On curating theme based exhibitions

Matthias Waschek is Director of the Pulitzer Foundation for the Arts in Saint Louis. Prior to joining the Pulitzer in 2004, he spent 12 years as head of academic programs at the Louvre in Paris where he oversaw the museum's lecture series and symposia--a position that, he says, involved "curating people."

I spent some time on the phone yesterday with Waschek, discussing how he goes about putting together the theme based exhibitions for which the Pulitzer is becoming known.

A small, theme based exhibition is an interesting thing. It would seem to be an easy type of show to curate, but it's rare that I see one that really works well. A good show, I'm imagining, has to begin with a robust theme. How do you start the process of defining a theme for yourself?

That's a difficult question to answer because in our case there's not a specific "method." The thought process is highly associative and framed, in the true sense of the word, by the existing architecture. Temporary exhibition spaces tend to be more neutral, allowing for an ever changing scenography. Our scenography is Tadao Ando's design, which has a strong contemplative aspect.

Interestingly enough, the very first exhibition I was involved in at the Pulitzer was a thematic one, working on this contemplative aspect. The title of this exhibition was Exploring Ando's Space, Art and the Spiritual.

I began by asking what makes the visitor perceive a work as spiritual and a space as contemplative. We gathered work from different periods and cultures, drawing strongly from the collection of the Saint Louis Art Museum and working closely with our colleagues there. Our choice of work was not determined only by the thematic context. Specific spaces and possibilities of juxtaposition led to thinking about specific (and available) artworks.

By taking the space into account, we were able to avoid the pitfall where artworks illustrate a thematic point to the detriment of their aesthetic magic. In our space, we're able to give each of the works the breathing space it needs. By allowing them to offer other dimensions, they enrich the theme.

So space plays an important part in any show you put together, but how do you germinate the original idea?

As I said before, it's a very organic process. It's not that you have a hypothesis originally. The work and the space generate the ideas, not the other way around.

Let me give you another example. One of the starting points for our recent Portrait/Homage/Embodiment exhibition was Richard Serra's Joe which was commissioned for the courtyard.

This torqued spiral is clearly not a portrait, but you feel its physical presence just as you do when you interact with a person. So that raised the nature of the portrait as a shorthand for referencing people. We have another work by Serra, Joplin, which in some circumstances is mute but in the context of portraiture takes on a different set of associations. And from there we began thinking about a work by Doris Salcedo we have, and then a great Chuck Close in the Saint Louis Art Museum was available. One work opens up to another, and you start making the exhibition.

The theme is both a pretext to show wonderful artworks and a framework for them. It's not an aim in itself, yet it turns into a serious aim. It's a very ambivalent thing. And that's the problem. Theme based shows where works turn into illustrations are a problem. The sum of rich and multilayered artworks confirms and enriches the theme. The theme is a pretext, but then it turns out to be a focus.

Since your process isn't formulaic, there's always a risk that a show won't come together as well as you would like. Does that ever happen?

Fortunately, this has not happened so far--possibly because the building has always disciplined us.

But it's not only the importance of the architecture that sets Pulitzer exhibitions apart. Our mission is to allow visitors a personal experience with artworks. Our mission statement contains the key notions of a "sanctuary" for the arts and a "laboratory," so we can allow ourselves the luxury of different thought processes.

For the time being, this allows us to explore more associative ways of thinking. So far, colleagues from other institutions have been very encouraging to us. I hope that our exceptionally idiosyncratic existence here will allow others to think outside the box.

That said, there's always a risk that we face. With Water, our current exhibition, if we hadn't gotten it right we would have seemed like children playing with very expensive objects. There's a risk to requesting loans of works by Matisse, Twombly, Beckmann, and others. But if you can get it right by contextualizing them in a new way, you can help people see the works with new eyes--to free the works from preconceived ideas about them that you think you are supposed to have.

The Pulitzer Foundation for the Arts' current exhibition, Water, runs through January 5, 2008.

--Todd Gibson