolors, Drawings
Size: sheet 46.75 x 50.25 x inches
Institution: Walker Art Center
Accession #: 2003.2

Title: Buildings at Lebanon
Artist: Charles Sheeler
Date: 1949
Medium: Drawings and Watercolors, Unique Works on Paper, Mixed media
Size: unframed 14.3125 x 20.25 inches
Institution: Walker Art Center
Accession #: 1952.5

Three

I forgot it was Sunday from the suite 'FIVE NEW ETCHINGS', David Rathman

Title: Harp
Artist: Harry Sternberg
Medium: Prints, Edition Prints/Proofs
Size: unframed 14.375 x 10.25 inches
Institution: Walker Art Center
Accession #: 1953.24

Title: I forgot it was Sunday from the suite "FIVE NEW ETCHINGS"
Artist: David Rathman
Date: 2002
Medium: Prints, Edition Prints/Proofs
Size: sheet 17 x 15 inches
Institution: Walker Art Center
Accession #: 2002.227.1

Four

Chemical Man in a Toxic World, Frank Big Bear

Modern Man Followed by the Ghosts of His Meat, Sue Coe

Title: Chemical Man in a Toxic World
Artist: Frank Big Bear
Date: 1989-1990
Medium: Drawings and Watercolors, Drawings
Size: 90 x 44 inches
Institution: Walker Art Center
Accession #: 1991.10.1-.3

Title: Modern Man Followed by the Ghosts of His Meat
Artist: Sue Coe
Date: 1990
Medium: Prints, Edition Prints/Proofs
Size: unframed 13 x 18.75 inches
Institution: Walker Art Center
Accession #: 1998.129

Five

Title: Booster
Artist: Robert Rauschenberg
Date: 1967
Medium: Prints, Edition Prints/Proofs
Size: sheet 71.875 x 35.4375 inches
Institution: Walker Art Center
Accession #: 1985.164

Title: La rivoluzione siamo Noi
Artist: Joseph Beuys
Date: 1972
Medium: Mixed Media, Multiples, Other
Size: 75.5 x 39.375 inches
Institution: Walker Art Center
Accession #: 1992.490

Six

Architectonic vs. H.R., Santiago Cucullu

Title: Architectonic vs. H.R.
Artist: Santiago Cucullu
Date: 2006
Medium: Prints, Edition Prints/Proofs
Size: each of 12 36.75 x 29.75 x inches
Institution: Walker Art Center
Accession #: 2007.1.1-.16

Title: Four Elements
Artist: David Wojnarowicz
Date: 1990
Medium: Prints, Edition Prints/Proofs
Size: each 22.75 x 30 inches
Institution: Walker Art Center
Accession #: 1991.55.1-.2

Personal vs. Popular

Review the themes that emerged from the discussion about the previous 6 slides. Take a straw poll of the group's favorites.

Now, look at these statistics that rank artworks selected for 50/50: Audience and Experts Curate the Paper Collection by the voting process.

Does this information provoke you? Would you reevaluate an artwork you overlooked?

How does the public opinion influence your judgment?

Congratulations, Curators

For more information on studying to be a curator, please visit these websites.

Art Criticism & Writing (School of Visual Arts, NYC, NY)

Art History, Theory, and Criticism : SAIC-School of the Art Institute of Chicago (Chicago, IL)

Center for Curatorial Studies (Bard College, NY)

Cranbrook Academy of Art: Critical Studies (Bloomfield Hills, MI)

Curatorial Practice Program & Visual and Critical Studies (California College of Arts & Crafts, San Francisco, CA)

IFA-NYU: Curatorial Studies (Institute of Fine Arts: New York University, NYC, NY)

School of Interdisciplinary Studies: San Francisco Art Institute (San Francisco, CA)

School of Critical Studies: California Institute of the Arts (Valencia, CA)

Whitney Museum of American Art: Independent Study Program (NYC, NY)