The UK’s galleries need not just protect the past. They can be ethical actors in the present
The 20th-century philosopher Hans-Georg Gadamer considered the encounter between the viewer and a work of art to be a dynamic relationship. Meeting a work of art made in the past involves a jolt, a reaction, an actual event, in the present. Coming across the same work of art later will set up another event, another reaction, in which the artwork will be, as it were, activated afresh by the intellect and emotions of the viewer. When we interpret a work of art, we are teasing out its possible meanings in the moment; but those meanings will change, depending on the viewer and the time.
Extend this thought into the world of the museum and it becomes clear that these institutions are not simply about the past. They are, necessarily, about the present. Paintings, sculptures, artefacts of all kinds become meaningful in the “now” of their being viewed and considered. They shape us as we excavate new depths from them.
