Whose Muse?

Book #23 was Whose Muse? Art Museums and the Public Trust, editing by James Cuno. In the interests of full disclosure, I used to be an art history major/geek, with a segment of my studies spent in museum studies, so this was a return to my roots, in a lot of ways.

This was a great book - easily one of my top five favorites from this year. It is a compiled series of lectures that were given as part of a lecture series by the Whose Muse? title, geared to having Art Museum Directors from around the globe give a talk on the role of museums and the public trust. The lecture series was hosted at Harvard University in June 2002.

First off, in my never ending quest to prove that there is a direct correlation between how pretty a book is and its content (cover = content quest) this book is my new darling. Beautifully bound, lovely pictures, nice hardcover book jacket, with good heft. A full aesthetic experience. If nothing else, this book would avoid the bottom of my list just by being so pleasing to the touch.

Content wise, the book is fascinating. I am a big believer that art is for people and that people should be allowed to "get" whatever they are going to "get" from the art on their own. I detest the way we have turned museums into quasi-religious places where there is a doctrine you have to learn and you are told to "appreciate" art that you don't like because some museum curator has told you it has value. Art should be enhanced by some historical and art technique related information, so that you can understand what you are seeing, but to be told to "enjoy" it and that such and such is empirically better than something else is a museum attitude and philosophy that you see all too often and that I find very upsetting.

Ok, so I'm biased. As you might have guessed, all the Art Directors in this book agree with my vantage point that the Art Museum's role is to make art accessible to the people. The public then entrusts the museums with their works of art with the understanding that the museum will care for, preserve, and showcase the art in an accessible and pleasing manner.

Some of the lectures are a tougher go than others, but overall it is a fascinating read on modern museum politics and issues, and is much more accessible than most art historical critiques and works, because the format is oral lectures. At the end of the day, historians tend to avoid the pitfalls of the written word (where arcane terminology and end and footnotes can bog a work down) because they know they have to keep the 100 person lecture room attentive, or they'll hear a lot of seat shifting and coughing.

Now, tell me this isn't a pleasant cover: (if only you could feel how heavy weight and lovely the book jacket is...)