On Our Bookshelf
A Reading List
Some current favourites on all things art, museums and the market
The Private Collector’s Museum - Georgina Walker
In her analysis of the private museum Georgina Walker presents a range of case studies, interrogating the psychology of the private collector and patron and the interrelationship between the public and private space alongside institutionalisation processes while also exploring historical precursors of private museums today. Her book offers an examination of contemporary philanthropic gestures and collecting and concludes with an analysis of the evolving role of the modern private art museum while questioning the sustainability of this particular museum model, mapping out a growing cultural ecosystem. With its strong focus on the history of the private art museum and case studies identifying common operational issues, Walker delves deeper into a topic of public interest while maintaining a more journalistic tone throughout.
Defining art, creating the canon - Paul Crowther
“What is art; why should we value it; and what allows us to say that one work is better than another?” In this examination of artistic value in an “Era of Doubt” Paul Crowther’s argument offers an interesting possibility for reading as as a mode of image making, providing a range of opportunities for studies on how art can be understood: from more open theoretical orientations to predetermined value based systems, also providing criteria for making aesthetic judgements. The book articulates why art is important and places the imagination at the centre of, not only art, but the whole of human existence. In a rich and sweeping deconstruction, dealing with a range of central questions situated within the study of the philosophy of art and borrowing from cultural criticism, transcendental idealism, phenomenology and hermeneutics, Crowther constructs a dense but stimulating read as he cuts through old dead-end discussions about High Art vs Low Art.
Art after Money money after art - max haiven
We imagine that art and money are old enemies, but this myth - according to Max Haiven as he explores the essential relationship between art and money - actually reproduces a violent system of global capitalism and prevents us from imagining and building alternatives. Art is seen as the final frontier to be corrupted by commercial interest. From the chaos unleashed by the ‘imaginary’ money in financial markets to the way art has become the plaything of the world’s 1%, Haiven’s book takes aim at many common assumptions and complications surrounding our era of financialisation as it clashes with artistic creation and demands we interrogate these romantic preconceptions about art and money.
Conceptual Art in a curatorial perspective - Nathalie Zonnenberg
Zonnenberg focuses on the curatorial practice of exhibiting conceptual art, which, due to its non-object-based nature, brings with it a whole host of unique challenges. Rather than offering a clear-cut practical instruction manual on curatorial practice, the book raises awareness of said challenges within the traditional curatorial field. Through the use of case studies - with a special focus on the 1960s and 1970s and an analysis of the paradoxes inherent in conceptual art, the book offers various perspectives on how - within a museum context - conceptual works can be displayed. It also elaborates on the history of conceptual exhibition practice and on the influence of curators in their canonization, making it both a remarkably practical but at the same time thoughtful contemplation of curatorial decision making.
pretentiousness: why it matters - Dan fox
Dan Fox unpacks the uses and abuses of the term pretentiousness, tracing its connections to theatre, politics and class on his quest to answer what it is and why we despise it so much. Making a solid case for a re-evaluation of the word “pretentious”, Fox brilliantly illustrates why it is vital to a thriving culture and has always been an essential mechanism of the arts, from the most wildly successful pop music and fashion through to the most recondite avenues of literature and the visual arts. Drawing on his own experiences growing up and working at the more radical edges of the arts, the book delivers a defense of pretentiousness as a necessity for innovation and diversity in our culture, advocating critical imagination and open-mindedness over knee-jerk accusations of elitism or the simple fear of the new and different.