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These days， online exhibitions have become a survival mode for art galleries， museums， and art fairs. But more than 50 years ago， before the internet and other visual online media emerged， remote art shows were simply called television art.
Although television art was first introduced as a notion by Lucio Fontana and the Italian Spatialists in their “Manifest for Television” in 1952， it never materialized as a specific art form. In 1969， however， a young innovative German artist and filmmaker named Gerry Schum embarked on a short and intense journey that made history. With his wife Ursula Wevers， he conceived and created the first television gallery， Fernsehgalerie Berlin Gerry Schum. It broadcast its first television exhibition“Land Art” at 10：15 p.m. on April 15， 1969， showcasing works of eight legendary artists.
As cutting-edge art was broadcast directly into people’s homes， it seemed like the possibilities for exhibition could become endless. The idea was simple yet ingenious. He replaced a conventional recording from the exhibition space or studio with works made specifically for television. These works were not shown on small square-box screens in galleries to art aficionados. Quite the contrary， they were meant to be broadcast into every home from the initial artistic concept.
Imagine how contemporary art and the art world would look like today if this vision had succeeded. How would perceptions and philosophies about art have changed？ What we can say with any certainty is that things would be different. Of course， some people would just switch channels， but many would have continued looking at their screens with wonder and a hunger for understanding.
The television gallery was unlike any other kinds of art galleries； its physical space was television sets in people’s homes—it sought an immediate place and space in people’s minds and lives. Furthermore， each show was only broadcast once， ensuring an extremely ephemeral flavor. You either saw it or you missed it. That was it. There were no reruns. Schum’s visionary idea was driven by his desire to use the mass medium of television as an artistic medium and as a consequence， make art more accessible to a wider audience， an idea which also carried a critique of the commercialism of contemporary art that aligned with ideologies of mid-century modern art movements that celebrated art’s profoundly immaterial qualities.
This idea， which aimed to commission art created especially for television as an alternative to documentaries about artists， should be analyzed in the social context of Europe and the United States of the late 1960s. Influenced by the idea of bringing art and culture to all citizens， many sought to make art accessible to everyone. But the concept was also highly influenced by new emerging and groundbreaking artistic movements of the period： performance art， process art， conceptual art， photography， arte povera， and a few artists using video. Such forms aspired to break through limits imposed by traditional art disciplines like sculpture and painting.
When looking at these screens and at these works of art， it is important to be aware you are practicing a mind-resilience， conceptual imagination—learning to understand other ideas and perspectives. These artists conceived the images while knowing that they would be presented on the television set’s square screen with rounded corners. Their contrasting usages of perspective， motion， and stillness are all deliberate and chosen for the format of a television set with flatness and illusionary depth in mind.
The show “From Screen to Mind”recounts a time 50 years ago when art and society witnessed profound changes. Female artists were excluded or not even considered even at a time when the notion of art as a tool for change was the norm—when cutting-edge innovation with only art as a concept was respected and market forces were less imposing on artistic creation. It was also a time when screenbased art started to take baby steps， a time when online television programming was limited to a few channels and when transmission was national rather than global.
The radical innovations of Fernsehgalerie Berlin Gerry Schum remain the key pillars of online screen-based art due to the attempts to find unity between works and media， but also because of the drive to redefine an art form aimed at a mass audience. This vigorous and highly influential yet short-lived experiment prompted artists who might otherwise not have considered screen-based art to engage in broadcast projects first using film and later video. If Gerry Schum’s television gallery triggered the emergence of video art and its early development， it also raised questions—questions that “From Screen to Mind—A 50-Year History” may help to answer.
Furthermore， the exhibition raises questions about our current understanding and engagement with the screen， its mobile and omni-contextual potential， and the problems of reproduction of scale and space.
Although television art was first introduced as a notion by Lucio Fontana and the Italian Spatialists in their “Manifest for Television” in 1952， it never materialized as a specific art form. In 1969， however， a young innovative German artist and filmmaker named Gerry Schum embarked on a short and intense journey that made history. With his wife Ursula Wevers， he conceived and created the first television gallery， Fernsehgalerie Berlin Gerry Schum. It broadcast its first television exhibition“Land Art” at 10：15 p.m. on April 15， 1969， showcasing works of eight legendary artists.
As cutting-edge art was broadcast directly into people’s homes， it seemed like the possibilities for exhibition could become endless. The idea was simple yet ingenious. He replaced a conventional recording from the exhibition space or studio with works made specifically for television. These works were not shown on small square-box screens in galleries to art aficionados. Quite the contrary， they were meant to be broadcast into every home from the initial artistic concept.
Imagine how contemporary art and the art world would look like today if this vision had succeeded. How would perceptions and philosophies about art have changed？ What we can say with any certainty is that things would be different. Of course， some people would just switch channels， but many would have continued looking at their screens with wonder and a hunger for understanding.
The television gallery was unlike any other kinds of art galleries； its physical space was television sets in people’s homes—it sought an immediate place and space in people’s minds and lives. Furthermore， each show was only broadcast once， ensuring an extremely ephemeral flavor. You either saw it or you missed it. That was it. There were no reruns. Schum’s visionary idea was driven by his desire to use the mass medium of television as an artistic medium and as a consequence， make art more accessible to a wider audience， an idea which also carried a critique of the commercialism of contemporary art that aligned with ideologies of mid-century modern art movements that celebrated art’s profoundly immaterial qualities.
This idea， which aimed to commission art created especially for television as an alternative to documentaries about artists， should be analyzed in the social context of Europe and the United States of the late 1960s. Influenced by the idea of bringing art and culture to all citizens， many sought to make art accessible to everyone. But the concept was also highly influenced by new emerging and groundbreaking artistic movements of the period： performance art， process art， conceptual art， photography， arte povera， and a few artists using video. Such forms aspired to break through limits imposed by traditional art disciplines like sculpture and painting.
When looking at these screens and at these works of art， it is important to be aware you are practicing a mind-resilience， conceptual imagination—learning to understand other ideas and perspectives. These artists conceived the images while knowing that they would be presented on the television set’s square screen with rounded corners. Their contrasting usages of perspective， motion， and stillness are all deliberate and chosen for the format of a television set with flatness and illusionary depth in mind.
The show “From Screen to Mind”recounts a time 50 years ago when art and society witnessed profound changes. Female artists were excluded or not even considered even at a time when the notion of art as a tool for change was the norm—when cutting-edge innovation with only art as a concept was respected and market forces were less imposing on artistic creation. It was also a time when screenbased art started to take baby steps， a time when online television programming was limited to a few channels and when transmission was national rather than global.
The radical innovations of Fernsehgalerie Berlin Gerry Schum remain the key pillars of online screen-based art due to the attempts to find unity between works and media， but also because of the drive to redefine an art form aimed at a mass audience. This vigorous and highly influential yet short-lived experiment prompted artists who might otherwise not have considered screen-based art to engage in broadcast projects first using film and later video. If Gerry Schum’s television gallery triggered the emergence of video art and its early development， it also raised questions—questions that “From Screen to Mind—A 50-Year History” may help to answer.
Furthermore， the exhibition raises questions about our current understanding and engagement with the screen， its mobile and omni-contextual potential， and the problems of reproduction of scale and space.