Museums Matter: In Praise of the Encyclopedic Museum

166 Pages·2012·1.445 MB·English

by  James Cuno

Museums Matter
the rice university campbell lectures
Other Books in the Series
The Writer as Migrant (2008)
by Ha Jin
Thousands of Broadways (2009)
by Robert Pinsky
Shakespeare’s Freedom (2010)
by Stephen Greenblatt
Museums Matter
In Praise of the Encyclopedic Museum
j a m e s c u n o
the university of chicago press
Chicago & London
james cuno is the president and CEO of the J. Paul Getty Trust and
is the former president and director 0f the Art Institute of Chicago.
The University of Chicago Press, Chicago 60637
The University of Chicago Press, Ltd., London
© 2011 by The University of Chicago
All rights reserved. Published 2011.
Printed in the United States of America
20 19 18 17 16 15 14 13 12 11 1 2 3 4 5
isbn- 13: 978-0-226-12677-7 (cloth)
isbn- 10: 0-226-12677-3 (cloth)
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Cuno, James B.
Museums matter : in praise of the encylopedic museum / James
Cuno.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
isbn-13: 978-0-226-12677-7 (cloth : alk paper)
isbn-10: 0-226-12677-3 (cloth : alk. paper)
1. Museums—Philosophy. I. Title.
am7.c87 2011
069.01—dc23
2011023608
o This paper meets the requirements of ansi/ niso z39.48-1992
(Permanence of Paper).
for Gus

contents
List of Illustrations ix
Acknowledgments xi
introduction 1
one The Enlightenment Museum 11
two The Discursive Museum 33
three The Cosmopolitan Museum 57
four The Imperial Museum 89
epilogue 115
Notes 123
Index 141

illustrations
color plates
Plates follow page 84.
1. Anon., ewer (ca. 1610)
2. Anon., talismanic textile (late nineteenth century)
3. Anon., Thangka with Bhaishajyaguru (thirteenth/ fourteenth
century)
4. Brice Marden, Cold Mountain 2 (1989– 1991)
figures
1. Anon., dish (early fourteenth century) 48
2. Anon., vase (1700– 1750) 49
3. Antonio Canova, Head of Medusa (ca. 1801) 60
4. Fang Gabon, reliquary head (mid- nineteenth century) 61
5. Edo, Plaque of a War Chief (sixteenth/ seventeenth
century) 64
6. John Singer Sargent, The Fountain, Villa Torlonia, Frascati,
Italy (1907) 67
7. Anon., Bodhisattva (second/ third century) 69
8. Brice Marden, Zen Studies, plate 1 (1990) 70
9. Brice Marden, Zen Studies, plate 3 (1990) 71
10. Brice Marden, Cold Mountain 1 (Path) (1988– 1989) 72