Museum Skepticism: A History of the Display of Art in Public Galleries

About this book

In Museum Skepticism art historian David Carrier traces the birth evolution and decline of the public art museum as an institution meant to spark democratic debate and discussion. Carrier contends that since the inception of the public art museum during the French Revolution its development has depended on growth: on the expansion of collections particularly to include works representing non-European cultures and on the proliferation of art museums around the globe. Arguing that this expansionist project has peaked he asserts that art museums must now find new ways of making high art relevant to contemporary lives. Ideas and inspiration may be found he suggests in mass entertainment such as popular music and movies. Carrier illuminates the public role of art museums by describing the ways they influence how art is seen: through their architecture their collections the narratives they offer museum visitors. He insists that an understanding of the art museum must take into account the roles of collectors curators and museum architects. Toward that end he offers a series of case studies showing how particular museums and their collections evolved. Among those who figure prominently are Baron Dominique Vivant Denon the first director of the Louvre; Bernard Berenson whose connoisseurship helped Isabella Stewart Gardner found her museum in Boston; Ernest Fenollosa who assembled much of the Asian art collection now in the Museum of Fine Arts Boston; Albert Barnes the distinguished collector of modernist painting; and Richard Meier architect of the J. Paul Getty Center in Los Angeles. Carriers learned consideration of what the art museum is and has been provides the basis for understanding the radical transformation of its public role now under way.