Author Description

Catalogue to accompany the exhibition "The Museum Imagined," curated by Lilly Wei at Danese/Corey, New York from October 16 to November 14, 2015. "The Museum Imagined," curated by New York art critic, Lilly Wei, was inspired by André Malraux, the universally respected novelist, art historian and theorist. In 1947, he proposed le musée imaginaire, which advanced the revolutionary concept that a self-curated treasury of art could exist and be held within our own minds. In the ever-expanding world of art, it is rare for any single museum to acquire works that fully represent the myriad cultures that have flourished throughout history. An imagined museum allows us to collect, store, and retrieve art that has had a profound impact on our lives, work that has inspired thought and delighted our senses. Malraux does not argue that photographs, digital or otherwise, could have the capacity to replace the experience of a direct engagement with art. Instead, photographs are instruments of le musée imaginaire, allowing us to add to our conjured collections, providing accessibility through the mind's eye. As Malraux famously quoted, "An art book is a museum without walls.” Lilly Wei's Museum Imagined presents a number of proposals that broaden but do not supplant the traditional notions of what constitutes a museum. Artists included: Amar Bakshi, Stephen Dean, Anne Deleporte, Ellen Harvey, Reuven Israel, Joshua Neustein, Serkan Özkaya, Jessica Segall