ART 578: Seminar in the History of Museums and Exhibitions
Fall 2015
Dr. Allyson Williams
Office: A-559,
Phone: 619-594-5918—during office hours
Class: Tues. and Th. 9:30-10:45, Room A-512 B
Office hours: Tues. and Th. 2-2:30
There are people like Senhor José everywhere, who fill their time, or what they believe to be their
spare time, by collecting stamps, coins, medals, vases, postcards, matchboxes, books, clocks, sport
shirts, autographs, stones, clay figurines, empty beverage cans, little angels, cacti, opera programs,
lighters, pens, owls, music boxes, bottles, bonsai trees, paintings, mugs, pipes, glass obelisks, ceramic
ducks, old toys, carnival masks, and they probably do so out of something that we might call
metaphysical angst, perhaps because they cannot bear the idea of chaos being the one ruler of the
universe, which is why, using their limited powers and with no divine help, they attempt to impose
some order on the world, and for a short while they manage it, but only as long as they are there to
defend their collection, because when the day comes when it must be dispersed, and that day always
comes, either with their death or when the collector grows weary, everything goes back to its
beginnings, everything returns to chaos.
― José Saramago, All the Names
O bliss of the collector, bliss of the man of leisure! Of no one has less been expected and no one has
had a greater sense of well-being than... a collector. Ownership is the most intimate relationship one
can have to objects. No t that they come alive in him; it is he who comes alive in them.
― Walter Benjamin
For inquire, I pray thee, of the former generation,
And apply thyself to that which their fathers
have searched out –
For we are but of yesterday, and know nothing,
Because our days upon earth are a shadow –
Shall not they teach thee, and tell thee,
And utter words out of their heart?
--Job 8:8
having known this fate of ours so well
wandering around among broken stones, three or six
thousand years
searching in collapsed buildings that might have been
our homes
trying to remember dates and heroic deeds:
will we be able?
--George Seferis, Mythistorema, no. 22
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Remember the days of old, consider the years of ages past
Deuteronomy 32:7
Objects are really what matter. Only they carry the evidence that throughout the centuries something
really happened among human beings.
Claude Levi-Strauss
Collecting is an illness that ought to be covered by the Americans on Disability Act.
Richard Matteuci in Art and Antiques January 2002
A collector, first of all, has to be a collector with a capital C. The collector with a capital C is a very rare
and special species. They’re people who have a quasi-religious enthusiasm for art. They look at art
and think about art and devote all their working lives to the pursuit of art.
Leo Castelli
Collectors become obsessive and then addicted. You become addicted to art and then you can’t live
without it.
Eli Broad
I've become like one of those people I hate, the sort who go to the museum and, instead of looking at
the magnificent Brueghel, take a picture of it, reducing it from art to proof. It's not "Look what
Brueghel did, painted this masterpiece" but "Look what I did, went to Rotterdam and stood in front of
a Brueghel painting!”
― David Sedaris, Let's Explore Diabetes with Owls
She walked about disdainfully, unwilling to be enthusiastic over monuments of uncertain authorship
or date.
― E.M. Forster, A Room with a View
Course description;
This course offers a broad range of readings on museums and exhibitionary practices, the closely
related topics of memory and narrative, and the ways we “collect ourselves” through the objects we
surround ourselves with. In addressing these topics, we will examine histories of early museums,
theories of the origins and functions of the museum, theories about collecting, the concept of the
archive, case studies of collectors, controversial exhibitions, museums and the construction of the
nation-state.
Some of the readings are densely theoretical; others are novellas/fictional narratives that I have
included because they illuminate with intense clarity some of the issues that we address.
Course prerequisite: 12 upper division units in Art History.
Course objectives/outcomes:
To examine the issues of memory and collecting (and its imbrication with human existence,
obsession, and memory); to learn about the histories of museums and exhibitions; to critically
examine how museums and exhibitions have been a part of the construction of “the West” and “the
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Other;” to examine how museums and exhibitionary practices are manifestations of power and
ideology; to examine the relationship of museums to the discipline of art history.
The questions and issues we consider include:
How are practices of collecting related to constructions of self and other; to issues of memory?
When is collecting a means of constituting the self, when is it a kind of disease?
What roles have museums played in the fabrication and maintenance of modernity?
What is the relationship of the museum to the discipline of art history?
What is an archive?
In what ways are museums, colonialism, and imperialism connected?
In what ways are museums devices for “framing”?
What does the museum “frame”?
In what way(s) is the museum a performance? What is “performed”?
In what ways do museums exercise power and discipline?
What is the relationship of museums, collecting, and memory?
What is the function/what are the functions of museums, collections, and archives today?
The modality for learning will be reading and discussion. Each week several texts are assigned.
Students are expected to critically engage with these and to come to class prepared to enter into
active discussion about them. A substantial part of your final grade is dependent on your meaningful
contribution in class.
Class format/structure:
Readings/discussion:
Class is based on weekly reading assignments and class discussion of those assignments. The success
of the class depends on the quality of the discussions and participation by everyone. It is therefore
mandatory that everyone read the assignments for each week and be prepared to discuss them. To
that end, each student will prepare each week for each reading a half page of basic points, bulleted (or
in point form) as follows:
1) A brief summary of the author’s thesis
2) Three to five of the author’s main points in support of that thesis (you may quote specific
sentences from the text but be prepared to paraphrase the author’s meaning in your own
words to demonstrate that you have understood the author. If the material you submit consists
of an excessive number of lines lifted from the text, I will assume that you have not wrestled
with the material and have not understood it. )
3) A sentence or two (no more) from the text that particularly struck you and a brief explanation
of why it struck you.
4) State what insight (if any) this article has given you (that you did not previously have) about
some issue pertinent to the course.
You may write these in outline or in prose. For each article you are to write NO MORE than a half
page. Be sure to follow the format set out above.
THESE MUST BE PRINTED AND ARE DUE AT THE END OF THE CLASS SESSION FOR THE SCHEDULED
READINGS. The assumption is that if you are not prepared to hand in this brief outline of your
engagements with the article, then you are unprepared to contribute to the success of that meeting’s
class discussion.
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Opinions:
You may disagree with the authors about the issues. Taking issue with the author (and with one
another in class) is perfectly fine – even encouraged. However, be prepared to support your position
and, above all, be courteous to one another and respectful in your writing about the scholars whose
works you are studying.
Caveat:
The readings are challenging, so give yourself plenty of time to read and think about them. Even brief
readings may take you considerable time to understand and to write about. Some, indeed, are so
challenging that you cannot expect yourself to fully understand them. When this is the case, make a
note of what you did not understand or found confusing and bring that material to class. It is material
for class discussion.
Helpful hints for engaging with this material:
a) first scan the reading quickly and note any headings or subheadings for a quick overview
b) after you have read each page, note what were the main points (and think about how these points
are related to other significant points.)
c) read for content, structure, and underlying assumptions
d) keep a dictionary handy to look up words you do not know. Write down the word and its definition.
You are expected to develop a vocabulary that is part of the toolbox of the art historian – so work at it!
e) with the novellas, you are encouraged to make a comment on how the narrative has bearing on the
issues that we engage with in this course.
Answering questions about readings in written form:
For some readings, questions have been posted on Blackboard. When this is the case, EACH
student is required to answer each question (typed) and hand in a copy at the end of class
(referring to this document in the class discussion.)
If you are absent, you must email your copy of the answers to the lecturer by the start of the day of
class. These answers will also get graded and go towards the cumulative semester grade for the
course.
Answering these questions will help students understand the readings and, most importantly, be
prepared to engage in class discussion. (See the readings and their related questions on
Blackboard.)
Leading seminar discussions:
Additionally, each week one or more students will be responsible for leading the discussion of most of
assigned articles. In this role, the discussion leader is NOT to offer merely a summary of the article/s.
Rather, the student is to LEAD the discussion by raising issues that lend themselves to be elaborated
upon, clarified, or debated. You may use the guidelines given above in preparing for leading a seminar
discussion. You will be graded on your preparation according to the criteria given under
Readings/discussion above.
Attendance policy:
Attendance is a basic, mandatory requirement in this seminar. This means attendance at all classes,
including those scheduled for final presentations – both yours and others. Unexcused and excessive
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absences – and lateness to class – will count in determining the final grade. Excessive absences (more
than four and being late by more than 10 minutes more than 4x) will result in a Fail grade for the
class.
Grading:
Pluses and minuses will be given for the course grade. Grading is as follows:
93-100 = A; 92-90 = A-; 87-89 = B+; 83-86 = B; 80-82 = B-; 77-79 = C+; 73-72 = C; 70-72 = C-; 67-69
=D+; 63-66 = D; 60 -62 = D-; 0-59 = F
You will be graded according to the degree to which you critically and meaningfully engage with the
material of the course, how well you have understood the readings, made connections between them,
and grasped the intellectual and ideological differences between different writers and concepts. This
will be evaluated from the quality of your participation in class, the way you lead an assigned
discussion, the quality of your weekly assignments, and your paper.
Your final grade will be based on the following factors:
20% meaningful class participation and preparation (as manifest in class and in the summaries)
10% first presentation
10% second presentation
30% term paper
30% class presentation for final paper
Classified and conditionally classified graduate students:
GRADUATE STUDENTS ARE EXPECTED TO PERFORM AT A HIGHER LEVEL THAN
UNDERGRADUATES. Graduate students will write a research paper on a topic to be discussed with the
instructor, to be handed in at the end of the semester. The final grade for graduate students is
computed out of a possible score of 200, of which 100 is assigned for the research paper.
SPELLING, GRAMMAR, AND STYLE (SENSE) MUST BE CHECKED BEFORE HANDING IN ANY
MATERIAL. CARELESS PROOFREADING AND PRESENTATION WILL BE PENALIZED.
Originality is a serious issue. Thinking and self-expression are crucial to this course – and to your
grade.
Fieldwork and the final written and oral-visual presentation:
An important component of this course is potentially based on fieldwork and observational
research. You could be required to visit one or more museums, archives, collections and galleries
in and around San Diego. Your term paper and an end of semester oral and visual presentation in
class could be formulated on such fieldwork (if you select this assignment option). These trips will
be on your own time and subject to your own arrangements. Feel free to go in groups. You will be
able to choose which institution/s you will visit and public transport is usually available.
Statement for Students with Disabilities
If you are a student with a disability and believe you will need accommodations for this class, it is
your responsibility to contact Student Disability Services at (619) 594-6473. To avoid any delay in
the receipt of your accommodations, you should contact Student Disability Services as soon as
possible. Please note that accommodations are not retroactive, and that accommodations based
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upon disability cannot be provided until you have presented your instructor with an
accommodation letter from Student Disability Services. Your cooperation is appreciated.
Assigned texts:
For the most part, readings are posted on Blackboard. The one exception is a brief novel by Bruce
Chatwin, UTZ. You can purchase second hand this through Amazon
COURSE SCHEDULE (SUBJECT TO CHANGE):
Week 1:
Tuesday, Aug. 25: Discussion and overview of course
What is your understanding of what a museum is? Of what a collection is? of the questions and issues
listed above under “Questions and Issues”? Of the relevance of the quotations that serve as prologue
to this syllabus? What do you collect? How do you remember? (ie. what aids your memory?)
Thurs. Aug. 27:
The mythos of the museum:
Carol Duncan, “The Art Museum as Ritual” from Civilizing Rituals, Inside Public Art Museums
Routledge, 1995: 7-20.
Week 2:
Tuesday Sept. 1:
On Collecting I
1) Benjamin, W. “Unpacking My Library,” Illuminations, Schocken, 1969, 59-68.
2) Niffenegger, A. The Night Bookmobile. New York, Abrams 2010 (graphic novel)
Thurs. Sept. 3:
On Collecting, II
1) Pearce, S.M. 1994. ‘Museum objects.’ In Pearce, S. (ed). Interpreting Objects and Collections.
Routledge, Chapter 1, 9-11.
2) Pearce, S.M. 1994. ‘The urge to collect.’ In: Pearce, Susan (ed). Interpreting Objects and
Collections. Routledge, Chapter 22, 157-159.
[Print these two Pearce chapters from the complete Pearce PDF on Blackboard.]
3) Cuno, J. 2011.‘Introduction: Museums Matter.’ In: Museums Matter: In Praise of the
Encyclopedic Museum, University of Chicago Press, 1-10.
Week 3:
On Collecting III (Memory, History, Death)
Tues, Sept. 8, Sites of Memory
Pierre Nora. “Between Memory and History: Les Lieux de Memoire,” Representations, No. 26, Special
Issue: Memory and Counter-Memory. (Spring, 1989), pp. 7-24 {Love Library on-line}
Thu. Sept 10, Sites of Memory: National September 11 Memorial and Museum
‘"A lieu de mémoire is any significant entity, whether material or non-material in nature, which by
dint of human will or the work of time has become a symbolic element of the memorial heritage of
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any community." (Nora 1996: XVII) ‘…Sites of memory are "where [cultural] memory crystallizes and
secretes itself" (Nora 1989: 7).
[Quoted at: https://tspace.library.utoronto.ca/citd/holtorf/2.6.html]
Remembering 9/11
1) http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2014/07/07/stones-and-bones
http://nymag.com/arts/architecture/features/national-9-11-memorial-museum-davidson/
2) http://www.washingtonpost.com/entertainment/museums/the-911-memorial-museumdoesnt-just-display-artifacts-it-ritualizes-grief-on-a-loop/2014/06/05/66bd88e8-ea8b-11e39f5c-9075d5508f0a_story.html
3) http://www.nytimes.com/2012/06/03/arts/design/sept-11-memorial-museums-fraughttask-to-tell-the-truth.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0
4) http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/arts/miranda/la-et-cam-what-911-museum-couldlearn-from-latin-american-memorials-20140714-column.html#page=2
5) ‘Memory remains.’ (National geographic photographic slideshow)
http://www.nationalgeographic.com/remembering-9-11/pictures-memory-remains/
6) http://www.911memorial.org/museum (9/11 memorial website with slides)
Week 4:
On Collecting III (Memory, History, Death) con’t
Tuesday, Sept. 15
Susan Stewart, “Death and Life, in that Order, in the Works of Charles Willson Peale,” 204-223, The
Cultures of Collecting, eds, Elsner and Cardinal, 1994.
Thursday, Sept 17, On Collecting, IV
Baudrillard, Jean. “The System of Collecting,” The Cultures of Collecting, eds Elsner and Cardinal, 1994.
7-24.
Week 5:
Memory, History, Archiving
Tuesday, Sept 22:
Archiving Trash; Collecting a Self, Collecting Artifacts of Existence
1)Adia Hoffman and Peter Cole. “Hidden Wisdom,” From Sacred Trash: the lost and found world of the
Cairo Geniza, Nextbook. 2011, 3-19.
2) Zweig, S. “The Invisible Collection,” in The Invisible Collection/Buchmendel. Pushkin Press, 1998.
Thursday, Sept. 24
Collecting the Self, Collecting a Culture
1) James Clifford, “On Collecting Art and Culture,” available on-line via Academic Program Pages,
among other PDFs for this article
2) Steven Conn, “Where is East? Asian Objects in American Museums from Nathan Dunn to Charles
Freer”
Week 6
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Tuesday, Sept 29:
Collecting a Culture
Bohrer. “Inventing Assyria: Exoticism and Reception in Nineteenth Century England and France,” 191226.
Thursday, Oct. 1:
Creating Historical Effects:
Hayden White. “The Fictions of Factual Representation.” 22-34
Week 7
Tuesday, Oct. 6:
Creating Historical Effects:
Greenblatt, S. 1991. ‘Resonance and wonder.’ Chapter 3. In Karp, I. & Lavine, S.D. (eds) Exhibiting
Cultures: The Poetics and Politics of Museum Display. Smithsonian Press.
Thursday, Oct. 8:
Origins of the Western Museum: Etymology of the “museum”
Findlen. “The Museum: Its Classical Etymology and Renaissance Genealogy,” 159-190
Week 8
Tuesday, Oct. 13:
Origins of the Western Museum: Collection, Virtue and Memory
Allyson Burgess Williams, Alfonso I d’Este’s Studio di Marmo
Thursday, Oct. 15:
Origins of the Western Museum: The European Museum
1) Cuno, J. 2011. “The Enlightenment Museum,” Chapter 1 in Museums Matter: In Praise of the
Encyclopedic Museum, U. Chicago Press, 11-31
2) Duncan. “From the Princely Gallery to the Public Art Museum,” 250-277.
Week 9
Tuesday, Oct. 20:
Effacing Otherness/Exhibiting the Other
1) Grindstaff, “Creating Identity: Exhibiting the Philippines at the 1904 Louisiana Purchase
Exposition,” 298-319.
2) Bogdan, R. 1988. ‘Cannibals and Savages.’ In: Freak Show: Presenting Human Oddities for
Amusement and Profit. University of Chicago Press. Chapter 7, 176-199.
Thursday, Oct. 22:
Critiquing colonial ethnographic museums
1) Series of 8 articles concerning South African artist Brett Bailey’s recreation of a “human zoo” called
“Exhibit B” at the Edinburgh Festival.
(see the relevant articles in the folder marked “Brett Bailey: Exhibit B” on Blackboard in Course
Documents)
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2) Rassool, C. ‘Skeletons in the cupboard.’ Weltkulturen Museum, Project: WARE & WISSEN – The
Way Back (Repatriation), Special Issue 1, November/December 2013. (Excerpt from the talk
“Remaking South Africa’s museums after
Apartheid” given by Prof. Dr. Ciraj Rassool at the
Weltkulturen
Museum on 14th February 2013.)
Week 10
Tuesday, Oct. 27:
The Natural History Museum
Haraway, D. ‘Teddy Bear Patriarchy: Taxidermy in the Garden of Eden, New York
City, 1908-1936.’ Social Text, No. 11 (Winter, 1984-1985), pp. 20-64.
Video in class: New York’s Natural History Museum.
Thursday, Oct. 29:
Observing Subjects/Disciplining Practices, contd.
1)Tony Bennett. “The Exhibitionary Complex. 413-441
Museum Objects.
2) Alberti, S. J. M. M. ‘Objects and the Museum.’ In: FOCUS—ISIS, 96: 4 (2005), 559-571
Week 11
Tuesday, Nov 3:
Observing Subjects/Disciplining Practices, contd.
Timothy Mitchell. “Orientalism and the Exhibitionary Order. 442-460
Thursday Nov. 5:
The Modern Art Museum.
1) Osborne, K.M. ‘The 1913 Armory Show: Much Ado About Everything.’ Art and Education.
http://www.artandeducation.net/paper/the-1913-armory-show-much-ado-abouteverything/
2) O'Doherty, B. 1976. ‘I. Notes on the Gallery Space,’ In: Inside the White Cube: The Ideology of the
Gallery Space. The Lapis Press. 13-34. [Find relevant chapter at these pages in Inside the White
Cube PDF on Blackboard.]
3) Berelowitz, J. 2004. ‘The Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles: An Account of
Collaboration between Artists, Trustees and an Architect.’ In Grasping the World: the Idea of the
Museum, edited by D. Preziosi & C. Farago, Ashgate, 718-734.
Week 12
Collecting as an obsession
Tues. Nov. 10
Bruce Chatwin, UTZ
Thurs. Nov. 12:
Contemporary Museum Ethics and Provenance Studies:
1) Steven Kern, “Peter Paul Rubens’s Allegory of Eternity: A Provenance Research Case Study” in
Vitalizing Memory
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2) San Diego Museum of Art Provenance Research Statement: http://www.sdmart.org/exhibitionscollections
Week 13
Tues. Nov. 17:
Movie: The Rape of Europa (117) minutes
Thu. Nov. 19:
Movie: The Rape of Europa (117) minutes
Week 14
Tues. Nov. 24:
Presentations
Thurs. Nov. 26 No class--Thanksgiving
Week 15
Tuesday, Dec. 1:
Presentations
Thursday, Dec. 3:
Presentations 3
Week 16
Dec. 8:
Presentations
Dec. 10:
Presentations
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