Author name:
Kynaston McShine,
Christopher Williams,
Glenn Lowry,
Gillian Wearing,
Art and Language,
Barbara Bloom,
Christo,
Jan Dibbets,
Lutz Dille,
Herbert Distel,
Kate Ericson,
Roger Fenton,
Robert Filliou,
Fluxus,
General Idea,
Jean-Baptiste Gustave Le Gray,
Jac Leirner,
Sherrie Levine
Type of bind: Hardcover
Dewey Decimal Number: 704.949708
EAN num: 9780870700910
ISBN number: 087070091X
Label: The Museum of Modern Art, New York
Manufacturer: The Museum of Modern Art, New York
Quantity: 1
Page Count: 296
Printing Date: July 15, 2002
Publishing house: The Museum of Modern Art, New York
Release Date: July 02, 2002
Sale Popularity Level: 1747152
Studio: The Museum of Modern Art, New York
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Editor's Notes and Comments:
Product Description:
Since public museums came into being in the late 18th century, artists have looked upon them with a mixture of reverence, complicity, suspicion, and disdain. In The Museum as Muse, artists of many persuasions speak their minds about museums, their functions and spaces, their practices and politics, and their relationship to the art they contain. More than 60 artists are represented by a wide range of works: photographs of museum patrons by Henri Cartier-Bresson and Elliot Erwitt; 'personal museums' and 'cabinets of curiosities' by Charles Wilson Peale, Marcel Duchamp, and Claes Oldenburg; fantasies of the destruction or transformation of museums by Hubert Robert, Ed Ruscha, and Christo; and more, including works created especially for this project by contemporary artists, and an anthology of statements and writings by artists about museums. This volume was published to accompany an exhibition at The Museum of Modern Art, New York.
Amazon.com Review:
The Museum as Muse: Artists Reflect is the stunning catalog that accompanies an exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art during the spring of 1999. The show takes an insightful look at the way different artists deal with the ideas, concepts, and criticisms of 'the public museum.' The collected artists span both generations and degrees of fame, from French photographer Henri Cartier-Bresson to pop artist Claes Oldenburg to contemporary artists Gillian Wearing and Mark Dion. The show, and by extension the book, illustrates the impact that the invention of the museum (just 200 years ago) has had on art making. It is fascinating to peer through the eyes of individual artists whose personal and intimate visions are both outside of the museum and inextricably linked to it by their choice of career. The artwork in the exhibition is wide-reaching and the reproductions for the book are beautiful. Hiroshi Sugimoto's black-and-white photo series of natural-history museum dioramas; a taxidermied polar bear and a seal on a bed of fake ice; and a re-creation of underwater sea life are all exquisite in their quiet and choreographed other-worldliness. This book should not be missed; it offers a great chance to look at art by artists who use their work to address the complexities of their own relationships with the massive institutions that are our museums. --Jennifer Cohen
296 pages, 114 full-colour images, 132 black-and-white images
User popularity level:
Rated by buyers -
I attended this exhibit at the MoMA and was thrilled to see so many great artists interpreting what museums and "the institution" means. For some artists, the act of collecting is very private...like Joseph Cornell and his many obsessive boxes, or Christian Boltanski and his melancholy installation of forgotten photographs. In another personal piece, Sophie Calle interviewed various staff members at a museum where prized artworks by the Old Masters were stolen about how they now feel in the artworks' absence. The snoop in me wished that the audience could see what all the boxes contained in pieces such as Herbert Dristel's "Museum of Drawers", which houses over 500 miniature pieces of artwork by many of my favorite artists from the 60's and 70's. The Barbara Bloom installation "The Reign of Narcissism" was hilarious and disturbing. It consists of a museum within a museum, with all pieces and decor dedicated to herself and her own likeness. Claes Oldenburg's "Mouse Museum", another amazing installation, consists of various sculptures and found "junkstore-type" objects that the artist has accumulated. The shape of the walk-in structure of Oldenburg's "Museum" is Mickey Mouse's head! An absurd and fun commentary on pop culture! This show would not have been complete without the work of Marcel Duchamp, a pioneer in calling into question the value of "original" artwork and the importance that institutions place on it. "L.H.O.O.Q." (the Mona Lisa with a mustache) and many of Duchamp's Valises containing miniature reproductions of his own work and readymades are represented here. Vito Acconci decided to use the MoMA as a post office and in a separate piece, tried to infringe upon museum-goer's personal space by standing uncomfortably close to people while they were trying to be cultured and study the 'Art'. Overall, it was a fascinating exhibit. The subversive, but good-humored mockery of what humans do with and in the presence of art made me feel somewhat self-conscious as I was wandering the galleries, but that seemed to be the point!
Rated by buyers -
This book's subject matter is right on the money. I haven't read it, but Museums have everything to do with the production of art nowadays. Museums and catalogs or big, glossy ads. Because that's where the authority of the printed page meets its audience. And Kynaston McShine is such a cool name.
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