Whitechapel Gallery is among the first London galleries built upon public funding. Designed and constructed by architect Charles Harrison Townsend from 1895 to 1999, it remains as one of the most significant artistic institutions located in East London and has been serving the local community since then. But, at the same time, Whitechapel Gallery seems to have developed its own philosophy with a unique and intriguing perspective to uncover and present the cultural value lying in the broad terrain of human society.

Unlike other notable galleries and museums whose origins could be traced back into the long British history, Whitechapel Gallery wasn’t born with its root in the aristocratic remains nor in the bourgeois leisure. However, since the very beginning of its operation, the gallery has been engaged within the global artistic and cultural context. Opening to the public in 1901 when human culture was centralized in a few industrialized capitals, Whitechapel Gallery already recognized the minority in a respectful manner. Art and culture from different continents and countries were featured in its main collection, which, from the perspective of the present days, enables the far and chaotic history to be approached and unveiled. Feudal China, pre-war Jews, and newly-established Czechoslovakia and the numerous others, featured in the gallery’s long history of exhibitions, enriching the artistic research with, consciously or not, attempts to bridge the native and foreign lands.

Among its long catalogue of exhibitions, a few ones are of much significance. Pablo Picasso’s masterpiece Guernica chose Whitechapel Gallery as its first stop in the UK in a European tour to protest the Spanish Civil War. American abstract expressionist Jackson Pollock had his debut show in the UK at Whitechapel Gallery, following one held at the Museum of Modern Art in New York. It also introduced Frida Kahlo, a key female figure in Mexican visual art, to audiences in London. Such major exhibitions, within the gallery’s context of simplicity and sincerity, served not as a major event, but as a gaze at art world with genuine concerns.

While maintaining a rich archive, Whitechapel Gallery is meanwhile determined to discover the new and inspiring. It sheds the lights on the ordinary landscape and human life to tell a narrative. In The Missing Voice, Janet Cardiff departed from what used to be the Whitechapel Library to begin her urban wandering. German photographer Thomas Ruff reproduced and installed his passport-style portraits in the main display room. Within the typical ‘white cube’ space he explored the power of contemporary image-making. Mark Dion, an explorer, and collector, presented his years of collecting and preserving, bringing the audiences to the minor yet fundamental fragments of nature. In the exhibition Mark Dion: Theatre of the Natural World, the major piece, The Library for the Birds of London, seizes the very attention from everyone viewer. Stepping into the cage installed in the middle of the room, viewers are invited to take a close look at a bare tree decorated with books. Meanwhile, birds, which seem to be the real owner of this space, welcome with either curiosity or anxiety the unexpected guests. Positioned like a sacred figure for inhabiting, healing and enlightening, the tree contains the inner strength to construct a comforting yet uncanny imagery. Meanwhile, though built as a typical ‘white cube’ space, the display rooms of Whitechapel Gallery, however, are showing a subtle paradox.  On the one hand, it is open and spiritually accessible, which means the varied room layout and natural light from the skylights reduced the sense of being confined. On the other hand, when looking out of the stage, you are still aware of the situation of being a viewer, who came for a staged piece of art. The sense of distance is hence unable to be eliminated.

Such a visit to Mark Dion’s exhibition can almost reflect one’s perception of Whitechapel Gallery. Not being an orthodox artistic institution, it interacts with its own identity and audience to a great extent. Nonetheless, like all the galleries and museums, how far it can go to overcome the distinction between viewers and the art pieces needs to be clarified. Or, whether such attempts are necessary remains questionable. Despite that, Whitechapel Gallery has fulfilled its role as a recorder and educator, with much tenderness and sincerity.

Figure 1:

Author unknown. (1939) Picasso and Guernica. Available at: https://www.whitechapelgallery.org/about/history/history-firsts/ (Accessed: 22 February 2019).

Figure 2:

Fan Gu. (2018) The Library for the Birds of London.