Ryerson University Digital Commons @ Ryerson Theses and dissertations 1-1-2012 Photographic Exhibition In The Anti-Cube Gallery : A Case Study Of Daniel Libeskind’s Roloff Beny Gallery Laura E. Hayward Ryerson University Follow this and additional works at: http://digitalcommons.ryerson.ca/dissertations Part of the Photography Commons Recommended Citation Hayward, Laura E., "Photographic Exhibition In The Anti-Cube Gallery : A Case Study Of Daniel Libeskind’s Roloff Beny Gallery" (2012). Theses and dissertations. Paper 1399. This Thesis is brought to you for free and open access by Digital Commons @ Ryerson. It has been accepted for inclusion in Theses and dissertations by an authorized administrator of Digital Commons @ Ryerson. For more information, please contact [email protected]. PHOTOGRAPHIC EXHIBITION IN THE ANTI-CUBE GALLERY: A CASE STUDY OF DANIEL LIBESKIND’S ROLOFF BENY GALLERY by Laura Elizabeth Hayward Bachelor of Arts, History in Art, Business, University of Victoria, 2010 A thesis presented to Ryerson University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts in the Program of Photographic Preservation and Collections Management Toronto, Ontario, Canada, 2012 © Laura Elizabeth Hayward 2012 I hereby declare that I am the sole author of this thesis. This is a true copy of the thesis, including any required final revisions, as accepted by my examiners. I authorize Ryerson University to lend this thesis to other institutions or individuals for the purpose of scholarly research. I further authorize Ryerson University to reproduce this thesis by photocopying means, in total or in part, at the request of other institutions or individuals for the purpose of scholarly research. I understand that my thesis may be made electronically available to the public. iii Photographic Exhibition in the Anti-Cube Gallery: A Case Study of Daniel Libeskind’s Roloff Beny Gallery Laura Elizabeth Hayward Master of Arts, 2012 Photographic Preservation and Collections Management Ryerson University This paper examines the installation of photography exhibitions within the unconventional gallery spaces that have been produced as a part of the relatively recent wave of “iconic” museum architecture. As a medium that has primarily been displayed within the modernist “white cube,” photography presents issues adapting to this new type of gallery interior. This thesis takes, as its case study, the Roloff Beny Gallery, managed by the Institute for Contemporary Culture (ICC) as located in Daniel Libeskind’s Michael Lee-Chin Crystal – a controversial addition to the Royal Ontario Museum (ROM), Toronto, Ontario. It examines how photographic exhibitions have addressed design and installation issues in this iconic space through three photographic exhibitions – Hiroshi Sugimoto: History of History, Vanity Fair Portraits: Photographs 1913-2008 and Edward Burtynsky: Oil. This paper proposes that it can be productive to consider the installation of photography exhibitions as having affinities with the contextualizing practices of artistic installation. v Acknowledgements Many thanks to Laura Comerford, Coordinator of the Institute for Contemporary Culture at the Royal Ontario Museum (ROM), whose assistance and support throughout this project have been invaluable. Thank you very much to the interviewees who donated their valuable time in assisting me with this project: Francisco Alvarez, Managing Director, Institute for Contemporary Culture, ROM; Dan Rahimi, Vice President of Gallery Development, ROM; Dave Hollands, Head of Design, ROM; Amleet Mangat, Project Manager, ROM; Janice Low, Exhibition Designer (2D), ROM; Marcus Schubert, Director of Exhibitions and Publications, Edward Burtynsky Photography; Valérie Matteau, Arts Programmer and Exhibitions Coordinator, Ryerson Image Centre (RIC); and George Simionopoulos, Creative Director, Hariri Pontarini Architects. Thanks to Professor David Harris for his guidance in the early stages of this thesis project and to my second reader, Blake Fitzpatrick, Professor and Graduate Program Director, Documentary Media Program (MFA) at Ryerson University’s School of Image Arts, for his assistance in the later stages of my thesis. Special thanks to my thesis advisor, Vid Ingelevics, who took on my thesis with enthusiasm and whose feedback and support were essential to the development of this paper. vii Contents Author’s Declaration iii Abstract v Acknowledgements vii List of Illustrations x Introduction 1 Literature Survey 7 Methodology 12 The White Cube 14 Photographic Installation and Architectural Context 16 The Anti-Cube Gallery: THE ROLOFF BENY GALLERY 20 A GALLERY WITH WALLS 22 The Case Studies: THE EXHIBITIONS HIROSHI SUGIMOTO: HISTORY OF HISTORY 28 VANITY FAIR PORTRAITS: PHOTOGRAPHS 1913-2008 32 EDWARD BURTYNSKY: OIL 36 Conclusion 41 Appendix: LIST OF EXHIBITIONS IN THE ROLOFF BENY GALLERY 43 Bibliography 45 ix List of Illustrations Figure 1. The Royal Ontario Museum from Bloor Street, Toronto, Ontario. 3 Photograph by author. Figure 2. Interior of Roloff Beny Gallery with no exhibition. Photograph courtesy of 3 © Royal Ontario Museum. Figure 3. Housepaint, Phase 2: Shelter. Photograph courtesy of © Royal Ontario Museum. 5 Figure 4. Dan Perjovschi: Late News. Photograph courtesy of © Royal Ontario Museum. 5 Figure 5. Gilbert & George, London Pictures, White Cube Bermondsey, London. 14 Photograph courtesy of White Cube © 2012 White Cube. Figure 6. Interior view of “original” Roloff Beny Gallery. Photograph courtesy of 21 © Royal Ontario Museum. Figure 7. Interior of Extension to Denver Art Museum, Frederic C. Hamilton Building, 21 Colorado. Photograph courtesy of Studio Daniel Libeskind © Bitter Bredt. Figure 8. The main corridor of the Roloff Beny Gallery with no exhibition. Photograph 23 courtesy of © Royal Ontario Museum. Figure 9. Partial floor plan of iceberg walls in Roloff Beny Gallery. Courtesy of 24 © Royal Ontario Museum. Figure 10. View towards gallery’s main bridge entrance with no exhibition. Photograph 25 courtesy of © Royal Ontario Museum. Figure 11. View from gallery’s main bridge entrance during Vanity Fair Portraits: Photographs 2 6 1913-2008. Photograph courtesy of © Royal Ontario Museum. Figure 12. Hiroshi Sugimoto: History of History. Photograph courtesy of © Royal Ontario 29 Museum. Figure 13. Sugimoto’s Seascapes during Hiroshi Sugimoto: History of History. Photograph 30 courtesy of © Royal Ontario Museum. Figure 14. View of main corridor from gallery’s bridge entrance during Vanity Fair 33 Portraits: Photographs 1913-2008. Photograph courtesy of © Royal Ontario Museum. Figure 15. Display of modern period photographs. Vanity Fair Portraits: Photographs 35 1913-2008. Photograph courtesy of © Royal Ontario Museum. x Figure 16. View of gallery corner–to left of main bridge entrance. Vanity Fair Portraits: 35 Photographs 1913-2008. Photograph courtesy of © Royal Ontario Museum. Figure 17. Edward Burtynsky: Oil from gallery’s main bridge entrance. Photograph 37 courtesy of © Royal Ontario Museum. Figure 18. Layout plan of Edward Burtynsky: Oil. Courtesy of Valérie Matteau, Arts 37 Programmer and Exhibitions Coordinator, Ryerson Image Centre (RIC), Toronto. Figure 19. “Extraction and Refinement” during Edward Burtynsky: Oil. Photograph 39 courtesy of © Royal Ontario Museum. xi Introduction Matted, framed and hung in linear rows at a standard height.1 Photography has been primarily exhibited in this manner since Beaumont Newhall–the Museum of Modern Art’s (MoMA) first curator of photography–employed this modernist aesthetic in the 1940s.2 The goal of this approach is to create the impression that the art objects stand alone in the white-walled space, de-contextualized, with no distractions from the gallery architecture. In 1976, Brian O’Doherty wrote a collection of critical essays on the ideology of the gallery space under the title Inside the White Cube that were published in the March, April, and November issues of Artforum, one of the most influential American art magazines of the time.3 O’Doherty described the already-existing, clean, blank modernist gallery space as a white cube: a space devoid of natural light and anything related to the outside world. O’Doherty’s three essays on the white cube were published ten years later by The Lapis Press in book format.4 In 1999, the book was republished by the University of California Press with the addition of a 1981 essay by O’Doherty, an indication of their continuing importance.5 These essays are still some of the most cited in reference to modernist exhibition spaces and the presentation of art objects. However, at the end of the twentieth century, a new form of gallery space was created with the emergence of a new category of architecture: the iconic.6 Since the construction of Frank O. Gehry’s iconic Guggenheim Museum Bilbao at the turn of the twenty-first century, museum architecture has become iconic in nature. In some cases, this has led to the creation of gallery spaces that move beyond the “invisible” architectural interiors characteristic of the white cube gallery. Eccentric spaces are now emerging that speak to the innovative and creative programming of the institutions, such as Peter Zumthor’s Kunsthaus Bregenz, Tadao Ando’s Naoshima Contemporary Art Museum, and Renzo Piano’s Maison Hermès. Some of these spaces–like the 1Christopher Phillips, “The Judgment Seat of Photography,” October 22 (Autumn 1982): 38. 2Ibid., 35. 3Brian O’Doherty, “Inside the White Cube: Notes on the Gallery Space, Part I,” Artforum