Museum Landscapes : Zoning in on A Complex Cultural Field

This article takes up Lars Nittve’s assertion that museums are akin to ‘zones’ and operate as ‘hub[s] in a complex cultural field’. The paper begins with Tate Mod­ern, the museum Nittve led before moving to his current post as director of Mod­erna Museet. This, Sweden’s national collection of contemporary art, is discussed in the light of current cultural politics in Sweden and Norway. The main focus of the paper is an analysis of the exhibition ‘Robert Rauschenberg: Combines’, which toured New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art; Los Angeles’ Museum of Contemporary Art; and the Centre Pompidou, Paris before concluding at Moderna Museet in May 2007. One of its key works was Rauschenberg’s seminal compo­sition, Monogram (1955-9). This particular ‘Combine’ is used as a means of con­structing an ‘institutional critique’ of Moderna Museet. In addition to the role of Lars Nittve, particular attention is paid to his predecessor, Pontus Hultén (1924-2006). Hultén was responsible for acquiring Rauschenberg’s Monogram for Mod­erna Museet in 1964. That this most ‘American’ of artworks has, it is argued, be­come a Swedish icon says much about the societal function of museums as well as the mutability of national identity and cultural heritage.
   All views expressed in this article are the author’s alone and are not endorsed by any of the people or institutions mentioned. Any errors of fact are solely the re­sponsibility of the author. Finally, it is instructive to point out that this text was completed without prior knowledge of a special double issue of Konsthistorisk tidskrift (Journal of Art History) published in early 2007 (vol. 76, nos. 1–2). Entitled ‘Rauschenberg and Sweden’ it contains a wealth of information of direct relevance to the present work. The interested reader is therefore strongly recommended to consult this important publication.