Open gallery
The act of collecting is a common passion shared across cultures and histories.
There are many answers for why people collect. Some cultures included
collecting as part of their religious practices, as in the case of prehistoric
Egyptian objects buried in tombs. Collecting also can arise from an individual
pursuit. The Renaissance saw the rise of the Wunderkammer, or cabinet of
curiosities, that put objects on display to demonstrate the power and tastes of
the individual owner.
Examining today’s collector, museum scholar Stephen Weil identifies collecting
in his book A Cabinet of Curiosities as an impulse that is a “complex and
irrepressible expression of the inner individual.” Today’s museum or gallery is a
Western construct that puts the collector’s “individual expression” on display,
providing an opportunity for those objects once reserved for the elite to
become part of the general public consciousness. The exhibition, Central Texas
Collects: The Ceramic Spectrum at Southwestern University, brings together
diverse ceramic pieces from private collections that are within miles of each
other but have never been seen together. The exhibit provides a unique
opportunity for the central Texas community to draw connections between
works and celebrate the strength of collecting in the area.
With the present controversies over one-collection shows, such as “The
Imaginary Museum” concept recently explored by New Museum chief curator
Richard Flood, the exhibition at Southwester University provides a positive and
thoughtful approach to exhibiting private collections. By selecting individual
works from multiple collections, curators Chris Campbell and Patrick
Veerkamp are overcoming the stigma attached to exhibitions of private
collections. The exhibition overcomes the isolationist characteristic inherent in
private collections by drawing new connections between works that would not
traditionally be displayed together. The curators are providing an opportunity
for the general public to make associations between disparate objects.
Furthermore, Phillipp Blom in To Have and To Hold: An Intimate History of
Collectors and Collecting, identifies collecting as a psychological attempt to “make
sense of the multiplicity and chaos of the world, and perhaps even to find in it
a hidden meaning.” This desire to create order from chaos perhaps belies a
deeper desire to challenge the mortality of humanity. The collections acquired
by individuals are frequently passed down for generations or are gifted to a
collecting institution. Similarly, this timely and reflective exhibition will be
documented and stand as a testament to the history of collecting in central
Texas, recognizing the contributions of individual private collections to the
public realm.
- Anna Walker, writer for upcoming catalogue essay for Central Texas Collects