By ERIC GIBSON | Wall Street Journal
Meat-shaped stone, China, Qing dynasty (1644?1911). PHOTO: NATIONAL PALACE MUSEUM
The current trend in museum exhibitions is away from displays of objects chosen primarily for their beauty or aesthetic importance and toward ones that offer an “experience,” something more than the visually stunning. The rationale is that with the majority of today’s visitors having little or no art background, an appeal to the eye or cultural and historical significance isn’t enough to pull in an audience.
Yet in an art-museum context the word “experience,” with its overtones of infotainment or Disney, can send chills up your spine. And certainly, there’s more than enough of that sort of experience at the moment. But when executed well—and it is being done superbly well right now at the Asian Art Museum—the result can be a multifaceted exhibition that enriches our understanding of the subject and renders it accessible without dumbing it down.
Mr. Gibson is the Journal’s Arts in Review editor.
(Read the full article on http://www.wsj.com/articles/emperors-treasures-chinese-art-from-the-national-palace-museum-taipei-review-1471469258)
The article is a copy from the Wall Street Journal: http://www.wsj.com/articles/emperors-treasures-chinese-art-from-the-national-palace-museum-taipei-review-1471469258