Overview

Museums often served nationalist and imperialist interests in the past, but the primary force in the 21st century is the market. Museum franchising—exemplified by the Louvre Abu Dhabi—is one of the most visible cases of the increasing entanglement of art and museums with capital interests. Such projects are often touted as global enterprises diversifying the art world. Frequently, critics of these controversial projects question these claims and market influence. The intersection of these two forces—increasing capitalization and moving toward inclusivity—creates a fundamental tension, and that is the subject of Beth Derderian's Art Capital. Focusing on the decade between the Louvre Abu Dhabi's announcement and its eventual opening, the book analyzes how major shifts away from the 19th- and 20th-century paradigm of culture-state representation play out in museums' and artists' everyday practices. Derderian traces the emergence of a new logic, wherein the ways that artists represent the state shift, as does the notion of what constitutes 'good art.' In addition, these intersecting forces spur preemptive erasures that neutralize and depoliticize difference for museum publics. Drawing on ethnographic research with artists, curators, museum staff, gallerists, art teachers, and other arts professionals, this book analyzes the UAE art world as a microcosm of these massive, epistemic changes.

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9781503644762

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Reviews

""Art Capital lays fundamental groundwork for understanding the global entanglements of contemporary art institutions and the emergence of hybrid transnational museums. An important book!"" --Corinne A. Kratz, author of Rhetorics of Value: Exhibition Design and Communication in Museums and Beyond ""In a world where the state steps back and the market steps in as the primary arbiter of museum practice, how are exhibiting and educating practices changing? This fascinating account raises vital questions about the role of museums, and their visitors and patrons of the future."" --Peggy Levitt, author of Artifacts and Allegiances: How Museums Put the Nation and the World on Display

Art Capital lays fundamental groundwork for understanding the global entanglements of contemporary art institutions and the emergence of hybrid transnational museums. An important book!"" --Corinne A. Kratz, author of Rhetorics of Value: Exhibition Design and Communication in Museums and Beyond ""In a world where the state steps back and the market steps in as the primary arbiter of museum practice, how are exhibiting and educating practices changing? This fascinating account raises vital questions about the role of museums, and their visitors and patrons of the future."" --Peggy Levitt, author of Artifacts and Allegiances: How Museums Put the Nation and the World on Display

Author Information

Beth Derderian is Assistant Professor of Anthropology and Museum Studies at the College of Wooster.

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