From Library Journal
Curator of the Contemporary Arts & Cultures Program at the British Museum, Putnam explores six distinct but interrelated themes in this fascinating examination of the museum's unconventional role in contemporary art. The book provides a survey of the way museums and their collections have been portrayed and manipulated by contemporary artists and the import this has for the museum's role as cultural interpreter. Putnam first determines museum iconography, the aura it gives exhibited objects, and its sometimes paradoxical use to elevate the mundane or grotesque. He ultimately reveals that, in the postmodern era, artists have made museums less a site for the passive consumption of ostensibly objective, hierarchical values and more an open forum, stimulating inquiry, discourse, and even controversy. The book closes with an exploration of what the future holds for the museum and how contemporary art is helping to determine its next incarnation. Images of installations, the majority in full color, appear on nearly every page and are accompanied by extensive captions explaining the works' significance and how each one relates to the theme it illustrates. Highly recommended for collections focusing on museology, culture studies, and contemporary art. Savannah Schroll, Washington, DC Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc.
The Art Book, June 2002
A rare experience. . . . A rewarding exercise in the visual.
Book Description
A profusely illustrated survey of the role of contemporary artists and their work in museum presentation and display. "Artists today treat museums as filled not with dead art, but with living artistic options."—Arthur Danto, "After the End of Art" Here is the first extensive survey of one of the most important—and intriguing—themes in art today: the often obsessive relationship between the artist and the museum. This is a relationship with a long history, whose full significance has been realized in the activities of artists in recent decades. From early instances of the urge to collect exotic objects, the "cabinet of curiosities," to assemblages of found objects and imitations of museum displays, artists have often turned their attention to the ideas and systems traditionally embodied in the museum—display, archiving, classification, storage, curatorship—which they have then appropriated, mimicked, and interpreted in their own ways. Citing a wide range of examples, from Marcel Duchamp's "Portable Museum" to Damien Hirst's distinctive use of vitrines, James Putnam examines the themes by which the artist/museum relationship is defined and redefined. He shows not only the ways in which artists have been influenced by museum systems and made their works into simulations of the museum, but also how they have questioned the role of museums, observed their practices, intervened in them, and helped to redefine them. This is a subject around which—directly and indirectly—contemporary art dialogue revolves. Without rival, this is one of those rare books that will become essential reading for everyone interested in the development of art and its presentation to the public in museum displays and installations. 280 illustrations, 227 in color.
About the Author
James Putnam is a curator at the British Museum, where he has staged a series of innovative contemporary art exhibitions.
Art and Artifact: The Museum as Medium FROM THE PUBLISHER
"Breaking new ground as the first ever extensive survey of one of the most important and intriguing themes in art today, this book examines the phenomenon of the ideological exchange and often obsessive relationship between artist and museum." The works chosen for inclusion here, as well as direct quotations from the writings of individual artists, offer a wide-ranging coverage of projects by established and emerging figures alike. The artists featured include such names as Tracey Emin, Hans Haacke, Christian Boltanski, Fred Wilson and Ilya Kabakov. Art and Artifact will serve as an indispensable guide to the position and likely future role of the museum at the beginning of the 21st century, whether within the walls of an institutional building or in the broader context of the urban environment.
FROM THE CRITICS
Library Journal
Curator of the Contemporary Arts & Cultures Program at the British Museum, Putnam explores six distinct but interrelated themes in this fascinating examination of the museum's unconventional role in contemporary art. The book provides a survey of the way museums and their collections have been portrayed and manipulated by contemporary artists and the import this has for the museum's role as cultural interpreter. Putnam first determines museum iconography, the aura it gives exhibited objects, and its sometimes paradoxical use to elevate the mundane or grotesque. He ultimately reveals that, in the postmodern era, artists have made museums less a site for the passive consumption of ostensibly objective, hierarchical values and more an open forum, stimulating inquiry, discourse, and even controversy. The book closes with an exploration of what the future holds for the museum and how contemporary art is helping to determine its next incarnation. Images of installations, the majority in full color, appear on nearly every page and are accompanied by extensive captions explaining the works' significance and how each one relates to the theme it illustrates. Highly recommended for collections focusing on museology, culture studies, and contemporary art. Savannah Schroll, Washington, DC Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information.
Art & Photography
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