El museo efímero: Los maestros antiguos y el auge de las exposiciones artísticas

by Francis Haskell

Conocimiento con el 25 aniversario de la fundacion de Critica, nace esta coleccion cuyas lineas fundamentales coinciden con las principales disciplinas que hoy integran el tronco de los estudios de Humanidades: historia, literatura, arte, filosofia, contempladas ya no como compartimentos estancos, sino como perspectivas de un indagar comun. Su intencion ultima es colaborar en la creacion de la cultura del siglo XXI desde las indispensables herramientas del pensamiento critico y la razon. La coleccion se ha iniciado con un inedito de Jorge Luis Borges, Arte poetica. Cuando y por que empezaron las exposiciones de obras de arte de los grandes maestros, y como han evolucionado a lo largo de los siglos? En este libro, un eminente historiador del arte examina la fascinante historia, y la importancia, de las exposiciones internacionales de arte. Finalmente, en un polemico capitulo, Haskell investiga los tipos de publicacion que se asocian a las exposiciones, y la critica y erudicion que se centran a su alrededor.

Genres: Art, History, Nonfiction, Art History

256 pages, Paperback

First published November 10, 2000

About the author

Francis James Herbert Haskell was an English art historian, whose writings placed emphasis on the social history of art.

Reviews

[Emily Johnson · Rating 4 out of 5]

I've been to old master exhibits both on vacation and when traveling exhibits come to the Seattle Art Museum. We go to see a grouping of what others have acknowledged are works worth seeing. I usually take it for granted that their choices are valid, that I will learn something, and that I should take the opportunity to see these pieces when I can--especially if I can do it without expensive and polluting travel.
This book is a fascinating look into the evolution of these Old Master exhibits. It raises questions about which works/artists are chosen, what kind of venue is appropriate, who and how many should have access to art, and the dangers of travel for the art works involved. I have always felt a little guilty visiting a traveling exhibit without checking out the rest of the museum's galleries. But Old Master exhibitions bring in money for local museums and create an event that spurs locals like me to visit. According to Francis Haskell, modern day museums are dependent on the traveling exhibits, which means they have to loan their own works too. But what is this doing to the art? And how important is travel anyway (for the art or for people) as virtual experiences improve?
This book gave me a lot of food for thought that I will take with me on my next museum trip.

[Snail in Danger (Sid) Nicolaides · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a book of essays about various exhibitions of Old Master paintings. Most non-specialists will want to give this one a pass. It does contain a few interesting "footnote to history" type things: e.g., that Neville Chamberlain's wife worked with Mussolini to organize an exhibition of Italian paintings in England in 1920, and that the central idea of Johan Huizinga's The Autumn of the Middle Ages came to him when he was viewing an exhibition of paintings by Flemish artists.