Fine Arts 80
Museums and Society
Fall 2003
Professor Carol C. Clark
Professor Samuel C. Morse
Museums and Society
Carol C. Clark
Department of Fine Arts
542-2096;ccclark@amherst.edu
Office Hours: W 2-4 and by
appointment
Samuel C. Morse
Department of Fine Arts
542-2282; scmorse@amherst.edu
Office Hours: TTH 11:30-12:30 and by
appointment
Description
This course considers how art museums reveal the social and cultural ideologies of
those who build, pay for, work in, and visit them. We will study the ways in which art
history is (and has been) constructed by museum acquisitions, exhibitions, and
installation. We will also consider the ways in which museums are constructed by art
history by looking at the world-wide boom in museum architecture, and by examining
curatorial practice and exhibition strategies as they affect American and Asian art in
particular. We will analyze the relationship between the cultural contexts of viewer and
object, the nature of the translation of languages or aesthetic discourse, and the diverse
ways in which art is understood as the materialization of modes of experience and
communication.
Books
The following books have been ordered from the Jeffery Amherst Bookshop on South
Pleasant Street.
Duncan, Carol. Civilizing Rituals--Inside Public Art Museums. London and New
York: Routledge, 1995.
Gaskell, Ivan. Vermeer’s Wager–Speculations on Art History, Theory and Art
Museums. London: Reaktion, 2000.
Wallach, Alan. Exhibiting Contradiction–Essays on the Art Museum in The
United States. Amherst: The University of Massachusetts Press, 1998.
One required book is now out of print and copies can be obtained through the Fine Arts
Fine Arts 80
Museums and Society
Fall 2003
Professor Carol C. Clark
Professor Samuel C. Morse
Department:
Coolidge, John. Patrons and Architects–Designing American Museums in the
Twentieth Century. Fort Worth: The Amon Carter Museum, 1989.
A packet of readings is available from Collective Copies, also on South Pleasant Street.
All other readings can be found at the reserve desk in Frost Library.
The Course
The class will meet on Tuesdays from 2:00--5:00 in Fayerweather 217. There will be
three field trips–to the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston and the Isabella Stewart Gardner
Art Museum on Friday, September 26; to the George Walter Vincent Smith Museum in
Springfield, on Friday, October 17; and to the Dia: Beacon in Beacon, New York on
Friday, November 7.
The assignments and readings have been designed to help you come to your own
understanding of the ways that art history shapes museum practice and museum
practice shapes art history. Since such a wide range of material is to be covered in only
one semester, regular class attendance is essential. The assigned readings should be
completed before each class. You should be prepared to participate in class
discussions and share you opinions with your fellows students through weekly posting
on the class web-page.
Requirements
There will be three writing assignments and a formal in-class presentation at the end of
the semester. You will also be asked to present material in class regularly and
participate in class discussions (20%). All assignments must be typewritten. Two
copies of each must be submitted to the Fine Arts Department office.
1)
A critical analysis of a theoretical writing on museums, due September
30. (15%)
2)
A critique of a gallery installation, due October 28. (15%)
3)
A final paper (40%) and in-class presentation (10%). An outline of the
fifteen minute presentations on November 18 will be due on November 4;
those on December 2 will be due on November 11. A fifteen to eighteen
page paper based on the in-class presentation is due on December 16 at
12:00 PM.
Fine Arts 80
Museums and Society
Fall 2003
Professor Carol C. Clark
Professor Samuel C. Morse
Schedule
September 2 Introduction
Readings:
Cuno, “Against the Discursive Museum”
Smith, “Memo”
Winter, “Change in the American Art Museum”
September 9 The Comprehensive Museum
Readings:
Ames, Cannibal Tours, pp. 15-24
Baker and Richardson, A Grand Design, pp.
17-21; 22-47; 149-160
Barringer, “The South Kensington Museum and the Colonial
Project.”
Bennett, The Birth of the Museum, pp. 17-58; 59-88
Duncan, pp. 21-71
Hudson, Museums of Influence, pp. 39-64
McClellen, Inventing, pp. 1-12
Pearce, Museums, Objects and Collections, pp. 89-117
September 16
Methodologies–Museums and Display
Readings:
Alpers, “The Museum as a Way of Seeing”
Baxandall, “Exhibiting Intention”
Coombs, “Museums and the Formation of National and
Cultural Identity”
Duncan, pp. 7-20
Fisher, Making and Effacing Art, pp. 3-47
Thomas, Entangled Objects, pp. 7-34
September 23
Methodologies–Collecting
Readings:
Fine Arts 80
Museums and Society
Fall 2003
Professor Carol C. Clark
Professor Samuel C. Morse
Alsop, The Rare Art Traditions, pp. 68-85
Baudrillard, “The System of Collecting”
Clifford, The Predicament of Culture, pp. 215-251
Kopytoff, “The Cultural Biography of Things”
Lowenthal, The Past is a Foreign Country, pp. 193-238
Pearce, Museums, Objects, and Collections, pp. 1-14; 228255
Stewart, On Longing, pp. 151-169.
September 30
Museum Architecture
Readings:
And , Abstractions in Space
Bonetti, “The Pulitzer Foundation”
Coolidge, pp. 40-76; 110-122
Goldberger, “A Delicate Balance”
Schjeldahl, “Art House”
October 7
The American Art Museum
Readings:
Dubin, Displays of Power, pp. 152-185
Taylor, "Pioneering Efforts”
Treuttner, “A Case for Active Viewing”
Truettner, "For Museum Audiences”
Wallach, pp. 1-70; 105-127
October 21
The Private Museum
Readings:
Akin, “Passionate Possession”
Chong, Eye of the Beholder, pp. ix–xxiii
Coolidge, pp. 2-26
Duncan, pp. 72-101
East Meets West
Higgonet, “Museum Sight”
Zolberg, “The Collection Despite Barnes”
Fine Arts 80
Museums and Society
Fall 2003
Professor Carol C. Clark
Professor Samuel C. Morse
October 28
The Asian Art Museum
Readings:
Baker and Richardson, A Grand Design, pp. 221-236
Clunas, “Oriental Antiquities/Far Eastern Art”
Earle, The Taxonomic Obsession”
Davis, “Lives of Indian Images”
Lawton, Freer, pp. 59-130
Luke, Museum Politics, pp. 65-81
Morse, “Okakura Kakuzo”
Pal, American Collectors, pp. 9-72
Yamaguchi, “Poetics of Exhibiting”
November 4
The Craft Museum and the Ethnographic Museum
Readings:
Ames, Cannibal Tours, pp. 49-69
Baker and Richardson, A Grand Design, pp. 79-88
Danto, “Artifact and Art”
Geertz, “Art as a Cultural System”
Price, Primitive Art in Civilized Places, pp. 82-99
Prown, “Mind in Matter”
Vogel, “Introduction”
November 11
The Modern and Contemporary Museum
Readings:
Duncan, pp. 102-132
Coolidge, pp. 78-109
Grunenberg, “The Modern Art Museum”
Mainardi, “Repetition and Novelty”
Staniszewski, The Power of Display, pp. 292-308, 341-342
Tinterow, “The Blockbuster, Art History and the Public”
Wallach, pp. 73-87
November 18
Presentations
Fine Arts 80
Museums and Society
December 2
Presentations
December 9
Conclusion
Readings:
Gaskell, Vermeer’s Wager.
Fall 2003
Professor Carol C. Clark
Professor Samuel C. Morse
Fine Arts 80
Museums and Society
Fall 2003
Professor Carol C. Clark
Professor Samuel C. Morse
Bibliography
Alpers, Svetlana. “The Museum as a Way of Seeing.” Ivan Karp and Steven D. Lavine,
ed. Exhibiting Cultures. Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Institution, 1991. pp. 25-41.
XEROX
Akin, Sally. “Passionate Possession The Formation of Private Collections.” W. David
Kingery, ed. Learning from Things. Washington, D.C.: The Smithsonian Press, 1996,
pp. 102-128. XEROX
Alsop, Joseph. The Rare Art Traditions: The History of art Collecting and Its Linked
Phenomena Wherever These Have Appeared. New York: Harper and Row, 1982.
XEROX
Ames, Michael M. Cannibal Tours and Glass Boxes: The Anthropology of Museums.
1972. XEROX
And Tadao. Abstractions in Space--Tadao And , Ellsworth Kelly, Richard Serra. St.
Louis: The Pulitzer Foundation for the Arts, 2001.
Baker, Malcolm and Brenda Richardson, eds. A Grand Design--The Art of the Victoria
and Albert Museum. New York: Abrams, 1997. XEROX
Barringer, Tim. “The South Kensington Museum and the Colonial Project.” In Tim
Barringer and Tom Flynn, eds. Colonialism and the Object–Empire, Material Culture
and the Museum. London: Routledge, 1998, pp. 11-27. XEROX
Baudrillard, Jean, “The Cultures of Collecting.” John Elsner and Roger Cardinal, eds.
The Cultures of Collecting. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1994. pp. 7-24.
XEROX
Baxandall, Michael. “Exhibiting Intention: Some Preconditions of the Visual Display of
Culturally Purposeful Objects.” Ivan Karp and Steven D. Lavine, ed. Exhibiting
Cultures. Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Institution, 1991, pp. 33-41. XEROX
Bennett, Tony. The Birth of the Museum–History, Theory, Politics. London: Routledge,
Fine Arts 80
Museums and Society
Fall 2003
Professor Carol C. Clark
Professor Samuel C. Morse
1995.
Bonetti, David. “Pulitzer Foundation for the Arts; An Extraordinary Place for Intimate
Viewing.” St. Louis Post Dispatch, May 25, 2003. XEROX
Chong, Alan et al, eds. Eye of the Beholder--Masterpieces from the Isabella Stewart
Gardner Museum. Boston: Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, 2003.
Clifford, James. The Predicament of Culture. Cambridge: Harvard University Press,
1988.
Clunas, Craig. “Oriental Antiquities/Far Eastern Art.” positions 2:2 (1994), pp. 318-355.
XEROX
Coolidge, John. Patrons and Architects–Designing American Museums in the
Twentieth Century. Fort Worth: The Amon Carter Museum, 1989.
Coombes, Annie E. “Museums and the Formation of National and Cultural Identity.”
Oxford Art Journal, vol. 11, no. 2 (1988), pp. 57-68. XEROX
Cuno, James. “Against the Discursive Museum.” Peter Noever, ed. The Discursive
Museum. Vienna: MAK, 2001, pp. 44-57. XEROX
Danto, Arthur. “Artifact and Art.” The Center for African Art, ed. ART/Artifact. New
York: Center for African Art, 1988. pp. 18-32. XEROX
Davis, Richard. Lives of Indian Images. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press,
1997. XEROX
Dubin, Steven C. Displays of Power: Memory and Amnesia in the American Museum.
New York: New York University Press, 1999.
Duncan, Carol. Civilizing Rituals--Inside Public Art Museums. London and New York:
Routledge, 1995.
Earle, Joe. “The Taxonomic Obsession: British Collectors and Japanese Objects 18521986.” Burlington Magazine, no. 128 (Dec., 1986), pp. 863-873. XEROX
East Meets West: Isabella Stewart Gardner and Okakura Kakuz . Boston: Isabella
Stewart Gardner Museum, 1992.
Fisher, Philip. Making and Effacing Art: Modern American Art in a Culture of Museums.
Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1991. XEROX
Fine Arts 80
Museums and Society
Fall 2003
Professor Carol C. Clark
Professor Samuel C. Morse
Gaskell, Ivan. Vermeer's Wager: Speculations on Art History, Theory and Art
Museums. London: Reaktion Books, 2000.
Geertz, Clifford. “Art as a Cultural System.” Local Knowledge. New York: Basic Books,
1983, pp. 94-120. XEROX
Goldberger, Paul. “A Delicate Balance.” The New Yorker (Dec. 23, 2002), pp. 159.
XEROX
Grunenberg, Christoph. “The Modern Art Museum.” Emma Barker, ed. Contemporary
Cultures of Display. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1999, pp. 26-49. XEROX
Higgonet, Anne. “Museum Sight.” Andrew McClellan, ed. Art and Its Publics. Oxford:
Blackwell Publishing, 2003, pp. 132-147. XEROX
Hudson, Kenneth. Museums of Influence. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press,
1987. XEROX
Kopytoff, Igor. “The Cultural Biography of Things.” Arjun Appadurai, ed. The Social
Life of Things: Commodities in Cultural Perspective. 1988. pp. 64-91. XEROX
Lawton, Thomas and Linda Merrill. Freer: A Legacy of Art. Washington, D.C.: Freer
Gallery of Art, 1993.
Lowenthal, David. The Past is a Foreign Country. London: Cambridge University
Press, 1985.
Luke, Timothy W. Museum Politics.–Power Plays at the Exhibition. Minneapolis: the
University of Minnesota Press, 2002. XEROX
McClellan, Andrew. Inventing the Louvre. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press,
1994.
Mainardi, Patricia. “Repetition and Novelty: Exhibitions Tell Tales.” Charles W.
Haxthausen, ed. The Two Art Histories. Williamstown: Sterling and Francine Clark Art
Institute, 2002, pp. 81-86. XEROX
Morse, Anne Nishimura
Pal, Pratapaditya. American Collectors of Asian Art. Bombay: Marg Publications, 1986.
Pearce, Susan M. Museums, Objects, and Collections. Washington, D.C.:
Fine Arts 80
Museums and Society
Fall 2003
Professor Carol C. Clark
Professor Samuel C. Morse
Smithsonian Institution, 1993.
Price, Sally. Primitive Art in Civilized Places. Chicago: University of Chicago Press,
1989. XEROX
Prown, Jules. “Mind in Matter: an Introduction to Material Culture Theory and Method.”
Winterhur Portfolio, vol. 17, no. 1 (Spring 1982), pp. 1-19. XEROX
Schjeldahl, Peter. “Art House.” The New Yorker (Jan. 13, 2003), pp. 87-89. XEROX
Smith, Roberta. “Memo to Art Museums: Don’t Give up on Art.” New York Times,
December 3, 2000. XEROX
Staniszewski, Mary Anne. The Power of Display. Cambridge: The MIT Press, 1998.
XEROX
Stewart, Susan. On Longing–Narratives of the Miniature, the Gigantic, the Souvenir,
the Collection. Durham: Duke University Press, 1996.
Taylor, Kendall. "Pioneering Efforts of Early Museum Women," Jane R. Glaser, and
Artemis A. Zenetou, eds. Gender Perspectives: Essays on Women in Museums.
Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Institution Press, 1994, pp. ????. XEROX
Thomas, Nicholas. Entangled Objects–Exchange, Material Culture and Colonialism in
the Pacific. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1991. XEROX
Tinterow, Gary. “The Blockbuster, Art History, and the Public: The Case of Origins of
Impressionism.” Charles W. Haxthausen, ed. The Two Art Histories. Williamstown:
Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute, 2002, pp. 142-153. XEROX
Truettner, William. “A Case for Active Viewing.” Charles W. Haxthausen, ed. The Two
Art Histories. Williamstown: Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute, 2002, pp. 102112. XEROX
-----. "For Museum Audiences: The Morning of a New Day," Amy Henderson and
Adrienne L. Kaeppler, eds. Exhibiting Dillemas–Issues of Representation at the
Smithsonian. Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Institution Press, 1997, pp. 28-46.
XEROX
Vogel, Susan. “Introduction.” The Center for African Art, ed. ART/Artifact. New York:
Center for African Art, 1988. pp. 11-17. XEROX
Fine Arts 80
Museums and Society
Fall 2003
Professor Carol C. Clark
Professor Samuel C. Morse
Wallach, Alan. Exhibiting Contradiction–Essays on the Art Museum in the United
States. Amherst: The University of Massachusetts Press, 1998.
Winter, Irene. "Change in the American Art Museum: The (An) Art Historian's Voice."
Marcia Tucker, ed. Different Voices: A Social, Cultural and Historical Framework for
Change in the American Art Museum. New York: Association of Art Museum Directors,
1992, pp, 30-57. XEROX
Yamaguchi, Masao. “The Poetics of Exhibition in Japanese Culture.” Ivan Karp and
Steven D. Lavine, ed. Exhibiting Cultures. Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Institution,
1991, pp. 57-67. XEROX
Zolberg, Vera L. “The Collection Despite Barnes: From Private Preserve to
Blockbuster. Susan Pearce, ed. Art in Museums. London: The Athlone Press, 1995,
pp. 94-108. XEROX