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Lot Essay
Muse du Louvre 4, Paris 1989 is one of Thomas Struth's "museum photographs" photographing visitors to the world's great art collections. According to the artist:
I felt a need to make these museum photographs because many works of art, which were created out of particular historical circumstances, have now become mere fetishes, like athletes or celebrities, and the original inspiration for them is fully obliterated. (T)he viewer of the works seen in the photograph finds him/herself in a space in which I, too, belong when I stand in front of the photograph. The photographs illuminate the connection and should lead the viewers away from regarding the works as mere fetish-objects and initiate their own understanding or intervention in historical relationships.
I got the first ideas for these works in the Louvre around Christmastime; it was very crowded and I thought that the world of visitors in the Louvre, people of the most diverse ages and ethnicities, were incredibly similar to the themes in the paintings. And my other conclusion was that I wondered why all the people were there; what were they getting out of it; was any change occurring in their personal lives because of it, in their public lives, in their activity, in their family, with their friends? Is any change through the museum visit even possible, or is it an entertainment, like watching music videos or the way one needs visual refreshment to keep from getting bored. (cited in McShine, p. 116)
I felt a need to make these museum photographs because many works of art, which were created out of particular historical circumstances, have now become mere fetishes, like athletes or celebrities, and the original inspiration for them is fully obliterated. (T)he viewer of the works seen in the photograph finds him/herself in a space in which I, too, belong when I stand in front of the photograph. The photographs illuminate the connection and should lead the viewers away from regarding the works as mere fetish-objects and initiate their own understanding or intervention in historical relationships.
I got the first ideas for these works in the Louvre around Christmastime; it was very crowded and I thought that the world of visitors in the Louvre, people of the most diverse ages and ethnicities, were incredibly similar to the themes in the paintings. And my other conclusion was that I wondered why all the people were there; what were they getting out of it; was any change occurring in their personal lives because of it, in their public lives, in their activity, in their family, with their friends? Is any change through the museum visit even possible, or is it an entertainment, like watching music videos or the way one needs visual refreshment to keep from getting bored. (cited in McShine, p. 116)