The Problematic of Video Art in the Museum, 1968–1990 By Cyrus M ...

acquisition and exhibition of Video Art as a museum-based installation, these four geographically distinct institutions have been selected to present a semblance of a global comparative analysis.³ The aim of this study is to investigate the extent of MoMA's influence upon three globally distinct institutions in relation to video. The book will propose to define why each institution would deal with the problematics posed by the acquisition and presentation/exhibition of video in the manner that they did.⁴ The book looks at how two huge museums—the Tate Gallery and the AGNSW—would largely retain the classical museum framework as first defined by the Louvre, while two others—MoMA and the Pompidou—through their initiatives for change would depart from this structure. The book intends neither to excoriate the situating of video art in the museum context, nor does it attempt to defend it. Rather, it will assess the museum's treatment of the problematics posed by video as a form of installation art which proliferated in Modernity and through the postmodern period. Effectively, it does this via an examination of each of MoMA's methods in conjunction with three other major art institutions’ unique methods, practices, and priorities. In addition, this examination studies the presentational strategies and purchasing patterns of each museum in relation to video art, specifically over the period from 1968 to 1990.⁵ In doing so, the book will attempt to reveal how and why art museums (which would include today's contemporary art museums) fashion themselves in order to better accommodate the art of the period that would surround them, as the museum's practices would mirror the art of the period. The unifying thread that centres the discussion in each chapter is the central theme of nationalism/colonialism as typified within each institution (and the relations between them).

From the beginning, the innovative nature of the Museum of Modern Art's policies challenged the existing structure of the art museum. MoMA had been designed to exhibit avant-garde art from as early as 1929. MoMA's first director, Alfred Barr, stated in 1954 that “Modern art is almost as varied and complex as modern life”.⁶ In relation to its importance for the development of the modern art museum through the methods and values it was committed to from as early as the 1930s, MoMA's