Julia Noordegraaf

Strategies of Display
Museum Presentation in Nineteenth- and Twentieth-Century Visual Culture

Design: Bregt Balk, paperback, sewn, illustrated (b/w), 288 pages, 17 x 24 cm
Text in English, ISBN 90-5662-378-8, € 33.00 OUT OF PRINT

NAi Publishers in association with Museum Boijmans van Beuningen, Rotterdam

Exhibition May 27 - September 30 2004, Museum Boijmans van Beuningen, Rotterdam

Strategies of Display describes the history of museum presentation within the context of nineteenth- and twentieth-century visual culture. Taking the remarkable display history at the Boijmans Van Beuningen Museum in Rotterdam as a point of departure, it reflects on the history of presentation in museums in Western Europe and North America. Its numerous illustrations present a parallel history of museum presentation in pictures.

Julia Noordegraaf describes how in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries museums communicated with their audiences through their presentations. She argues that museum presentations are based on a 'script' which, like the script of a film, defines a framework of action within which the presentation, its designers and its users interact.

A comparison with other realms of presentation, in particular commercial presentation in department stores and shopping malls, offers new insights into the relationship between the museum and its audience, both now and in the past. As such it seeks to contribute to the international discussion about the role and function of the museum in contemorary society.