Museums abound for all sorts of things. Art and history are the most
prominent. Art, in my opinion, includes lace. The thing about the average
art museum is that those who go there have acquired an education about what
is standing there, and what is hanging on the walls. Art history courses
can be a requirement in college. Or your husband/mother/father/girlfriend
is interested in art and educated you when you went to museums. Or you read
the numerous art history/criticism books available today. We always get the
audioguide for any museum we go to in order to understand why a particular
painting is hanging on the wall. Seeing that a picture is pretty is nice,
but that doesn’t even scratch the surface of the meaning of a true work of
art. Knowing about art history and painting in general enhances the
appreciation of a particular picture.
Lace in a museum suffers from the ignorance of the viewers, and the way it
is presented. Most people who look at lace have little or no comprehension
of why this particular piece of lace is there. And indeed, in the museums I
have seen, with the possible exception of the present exhibit at the
Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, the piece of lace is presented, but
there is no explanation as to why it should be in a museum. No explanation
as to the style of lace, where it was or probably was made, the statistics
about that piece, the history of that particular type of lace, where the
piece has been, if that is known. The erroneous assumption is made that the
person will know why this piece of lace is in a museum and thus will be able
to truly appreciate it. People in general, especially in the United
States, do not understand lace, do not know its history, do not know why it
is special. When planning a museum exhibit of lace, this must be
considered, explanations must be presented as to why it is there, much more
than the explanations about the paintings, because the general public knows
a lot more about painting than it does about lace.
Lyn in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, USA, reveling in a Pennsylvania winter, as
opposed to the dismal, dreary, dark Christmas in Goteborg, Sweden.
Pennsylvania has bright sunny days, days without wind and rain. And 4 more
hours of daylight in the middle of winter.
-
To unsubscribe send email to [email protected] containing the line:
unsubscribe lace [email protected]. For help, write to
[email protected]. Photo site:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/lacemaker/sets/
