White Cube: The Gallery Space Shaping

The aim of this article is to examine the notion of the “white cube”. The “white cube” is a specific space designed for demonstrating and exposing art objects in museums and galleries. During the 19th century, the concept of how the context of museum’s or gallery’s space influences the reception of art was widely discussed. It becomes clear that the new form of art exhibition is required. Art directors started to bring new ideas, painting the museum walls in different colors and challenging the traditional ways of hanging art objects. In the end, the new space for demonstrating and exhibiting art was installed. Brian O’Doherty, an Irish writer and artist, coined the term “the White Cube” to describe the brand-new art space. In his writings, such as Inside the White Cube: The Ideology of the Gallery Space, O’Doherty argued that the experience of art perception in the “white cube” is similar to the religious one. It was Alfred H. Barr Jr, an American art historian and the first director of the Museum of Modern Art in New York City, who made a “white cube” the model to exhibit art in museums and galleries. Alfred Barr argued that a space for exhibiting and demonstrating modern art should have white and neutral color of the walls, and minimalistic décor; the art-space should not be ideological. Its main purpose is to demonstrate art in the most neutral way. “White cube” is a global phenomenon now, suitable for small, mid-sized galleries and the big art-fairs and Biennales as well. Therefore, it is important to observe its origins and initial purposes. Exploring the ways how the context of art gallery or museum influences the art has become the art practice itself, which is called “the institutional critique”. Accordingly, this research also examines how Marcel Duchamp, Yves Klein, Michael Asher, Daniel Buren and others creflected on the way art galleries and museums organized their activities.