Machine Art Exhibition, MoMA 1934 Artifacts of use displayed in the museum

Machine Art Exhibition, MoMA 1934 Artifacts of use displayed in the museum

Balsa, Raquel; Providência, Francisco; Pombo, Fátima

Article:

The Machine Art exhibition determines the moment when machine and daily use artefacts took their place in an art museum. Although the Machine Art exhibition represents the foresight of MoMA’s founding director Alfred H. Barr, expanding the scope of the museum beyond painting and sculpture, it was also a moment of optimistic belief in machines. Influenced by Futurism, it was a time of feverish enthusiasm fuelled by the propaganda that would enable consumerism. It’s also the moment, unlike architecture, when curators under the ideal of modernity initiate the task of establishing criteria for a museology of artifacts of design. With this article we intended to interpret the significance of this exhibition as critical contribution to the museology of design in its relation to society; in other words, to assess the role of museum as a laboratory to shape behaviors and mentalities. This assumes even more importance given that this article is part of a doctoral research of the first author of this study, devoted to define validation principles that can contribute to the museological treatment and the creation of an artifacts selection system for the Museum of Portuguese design.

The Machine Art exhibition determines the moment when machine and daily use artefacts took their place in an art museum. Although the Machine Art exhibition represents the foresight of MoMA’s founding director Alfred H. Barr, expanding the scope of the museum beyond painting and sculpture, it was also a moment of optimistic belief in machines. Influenced by Futurism, it was a time of feverish enthusiasm fuelled by the propaganda that would enable consumerism. It’s also the moment, unlike architecture, when curators under the ideal of modernity initiate the task of establishing criteria for a museology of artifacts of design. With this article we intended to interpret the significance of this exhibition as critical contribution to the museology of design in its relation to society; in other words, to assess the role of museum as a laboratory to shape behaviors and mentalities. This assumes even more importance given that this article is part of a doctoral research of the first author of this study, devoted to define validation principles that can contribute to the museological treatment and the creation of an artifacts selection system for the Museum of Portuguese design.

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DOI: 10.5151/despro-icdhs2014-0014

Referências bibliográficas

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Como citar:

Balsa, Raquel; Providência, Francisco; Pombo, Fátima; "Machine Art Exhibition, MoMA 1934 Artifacts of use displayed in the museum", p-145-150. In: Tradition, Transition, Tragectories: major or minor influences? [=ICDHS 2014 - 9th Conference of the International Committee for Design History and Design Studies]. São Paulo: Blucher, 2014.
ISSN 23186968, DOI 10.5151/despro-icdhs2014-0014