ABSTRACT
In larger museums curators belong to departments designated by period and medium, and they will make decisions about which works from their department's collection will appear on the floor of the permanent exhibition. The current cult of the curator as artist has much to do with the evolving medium of the Gesamtkunstwerk. The essential feature of a Gesamtkunstwerk is the combination of art forms across medium and even bridging the sectors of literary, visual, and performing arts. In order to achieve expression in the placement of artworks, the curator must make careful use of their spaces' inbuilt features: sight-lines, places for revelation, and points of prestige. The 1903 presentation of French Impression spread familiarity with the movement deep in to Central Europe. But the achievement that most completely embodied the institution's Gesamtkunstwerk aesthetic would be the 1902 Beethoven Exhibition.
