The Two Art Histories: The Museum and the University (Clark Studies in the Visual Arts)

Many museum professionals today believe that university-based art history focuses too much on theory and the social agency of art neglecting the aesthetic dimensions of the art object. Conversely many academics feel that museums have become preoccupied with the quest for money and audiences making them an increasingly unlikely source of innovative scholarship. In this provocative book seventeen eminent figures from both sides of the art worldmuseum professionals and university scholarsexplore the questions underlying the often tense relationship between the two main branches of the discipline.