Nick Serota’s book, Experience or Interpretation: The Dilemma of Museums of Modern Art,[1] presents a lecture delivered in 1996 in honor of the founder of Thames and Hudson, Walter Neurath, and a new Preface written in January 2000. The book spans the period of gestation of Tate Modern’s hanging policy but predates the emerging controversy about it. Serota’s lecture examines the pros and cons of letting the visitor figure out what a museum has on offer and letting the curator decide what the visitor really wants, as well as various possibilities in between. Sensibly, he argues for a blend of the two hanging policies while leaning toward the former rather than the latter. So, what’s the trouble? The trouble is that neither Serota nor his recent detractors seem to understand that no other hanging policy is viable today, especially when it comes to the interpretation pole of the argument. On the one hand, the visitor is too experienced about art and knowledgeable about art history to want as much interpretation from the curator as he wanted in the past; on the other, the curator is not capable of offering today a manifest interpretation of art or art history that squares with the visitor’s rich experience and knowledge. To wit, the very debate only flatters the curator.

Footnote

1. London and New York: Thames and Hudson, 2000.