On December 8, Charles Esche will present a lecture titled “Historical Times: the capacities of an art museum and how it comes to terms with the world today.” The talk will move from the meta to the micro, placing the activities of one northwest European museum in its particular historical context today. It will look at how modern times have been constructed and then look at the potentiality of the art museum and its collections to introduce ways of storytelling that release other possibilities into the present. The programmes and policies at the Van Abbemuseum, Eindhoven will be the concrete examples of how these larger processes work out in detail. The Van Abbemuseum in Eindhoven is one of the first public museums for contemporary art to be established in Europe. The museums collection of around 2700 works of art includes key works and archives by Lissitzky, Picasso, Kokoschka, Chagall, Beuys, McCarthy, Daniëls and Körmeling. The museum has an experimental approach towards arts role in society, where openness, hospitality and knowledge exchange are important. The Curators Perspective is free of charge and open to the public, though seating is limited. To RSVP please contact Chelsea Haines at chelsea@curatorsintl.org.
The Curators Perspective: Charles Esche has been made possible, in part, by grants from the Robert Sterling Clark Foundation and The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts; by in-kind support from The Graduate Center; and by generous contributions from the ICI Board of Trustees, ICI Benefactors Barbara and John Robinson, and ICI Partners and Patrons.
