Brian O'Doherty stirred the art-world lexicon when his essay "Inside the White Cube" was first published in the Artforum. The essay set out to question the aesthetics of the White Cube that have determined the gallery space of modern artworks, drawing out the relationship between the aesthetics, economical and social context in the gallery space.
Public museums started emerging in the 18th century, primarily the Louvre known for it's astounding collection of royal collections. The display of these institutions, influenced by Paris Salons were filled with easel paintings from floor to ceiling, dense and symmetrical as it was said to allow better comparison. The gallery or exhibition space changed over time, becoming emptier and arranged at eye level to create more ideal conditions for presenting artworks. Eventually, during the modernist era in the 20th century, the concept of white cube came together, a gallery became a "timeless" space, stripped off of any historical or aesthetic context that could possibly affect the evaluation of an artwork. O'Doherty compared the white cube to a medieval church, a sacred ground isolated from the "outside world", a simple object such as an astray or a firehose could be perceived differently once in the context of a museum as cognitive perception and appreciation for art is enhanced in a neutral environment.
Painting, Sculpture, Prints Joan Miró, Miró, Cahiers d'Art, Pars
May 24–October 15, 1944 21 September 2018 – 31 January 2019
The Museum of Modern Art Cahiers d'Art.
Above is the example of artist, Joan Miró's exhibitions decades apart yet the display of the artworks look identical, as if of the same era.
The easel picture is like a portable window, that once set on the wall, penetrates it with deep space ( O'Doherty, 1976 ). The frame of an easel picture was seen as a window to look through with such realistic approach to their subject matter which made viewers more aware of "the space outside the picture", the artwork has become a place of imagination beyond the limits of the frame. However, during the modernist era, the picture plane irrefutably became a surface to look at instead of a window to look through. Impressionist artworks challenges the perception of the viewers as they did not attempt to hide the brushstrokes and surface of the canvas, Cubists artists later built on this concept, as they portrayed their subjects in a way that harmonizes with the surface on which it was drawn on. As artworks eliminated their narrative and focus on the medium and techniques as Greenberg pointed out, the flatness of the picture plane has become distinctive characteristic of Modernist art.
In The Eye and the Spectator, O'Doherty epitomized the psychological experience of artworks in the context of a museum. Thomas Mc Evilley categorized viewers into the Eye, which he refers to as the " disembodied faculty that relates exclusively to formal visual means" and the Spectator, "the attenuated and bleached-out life of the self from which the Eye goes forth and which, in the meantime, does nothing else". The Eye is understood as viewers who merely observe the ongoing participation but never taking part themselves while the Spectator on the other hand yield to the art, engaging themselves in it. The autonomous eye is separation of perception from the body, the alienating consequences of Modernism while creative participation are necessary as deliberated by the artists of newer forms such as happenings.
As the White Cube began to gain more authority, it itself can be viewed as the identification of art. New forms of art such as installations and performative art emerged to resist the confinement of the museum and galleries as they have gradually morphed into the the part of the capitalist consumerist structure, therefore the method of displaying and portraying art have revolutionized. The act of moving away from the gallery walls caught the attention of the public when they first emerged as the idea of art have been brought into question. Many of these contemporary artworks challenge the experience of spectators as the institutionalized setting and curated experience of art-viewing is removed. When art breaks out of the picture plane, so does the specific set cultural behaviours used to view art. Instead of displaying a finished work, artists presents an idea, concept, creating new immersive experiences through social interactions.
The concept of the White Cube is still prevalent today, in fact the history of it and modern art is inextricable. Yet at the same time, the nature of art is moving towards a new direction as more and more artists are thinking beyond the limitation of the White Cube that promotes "elitist" notion of art, presenting their art works in public spaces as art takes on a multitude of meanings depending on where it is viewed.
Reference
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