'Inside the White Cube': how does the space influences our perception of art

The famous article 'Inside the White Cube' by an Irish critic Brain O'Doherty, considers the fundamental questions about the gallery space, it's influence on the people inside and how the artworks may be effected by the setting of the gallery. Firstly, the author draws a comparison between the gallery space and sacred places. Such example as Egyptian pyramids and ancient caves are given in order to the tradition of detaching the 'treasures' from the rest of the world. In particular, O'Doherty is concerned about the idea of timelessness, as an important component of experience. He describes the interior of gallery as 'constructed along laws as rigorous as...a medieval church'. The important element of it's construction is the limited connection with the outside world: the absence or covered windows and hardly any everyday objects are placed inside the white cube. Thanks to that, the space works as a place when time stops so that the art can rule the space. 

A so-called 'picture plane' is basically the shapes that have to fill this time-capsule spaces. This shape has also undergone changes, especially during Modernism. Before, the paintings used to be displayed in a thick-frame container that creates an illusion of perspective and helps the painting to absorb viewer's attention. As the painting tradition developed and new genres, such as landscape with a horizon line, as a strong element of composition that spread the edges of the frame. The invention of photography reassessed the importance of framing the picture, simply by promoting it's main principle - determining the actual frames of the image. Later on, Impressionism started to develop the idea of flatness that changed principles of painting presentation. With it's impersonal and softened technique, Impressionist painters, like Monet reduced the importance of the edges, which started to seem accidental rather than necessary. 

The flatness of the painting became more and more obvious as painters started to expand in length and width. The depth, at the same time, was less important, particularly when the focus shifted more towards composition instead of the content. Further, the manner of painting could afford to place the main accent in any part of the canvas independently from it's edges, like Matisse did that. Devaluation of frames and increased sizes led to a necessity of a new approach of placing the painting on the gallery wall. The distance between painting and their order had to be carefully considered, as a salon-like placement would not work with no framed paintings. 

Talking about viewers' experience of gallery space, O'Doherty introduced the concepts of the eye and the spectator. Both of those are kind of alter-egos of a gallery guest. The casual Spectator is a more passive embodiment of gallery visitor. In art he seeks the entertainment component, something that will fulfill his curiosity. Spectator is also frequently someone who implements critic's commentaries to an artwork: he feels..., he notices..., he is effected... . A snobbish self of a viewer is the Eye. It is a quintessence of the observation experience. However, it is not merely the observation, but mostly analysis and evaluation of the observed. The Eye is very sensitive and prefers abstract, conceptual and neutral. Whereas the Spectator is someone who rules among chaotic filled with objects places. It is possible to assume that the Spectator is an identity with physical functions and the Eye is the moral and emotional side of a viewer.

When artworks stepped out of the wall to the real world, the Spectator turned out to be a more appropriate identity for experiencing such art forms as happenings and performances. More senses than just the eyesight. In terms of installations and other 3d experiences, the eye-sight was not usually enough, so that it took both identities to properly experience art. At the same time, the involvement of the Spectator can be considered more significant here, as it is the physical presence of the person that matter in performances, for example.

Reference list

O'Doherty, B. (1986). Inside the White Cube.