What do we do with art?

• How do you use art?• Why do we keep art?

Museums & Private Collections

• Art collections• Museum: ancient Greek mouseion

(university), 15th century Europe referring to collections of interesting objects

Who owns collections and why?

• Nobility, Heads of State, Countries• Private Art Collectors• Private become public…

– Donated or sold: • personal gain• Fame• preservation for posterity

How are collections built?

• European History:– Enlightenment– Romantic period

• Capitalism: ownership, control, possession• Colonialism: colonized countries’ art &

artifacts filled European museums through conquest and colonization

National Museum

• London’s British Museum, France’s Louvre in Paris, Vatican Museum, Smithsonian Institute in Washington, D. C.

• Donated or purchased private collections• Large institution with several types of

collections:– Cultural items, artifacts, different countries– Fine and ancient art

Art Museums

• Exhibits art to maximize formal and aesthetic qualities

• Private institutions, public museums supported by tax money, university run museums

• Modern art museums:– Most current art– Unusual, challenging to public audience

Regional Museums

• Interest of local and regional cultural area• Variety in collections, missions and programs

Latino Cultural Center, Dallas

Preserving art

• Weather• Time• People

– War– Pollution– Vandals– Tourists– Ignorance

Altamira Caves

Restoration

Michelangelo. Pieta. 1499. Marble. St. Peter's, Vatican.

Mona at the Louvre

Controversy of Restoration

Michelangelo, Detail of Sistine Chapel, 1508-1512,Vatican, Rome, Italy

Saving Art

• Art is endangered by…– Climate– War– People

• World War II, Nazi and their preoccupation with art in Europe during the Holocaust

• Rape of Europa, documentary film• “The Monument Men”, soldiers who saved

European art during war

When art is not saved…

• Afghanistan• Iconoclast• Art destroyed as strategy of war

Conquest

• Aztecs and Spaniards

Recall

• What are the major differences between these three museums?

• National museums• Art museums• Regional museums