Art of Memories: Curating at the Hermitage (Paperback) (ISBN-13: 9780231191890)

Once the home of Catherine the Great's private art collection, Russia's State Hermitage Museum became the largest museum in the Soviet Union and, since the collapse of the USSR, one of the most active museums in the world. The Hermitage is a global model for the collection and preservation of fine art, deeply shaped by its need to protect itself and its holdings from the world beyond its gates. In Art of Memories, Vincent Antonin L駱inay documents the Hermitage's curatorial practices in an innovative consideration of the museum as a cultural laboratory.

L駱inay analyzes the tensions between the museum as a space of exploration of the collections and as a culture heavily invested in self-protection from the outside world. During a time when traveling abroad was rare, a generation of art historians produced a culture of confined scholarship premised on their proximity to the holdings of a museum enclave. As the Hermitage has become increasingly present on the world museum scene, its culture of secrecy and orality has endured. L駱inay analyzes the ethos of Hermitage curators and scholars over the transition from Soviet to post-Soviet museum cultures, considering the mobility of art, documentation of the collection, and the transformation of expertise. Based on L駱inay's extraordinary access to the Hermitage and the scholars who work there, Art of Memories opens the door of one of the world's great museums to reveal how art history is made. It is an essential study for readers interested in the role that outside forces play in culture, organizations, and the production of knowledge.

Author: Vincent Antonin L駱inay
ISBN-10: 0231191898
ISBN-13: 9780231191890
Publisher: Columbia University Press
Language: English
Published: 05/14/2019
Pages: 288
Format: Paperback
Weight: 0.75lbs
Size: 8.40h x 5.40w x 0.70d

Review Citation(s):
Choice 11/01/2019