By demonstrating that many of the concepts and styles associated with Modernism were actually derived directly from cultures such as Japan, China, Korea, India, Egypt, Assyria, West Africa, and the Pacific Islands, this book provides an entirely new way of looking at the evolution of Modernist art and literature in the West.

Museums After Modernism is a unique collectionthat showcasesthe ways questions about the museum go to the heart of contemporarydebates about the production, consumption and distribution of art.The book features expert artists, curators and art historians whograpple with many of the vibrant issues in museum studies, whilepaying homage to a new museology that needs to be considered. Examines the key contemporary debates in museum studies Includes original essays by noted artists, curators, and arthistorians Engages with vital issues in the practice of art-making andart-exhibiting Edited by the world-renowned art historian and author, GriseldaPollock

Essay by Robert Storr. Foreword by Glenn D. Lowry.

By 1901, the public museum was firmly established as an important national institution in British life. Its very centrality led to its involvement in a wide range of debates about art, knowledge, national identity, and individual agency. Ruth Hoberman argues that these debates concerned writers as well. Museum Trouble focuses on fiction written between 1890 and 1914 and the ways in which it engaged the issues dramatized by and within the museum. Those issues were many. Art critics argued about what kind of art to buy on behalf of the nation, how to display it, and whether salaried professionals or aristocratic amateurs should be in charge. Museum administrators argued about the best way to exhibit scientific and cultural artifacts to educate the masses while serving the needs of researchers. And novelists had their own concerns about an increasingly commercialized literary marketplace, the nature of aesthetic response, the impact of evolution and scientific materialism, and the relation of the individual to Britain’s national and imperial identity. In placing the many crucial museum scenes of Edwardian fiction in the context of late nineteenth-century and early twentieth-century cultural discourse, Museum Trouble shows how this turn-of-the-century literature anticipated many of the concerns of the modernist writers who followed.

The Wadsworth Atheneum's remarkable collection of 20th century art is due to the energy of a succession of adventurous directors and curators. This volume showcases the museum's holdings and provides details about their acquisition.

Today the Museum of Modern Art is widely recognized for establishing the canon of modern art; yet in its early years, the museum considered modern art part of a still unfolding experiment in contemporary visual production. By bracketing MoMA's early history from its later reputation, this book explores the ways the Museum acted as a laboratory to set an ambitious agenda for the exhibition of a multidisciplinary idea of modern art. Between its founding in 1929 and its 20th anniversary in 1949, MoMA created the first museum departments of architecture and design, film, and photography in the country, marshaled modern art as a political tool, and brought consumer culture into a versatile yet institutional context. Encompassing 14 essays that investigate the diversity of modern art, this volume demonstrates how MoMA's programming shaped a version of modern art that was not elitist but fundamentally intertwined with all levels of cultural production.

Modernism flourished from 1914 to 1939 and it was a key point of reference for 20th century architecture, design and art. This work explores Modernism and design from an international perspective and reveals the ways in which it has shaped our world and its visual culture.

The new presentation of the Leopold Museum's collection highlights the splendour and wealth of artistic achievements of an era shaped by the emergence of the Secessionists, the collapse of the Habsburg Monarchy and the deaths of eminent artists of Viennese Modernism, including Gustav Klimt, Egon Schiele, Koloman Moser and Otto Wagner. Like the exhibition, the accompanying 560-page publication also aims to convey a sense of the character of this time and of the vibrant atmosphere in the metropolis of Vienna.Twelve scientific essays by renowned experts illustrate the historical aspects and biographies of the era's eminent protagonists whose fruitful synergy provided the basis for Vienna's unique cultural life around the turn of the century. A comprehensive appendix of illustrations shows the highlights of the Leopold Collection presented in the exhibition as well as important external loans.

Combining the history of ideas, institutions, and architecture, this study shows how the museum both reflected and shaped the place of art in German culture from the late eighteenth century to the early twentieth century. On a broader level, it illuminates the origin and character of the museum's central role in modern culture. James Sheehan begins by describing the establishment of the first public galleries during the last decades of Germany's old regime. He then examines the revolutionary upheaval that swept Germany between 1789 and 1815, arguing that the first great German museums reflected the nation's revolutionary aspirations. By the mid-nineteenth century, the climate had changed; museums constructed in this period affirmed historical continuities and celebrated political accomplishments. During the next several years, however, Germans became disillusioned with conventional definitions of art and lost interest in monumental museums. By the turn of the century, the museum had become a site for the political and cultural controversies caused by the rise of artistic modernism. In this context, Sheehan argues, we can see the first signs of what would become the modern style of museum architecture and modes of display. The first study of its kind, this highly accessible book will appeal to historians, museum professionals, and anyone interested in the relationship between art, politics, and culture.

Edited by John Elderfield. Introduction by Glenn D. Lowry.