The Institutionalization of Video Art at the Museum of Modern Art | Intellect Skip to content
1981
Volume 12, Issue 2
  • ISSN: 2045-5836
  • E-ISSN: 2045-5844

Abstract

Analysing the history of video art poses challenges due to the complex environments from which video emerged. However, some of its conceptual origins can be traced through art institutions that pioneered the integration of video art into museums. By examining key projects and exhibitions at the Museum of Modern Art, I argue that the museum’s first study grant obtained from the Rockefeller Foundation not only expanded the exhibition and collection of video work, but also laid the foundation for its institutionalization, which in turn exerted decisive effects on the subsequent history of video art.

Loading

Article metrics loading...

/content/journals/10.1386/jcs_00086_1
2024-01-12
2024-04-27
Loading full text...

Full text loading...

References

  1. Abrahamson, Eric John (2013), Beyond Charity: A Century of Philanthropic Innovation, New York: Rockefeller Foundation.
    [Google Scholar]
  2. Balsom, Erika (2013), Exhibiting Cinema in Contemporary Art, Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press.
    [Google Scholar]
  3. Barr, Alfred H. Jr (1938), Notes for the reorganization committee, 23 February, Alfred H. Barr, Jr. Archives of American Art, microfilm #2166, frame #670, Museum of Modern Art Archives, New York.
  4. Battcock, Gregory (1978), New Artists Video: A Critical Anthology, New York: Dutton.
    [Google Scholar]
  5. Belting, Hans (2014), An Anthropology of Images: Picture, Medium, Body, Princeton: Princeton University Press.
    [Google Scholar]
  6. Betancourt, Michael (2020), The History of Motion Graphics, Rockville, MD: Wildside Press.
    [Google Scholar]
  7. Cahan, Susan E. (2018), Mounting Frustration: The Art Museum in the Age of Black Power, Durham, NC: Duke University Press.
    [Google Scholar]
  8. Coelewij, Leontine (2020), ‘TV Buddha’, in Sook-Kyung Lee and Rudolf Frieling (eds), Nam June Paik, New York: DelMonico Books/Prestel, pp. 14043.
    [Google Scholar]
  9. Comer, Stuart and Kuo, Michele (2023), ‘Signals: How Video Transformed the World’, in Stuart Comer and Michele Kuo (eds), Signals: How Video Transformed the World, New York: Museum of Modern Art, pp. 1121.
    [Google Scholar]
  10. Connolly, Maeve (2014), TV Museum: Contemporary Art and the Age of Television, Bristol: Intellect.
    [Google Scholar]
  11. Davis, Douglas (1973), Art and the Future: A History/Prophecy of the Collaboration Between Science, Technology and Art, New York: Praeger.
    [Google Scholar]
  12. Decherney, Peter (2005), Hollywood and the Culture Elite: How the Movies Became American, New York: Columbia University Press.
    [Google Scholar]
  13. Fifield, George (2001), ‘The WGBH New Television Workshop’, in Curtis L. Carter (ed.), Fred Barzyk: The Search for a Personal Vision in Broadcast Television, Milwaukee: Marquette University Patrick and Beatrice Haggerty Museum of Art, pp. 6371.
    [Google Scholar]
  14. Galenson, David W. (2009), Conceptual Revolutions in Twentieth-Century Art, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
    [Google Scholar]
  15. Giebelhausen, Michaela (2008), ‘The Architecture is the Museum’, in Janet Marstine (ed.), New Museum Theory and Practice: An Introduction, Hoboken, NJ: Wiley, pp. 4159.
    [Google Scholar]
  16. Gigliotti, Davidson (1983), ‘Video Art in the Sixties’, in Donald Droll and Jane Nicol (eds), Abstract Painting: 1960–69, New York: Institute for Art and Urban Resources, n.p.
    [Google Scholar]
  17. Harithas, James (1974), ‘Forward’, in Judson Rosebush (ed.), Nam June Paik: Videa ’n’ Videology, 1959–1973, Syracuse: Everson Museum of Art, p. 1.
    [Google Scholar]
  18. Herzogenrath, Wulf (1977), ‘Notes on Video as an Artistic Medium’, in Douglas Davis and Allison Simmons (eds), The New Television: A Public/Private Art: Essays, Statements and Videotapes, Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, pp. 8893.
    [Google Scholar]
  19. Herzogenrath, Wulf (2022), interview with the author, 28 June, Berlin.
  20. Houwen, Janna (2017), Film and Video Intermediality: The Question of Medium Specificity in Contemporary Moving Images, London: Bloomsbury.
    [Google Scholar]
  21. Hurst, Sam, Shubinski, Barbara and Abrahamson, Eric John (2013), Democracy and Philanthropy: The Rockefeller Foundation and the American Experiment, New York: Rockefeller Foundation.
    [Google Scholar]
  22. Joselit, David (2007), Feedback: Television Against Democracy, Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
    [Google Scholar]
  23. Jung, Sera (2023), ‘The Consultant: Paik’s Papers, 1968–1979’, Panorama: Journal of the Association of Historians of American Art, 9:1, pp. 16.
    [Google Scholar]
  24. Klein, Howard (1975), letter to Barbara London, 15 September, box #R2195, New York: Rockefeller Archive Center.
  25. Klein, Howard (1976), letter to John G. Hanhardt, 3 March, box #6597, folder #6597, New York: Rockefeller Archive Center.
  26. Krauss, Rosalind (1976), ‘Video: The Aesthetics of Narcissism’, October, 1, pp. 5064.
    [Google Scholar]
  27. Kurtz, Bruce (1976), ‘The Present Tense’, in Ira Schneider and Beryl Korot (eds), Video Art: An Anthology, New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, pp. 23443.
    [Google Scholar]
  28. London, Barbara (1975a), letter to Howard Klein, 24 July, box #R2195, New York: Rockefeller Archive Center.
  29. London, Barbara (1975b), video proposal sent to Howard Klein, 24 July, box #R2195, New York: Rockefeller Archive Center.
  30. London, Barbara (1977a), ‘Projects: Nam June Paik Master Checklist’, New York: Museum of Modern Art, https://tinyurl.com/4rh8j8bv. Accessed 12 July 2022.
    [Google Scholar]
  31. London, Barbara (1977b), ‘Video in the Museum of Modern Art’, in Douglas Davis and Allison Simmons (eds), The New Television: A Public/Private Art: Essays, Statements and Videotapes, Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, pp. 11821.
    [Google Scholar]
  32. London, Barbara (1978), video study plan at the Museum of Modern Art sent to Howard Klein, September, box #R2195, New York: Rockefeller Archive Center.
  33. London, Barbara (2020), Video Art: The First Fifty Years, London: Phaidon.
    [Google Scholar]
  34. London, Barbara (2022), interview with the author, 30 May, New York City.
  35. Lorente, Jesús Pedro (2011), The Museums of Contemporary Art: Notion and Development, Farnham: Ashgate.
    [Google Scholar]
  36. Manasseh, Cyrus (2009), The Problematic of Video Art in the Museum, 1968–1990, Amherst: Cambria Press.
    [Google Scholar]
  37. Museum of Modern Art (1987), ‘Barbara London (Biography)’, https://www.moma.org/momaorg/shared/pdfs/docs/press_archives/6482/releases/MOMA_1987_0100_103.pdf. Accessed 12 July 2022.
  38. Oldenburg, Richard (1976), video exhibition and study program sent to Howard Klein, 15 July, box #R2195, New York: Rockefeller Archive Center.
  39. Paik, Nam June (1979), letter to Howard Klein, 13 February, box #944, folder #6350, New York: Rockefeller Archive Center.
  40. Panofsky, Erwin (1995), Three Essays on Style, Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
    [Google Scholar]
  41. Perry, Ted (1975), letter to Howard Klein, 25 September, box #R2195, New York: Rockefeller Archive Center.
  42. Rockefeller Foundation (1977), Annual Report FY1977, https://www.rockefellerfoundation.org/wp-content/uploads/Annual-Report-1977-1.pdf. Accessed 17 August 2023.
    [Google Scholar]
  43. Rockwell, John (1986), ‘Howard Klein to Leave Rockefeller Foundation’, The New York Times, 22 September, p. 11.
    [Google Scholar]
  44. Sancto, Christian (2017), ‘“Managing Miracles”: Governmentality, Avant-Garde Art, and “the TV Problem”’, Junctions: Graduate Journal of the Humanities, 2:1, pp. 6576.
    [Google Scholar]
  45. Sonnier, Keith (2011), ‘On Projects’, Museum of Modern Art, https://www.moma.org/momaorg/shared/pdfs/docs/calendar/projects/OnProjects.pdf. Accessed 17 August 2023.
    [Google Scholar]
  46. Spigel, Lynn (2008), TV by Design: Modern Art and the Rise of Network Television, Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
    [Google Scholar]
  47. Sturken, Marita (1984), ‘TV as a Creative Medium’, Afterimage, 11:10, pp. 59.
    [Google Scholar]
  48. Sturken, Marita (1987), ‘Private Money and Personal Influence: Howard Klein and the Rockefeller Foundation’s Funding of the Media Arts’, Afterimage, 14:6, pp. 88.
    [Google Scholar]
  49. Wagner, Anne M. (2000), ‘Performance, Video, and the Rhetoric of Presence’, October, 91, pp. 5980.
    [Google Scholar]
  50. Wasson, Haidee (2005), Museum Movies: The Museum of Modern Art and the Birth of Art Cinema, Berkeley: University of California Press.
    [Google Scholar]
  51. Wasson, Haidee (2008), ‘Studying Movies at the Museum: The Museum of Modern Art and Cinema’s Changing Object’, in Lee Grieveson and Haidee Wasson (eds), Inventing Film Studies, Durham, NC: Duke University Press, pp. 12148.
    [Google Scholar]
  52. Wilson, Jason (2015), ‘Participation TV: Videogame Archaeology and New Media Art’, in Melanie Swalwell and Jason Wilson (eds), The Pleasures of Computer Gaming: Essays on Cultural History, Theory and Aesthetics, Jefferson, NC: McFarland, pp. 94117.
    [Google Scholar]
  53. Zinman, Gregory (2020), Making Images Move: Handmade Cinema and the Other Arts, Berkeley: University of California Press.
    [Google Scholar]
http://instance.metastore.ingenta.com/content/journals/10.1386/jcs_00086_1
Loading
/content/journals/10.1386/jcs_00086_1
Loading

Data & Media loading...

This is a required field
Please enter a valid email address
Approval was a success
Invalid data
An error occurred
Approval was partially successful, following selected items could not be processed due to error