Collecting Cultures: Taste, Passion and the Making of Art Histories

3 units

This seminar examines the theory and the cultural history of the collecting of art objects and artifacts from a range of cultures and periods, and it considers how and why both individuals and institutions create collections. What social and psychological factors drive this passion? What are the various cultural, political, and aesthetic priorities that have driven this practice historically? How is cultural patrimony defined, and how do law, the art market, and cross-cultural ethics impact the placement, study, and display of a culture's material heritage? We will build the seminar around the history of collecting in America, with a focus on Midwestern examples and particularly important case studies in St Louis. We will consider, for example, the significant local collections built by Joseph and Emily Rauh Pulitzer (modern art) and Morton May (modern and Oceanic art), as well as the histories of both modern European and non-Western collections now owned by St. Louis-area museums. This course will be complemented by various local field trips, including to the Saint Louis Art Museum, the Pulitzer Arts Foundation, the Mildred Lane Kemper Art Museum, and Cahokia Mounds State Historic Site. Prerequisites: L01 113; L01 215; or permission of instructor. One 300-level course in Art History preferred.