Museums and Modernity: Art Galleries and the Making of Modern Culture (Leisure, Consumption and Culture)

Museums and Modernity: Art Galleries and the Making of Modern Culture (Leisure, Consumption and Culture)

by NickPrior (Author)

Synopsis

Short-listed for the Philip Abrams Memorial Prize 2003Museums have been the subject of intense debate in recent years and their history and development raise important questions. What was modern about the art museum? Why did museums emerge when and where they did? How were museums involved with the development of modern art worlds? What was the relationship between art galleries and their audiences and who were the key people involved with their inception? Focusing on the role of national art galleries in continental Europe, England and Scotland, this book explores in depth the interrelationship between artistic and exhibitionary forms, as well as between power and governance in those places where the roots of modern culture were being laid most visibly. Drawing upon debates concerning modernity, Prior investigates how the boundaries of art and culture have been determined within the museum world. In particular, he looks at the interface between the project of the nation and the gallery and how galleries were involved in making certain social groups or bodies feel at home and others excluded.

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More Information

Format: Paperback
Pages: 224
Edition: illustrated edition
Publisher: Berg Publishers
Published: 01 Jun 2002

ISBN 10: 1859735088
ISBN 13: 9781859735084
Book Overview: Also available in hardback, 9781859735039 GBP50.00 (June, 2002)

Media Reviews
'Nick Prior's lucid and intelligent book makes a valuable contribution to our understanding of the contradictory dynamics characterising the relations between art museums and modernity. An essential and provoking study.'Tony Bennett, The Open University'A timely and exciting book that makes a substantial historical as well as theoretically astute contribution to a critical field of museum and cultural studies.' Griselda Pollock, University of Leeds'This lively, excellent and compelling study of three great national galleries of art during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries is a must for anyone who is interested in museum issues ... The book is a study in the historical sociology of museums which is of profound relevance to current debates about citizenship and cultural equality.'Gordon Fyfe, Keele University'This Bourdieu-inspired cultural/sociological history considerably expands existing understanding of the formation of the modern European art market and museum
Author Bio
Nick Prior is a Lecturer in Sociology at the University of Edinburgh