Foreword
A romanesque crucifix was not originally a
sculpture, Cimabue's
Madonna was not a picture, nor was Phidias's
Pallas Athena a statue. (11)
Thus does André Malraux begin his chef
dóeuvre on the imaginary museum.(1) It deals
with the transformation of a work of art, of how its
meaning changes when exhibited in a museum. In a museum,
a crucifix becomes a sculpture, an image of the Virgin is
a picture, a sacred effigy a statue. Malraux deeply
questions the ultimate meaning of this great
transformation.
This he has done in more than 600 words of closely
packed, penetrating and illuminating prose, with almost
500 illustrations mainly of photographs in black and
white. The book was written almost half a century ago and
conceived before the European war that so cruelly cut off
millions of human lives, destroying and dispersing a
significant portion of mankind's artistic heritage. It is
a testimony to the turbulence of his time and, at the
same time, a voice of hope. Malraux analyzes the new role
of photographic reproduction in bringing to us the works
of art of the whole world in a new format, on an
accessible universal platform. This imaginary museum of
Malraux's is not a volatile product of the imagination
but a great world collection of images reproduced thanks
to modern technology. We would now say it is both the
product and a symptom of "globalization."
What Malraux predicted is at present coming true
beyond his visionary expectations. As it is, digital
technology has separated the photograph from its paper
support, has promoted the expanded projection of high
fidelity color images and, finally, has made the public
independent of the exhibition hall, of the auditorium and
the lecture room. We are witnessing a new transformation
in the meaning of a work of art and the birth of the
virtual museum, a new kind of museum which is the product
of the prodigious evolution of the imaginary museum. We
shall try to show in what follows the articulation
between both and the real museum.