Histories and Critiques of the Art Museum

Undergraduate

The art museum is an institution with an active ideological and social role, which has a decisive impact on the formation of art historical knowledge. Urgent questions in contemporary museology include: Can we decolonize the museum? How can museums become more inclusive? Should collections be returned to communities of origin? This course examines the recent literature on the history of art museums, opening up theoretical and methodological as well as substantive and historical issues. It also provides a broad survey of the development of the art museum from the French Revolution to the present day. Issues under investigation include: the formation of histories for art through the hanging of collections; questions of representation of women, ethnic and cultural groups in museum collections; the definition and promulgation of nationalism and ‘schools’ of art; the relationship between the art museum and Modernism; contemporary artists and the museum gallery spaces and the making of publics for art; the processes of acquisition, cataloguing and display by institutions; the social and educational role of the art museum; the relationship between art museums and colonialism; museums in the post-colonial world; museums and race today. Permission of the instructor is required. HU T 1:30pm-3:25pm