The Met and the Masses in Postwar America: A Study of the Museum and Popular Art Education

Description

In 1948, the Metropolitan Museum of Art went into business with the Book-of-the-Month Club to bring art to the wider public. The two institutions collaborated on three projects between 1948 and 1962: The Metropolitan Museum of Art Miniatures (1948–1957), the Metropolitan Seminars in Art (1958–60), and a print reproduction of Rembrandt’s Aristotle Contemplating the Bust of Homer (1962). While the Met had dedicated itself to public art education since its founding, the projects with the club were new types of ventures, as these very successful mail-order publications went directly into the homes of subscribers. The Met and the Masses in Postwar America sets these commercial enterprises in a variety of contemporary and historical contexts, including the relation of cultural education to democracy in America, the history of the Met as an educational institution, the rise of art education in postwar America, and the concurrent transformation of the home into a space that mediated familial privacy and the public sphere. Using never before published archival material, this book demonstrates how the Met had to tread carefully in upholding its reputation as an institution of high culture when it brought art to the masses in postwar America. In 1948, the Metropolitan Museum of Art (Met), under its director Francis Henry Taylor, went into business with the Book-of-the-Month Club (BOMC) to bring art to the masses. Between 1948 and 1962, the two institutions collaborated on three projects: The Metropolitan Museum of Art Miniatures (1948-1957), a series of stamps and albums; the Metropolitan Seminars in Art (1958-60), a course in art appreciation and art history; and a print reproduction of Rembrandt’s Aristotle Contemplating the Bust of Homer (1962), which the Met had purchased in 1961 for a record price. While the Met had dedicated itself to public art education since its founding, the projects with the BOMC were new types of ventures for the museum. Unlike the traditional work of museum education, these very successful mail-order publications went directly into the homes of subscribers. The Met and the Masses sets these enterprises in middlebrow culture in a variety of contemporary and historical contexts, including the relation of culture and art reproduction to commerce and democracy in America, the history of the Met as an educational institution, the rise of art education in postwar America, and the concurrent transformation of the home into a space that mediated familial privacy and the public sphere. Using never before published archival material, The Met and the Masses demonstrates how the Met, in its ventures with the BOMC, had to tread carefully in upholding its reputation as an institution of high culture when it brought art to the masses in postwar America. Cover Halftitle page Title page Copyright page Dedication Contents Illustrations Preface Acknowledgments Introduction 1 The Metropolitan Museum of Art Miniatures: Culture and Commerce The Miniatures Project The Book-of-the Month Club Enters the Scene The Miniatures Albums Miniatures Production The Culture/Commerce Divide “Can’t they be a bit larger?” The Miniature Art Gallery The End of the Miniatures 2 The Metropolitan Seminars in Art: Middlebrow Culture The Seminars Readership The Books Selling the Seminars For the “Bored” and “Completely Tired Out” Problems and Complaints “The Nuances of Art without the Hard Work” Middlebrow Culture 3 The Met and Art Education in Postwar America An Educational Corporation “The Midwife of Democracy” Postwar Art Education Autonomy and Instrumentalism 4 Rembrandt’s Aristotle Contemplating the Bust of Homer: Reproductions and Quality The Photoengraving Process The Importance of Quality: Miniatures and Seminars The Rembrandt Reproduction Reproductions and the Democratization of Art Reproductions and Social Values Reproductions and Originals Reproductions, Reputation, Instruction 5 The Met, Popular Art Education, and the Problem of Abstract Art The Unintelligibility of Abstract Art Explaining Abstract Painting Art or Con Game Communication, Non-Communication, and Subjectivity Coda Appendices Notes Bibliography Index