Museums and Wealth - The Politics of Contemporary Art Collections

"Museums and Wealth is a critical analysis of contemporary art collections and the value form. In the United States, institutions administered by the nonprofit system have an ambiguous status as they are neither entirely private nor fully public. Among nonprofits, the museum is unique as it is the only institution where trustees tend to collect the same objects they hold in "public trust" on behalf of the nation, if not humanity. The public serves as alibi for establishing the symbolic value of art, which sustains its monetary value and its markets. This allows for wealthy individuals at the helm to gain financial benefits from, and ideological control over, what is at its core purpose a public system. The dramatic growth of the art market and the development of financial tools based on art-collateral loans exacerbate the contradiction between the needs of museum leadership versus that of the public. Indeed, a history of private support in the US is a history of racist discrimination, and the common collections reflect this fact. This book shows why the nonprofit system, understood as third sector or "shadow state," is unfit to administer our common collections, and offers solutions for diversity reform and redistributive restructuring. A longue durâee history of how private collections in city and nation states were turned public, gives context. Since the late Renaissance, private collections legitimized the right of the prince to rule, and later, with the great revolutions, display consolidated national identity. But the rise of the American museum reversed this trajectory and re-privatized the public collection. A materialist description of the museum as a model institution of the liberal nation state reveals constellations of imperialist social relations"--

List of contents

Acknowledgments

Introduction
1. The San Francisco Museum Of Modern Art And Economic Inequality: Art And Imperialism
2. The Substance Of Symbolic Value: Museums And Private Collecting
3. From Medici To Moma: Collections, Sovereignty And The Private/Public Distinction
4. Blue-Prints For The Future: Demographic And Economic Change
Conclusion

Bibliography
Notes

About the author

Nizan Shaked is Professor of Contemporary Art History, Museum and Curatorial Studies, College of the Arts, California State University, Long Beach, USA.

Summary

Choice Outstanding Academic Title 2023

A critical analysis of contemporary art collections and the value form, this book shows why the nonprofit system is unfit to administer our common collections, and offers solutions for diversity reform and redistributive restructuring.

In the United States, institutions administered by the nonprofit system have an ambiguous status as they are neither entirely private nor fully public. Among nonprofits, the museum is unique as it is the only institution where trustees tend to collect the same objects they hold in “public trust” on behalf of the nation, if not humanity. The public serves as alibi for establishing the symbolic value of art, which sustains its monetary value and its markets.

This structure allows for wealthy individuals at the helm to gain financial benefits from, and ideological control over, what is at its core purpose a public system. The dramatic growth of the art market and the development of financial tools based on art-collateral loans exacerbate the contradiction between the needs of museum leadership versus that of the public. Indeed, a history of private support in the US is a history of racist discrimination, and the common collections reflect this fact.

A history of how private collections were turned public gives context. Since the late Renaissance, private collections legitimized the prince's right to rule, and later, with the great revolutions, display consolidated national identity. But the rise of the American museum reversed this and re-privatized the public collection. A materialist description of the museum as a model institution of the liberal nation state reveals constellations of imperialist social relations.

Foreword

This provocative work applies theories of Foucault and Marx to investigate the relations between the symbolic and monetary value of contemporary collections in art institutions under capitalism.

Additional text

This book issues a profound challenge to almost every aspect of the capitalist art world, revealing how many practices that are technically legal are nevertheless contrary to the public good. It offers a radical and specifically-targeted critique, surpassing the usual vague complaints over the commodification of art. It achieves a link between the critique of white supremacy (which has had a profound effect on the art world in recent years) and an economic critique of capitalism that has sometimes, if misguidedly, been opposed to “identity politics.” The defense of a Marxist “totalizing” perspective precisely for the purpose of abolitionist anti-racist work could not be more important in this moment. Although the solutions proposed may seem almost impossibly out of reach at present, so too did the idea of "defunding the police" just a year ago, as the author points out. This book looks beyond incremental reforms to a thorough restructuring of the art/museum world, or rather of society itself, which is indeed what it would take to achieve the seemingly more modest goal of making museums truly serve the public.

Product details

• Authors: Nizan Shaked, Shaked Nizan
• Publisher: Bloomsbury Academic
• Languages: English
• Product format: Paperback / Softback
• Released: 31.12.2021
• EAN: 9781350045767
• ISBN: 978-1-350-04576-7
• No. of pages: 288
• Subjects: Humanities, art, music > Art > General, dictionaries; PHILOSOPHY / Political, The arts: general issues, PHILOSOPHY / Aesthetics, ART / Criticism & Theory, BUSINESS & ECONOMICS / Museum Administration & Museology, Social & political philosophy, social and political philosophy, Political Economy, Philosophy: aesthetics, The arts: general topics