Word: rileys
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Beginning the lecture by declaring himself a Derridean "amateur" at art history, Riley used the collection as tool in order to elucidate some interesting issues in theories of architecture. Although at times his analyses of the works seemed a little farfetched. he did present some intriguing questions about the role of architecture...
...Although Riley insisted that the museum worked as architectural and decorative whole, he never attempted to explain how. However, he did characterize the integration of art and architecture by astutely explaining that the "architecture is binding" and that it "leaks in and out of the art." In his discussion of the architecture a s subject in art, he suggested that architecture adds weightness or gravitas to a science and demonstrated this by claiming that furniture and architectural fragments in Botticell's "Mother and Child Jesus" made the scene less domestic and more dignified. Perhaps more convincing was his point that...
...Riley also addressed the issue of frames, and did so by returning to his aesthetic/utilitarian dualism. He provided contrasting examples of frames used to project paintings and those used to adorn and enhance them. He emphasized that upon close scrutiny it is evident that some frames are decorated by architectural motifs like columns pediments, and arches thereby aesthetically representing their utilitarian role; some like Vasari's "The Musicians," act as a window through which the protagonists lean...
Interestingly, Riley pointed out that some works, including a colorful Japanese screen depicting a series of rooms from above, use architecture to create conceptual boundaries, separating events that occur in different times, thereby creating a narrative-almost like frames in a comic book...
Throughout Riley's guided tour of the museum, be often paused for commentary on the acquisitive Gardner herself, accommodating her into his dualist scheme. He stressed that she was both a romantic wanderer who longed for emotional connection with art, as well as a scientific archeologist, who strove to understand art. He emphasized that her collection in intended to educate but is simultaneously an expression of her own artistic senses. Although it might appear to exist in pleasing disarray, it was actually thoughtfully and wittily designed...