Fall 2013 Heyman Center Friends/Carl Hovde Colloquium
Framing the Visual Experience of Artworks
Thursdays, 5:30-7:30pm
Professor Richard Brilliant
Course Description:
Framing elements from the simple to the complex shape the viewing experience of works of visual art,
often profoundly, if equally often unacknowledged. As a strategy and mode of presentation, framing
established boundaries which manifest the distinction of such works and their separate existence, while
drawing special attention to themselves in the visual field as esthetic objects. The arrangement of such
special objects in museums and galleries may be planned to enhance the viewer’s perception, or desire;
thematic, or stylistic, or chronological, or cultural, or media-determined groupings may induce the viewer
to look beyond the immediate object in view to others in an extended visual field, often effected by covert
agendas of display. The development of a critical analysis of a variety of framing experiences and their
influence will constitute the practicum of the following interactive sessions:
Syllabus
Sept. 12: The institutional environment of the museum; where and how objects are located, matters of
scale and degrees of intimacy; the grand exhibition and its heavy catalog
Note, all subsequent sessions require your museum or gallery visit in advance, as assigned:
Sept. 26: The Metropolitan Museum of Art; contrast between the Egyptian Collection and the new
Islamic galleries
Oct. 10:
The House Museum; The Frick and its period rooms, and the Morgan Library
Oct. 24:
Ethnic, religious, and historical agendas
The Rubin Museum/The Jewish Museum
Nov. 7:
The sculpture garden of the Museum of Modern Art/Sculptures on the spine of Park Avenue
and in Madison Square Park
Nov. 21:
Selected commercial galleries in the West 20s in New York City (sites dependent on shows),
possibly with me!
Dec. 5:
make-up if needed