In the following post I say that "For the most part, what you find in a museum store is only representative, of the museum’s collection, sort of a brand extension and not a picture of what the museum exhibits in its galleries." (ok, admittedly, i am writing and posting out of order. am trying to keep with my "features" schedule and sometimes topics get explored out of order.)
The "brand extension" aspect of my comment isn't entirely true when it comes to MoMa's store. Most of the original items do exist in the museum's collections. There simply isn't enough room within the galleries to display all of what the museum owns. And to display all would be overwhelming to visitors. Then there is curation to consider.
But I do think those who shop in museum gift shops should be a little more aware of what they are buying. I am one huge sinner in that church.
I was doing some research for something or the other and after paging through Russell Flinchum's American Design, went to MoMa's actual collection of objects to see what they had.
That's where I found that the items I bought from the MoMa store existed in prominent place in design history. For the longest time I just thought that MoMa chose certain products for their shop because the pieces were a natural extension of what the museum might have actually collected. Shame on me and boy am I embarrassed.
This glass was designed by Goran Hongell for Aarne in 1948 (for more.)
I bought a set of these cups at the Pompidou Centre a few years ago and went to the website to see about their origin but alas the site was down. Will keep ya posted.
Feature: Museum Shops
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