Museum Architecture: A New Biography

Description

Recent decades have witnessed an explosion of museum building around the world and the subsequent publication of multiple texts dedicated to the subject. Museum Architecture: A new biography focuses on the stories we tell of museum buildings in order to explore the nature of museum architecture and the problems of architectural history when applied to the museum and gallery. Starting from a discussion of the key issues in contemporary museum design, the book explores the role of architectural history in the prioritisation of specific stories of museum building and museum architects and the exclusion of other actors from the history of museum making. These omissions have contemporary relevance and impact directly on the ways in which the physical structures of museums are shaped. Theoretically, the book places a particular emphasis on the work of Pierre Bourdieu and Henri Lefebvre in order to establish an understanding of buildings as social relations; the outcome of complex human interactions and relationships. The book utilises a micro history, an in-depth case study of the ‘National Gallery of the North’, the Walker Art Gallery in Liverpool, to expose the myriad ways in which museum architecture is made. Coupled with this detailed exploration is an emphasis on contemporary museum design which utilises the understanding of the social realities of museum making to explore ideas for a socially sustainable museum architecture fit for the twenty-first century. Cover Half Title Title Page Copyright Page Table of Contents List of figures Acknowledgements Introduction Architecture, museums and museum studies Scope of the research 1. Telling stories of museum architecture Architecture and language: systems of difference Telling stories of museum architecture Surveying the iconic: architecture as stylistic development Museums as an apparatus of the State: architecture as technology The battle between art and architecture: architecture as function From the iconic to the particular and the special to the everyday: lives of (and in) museum buildings Re-thinking architecture: the turn to the social and human bodies The built environment as a social and cultural production Significant Lives: Historical Fragments of Architectural Production Architecture as a product of use Architecture as active in the making of human consciousness and identity Significant lives: historical fragments of architectural production Biography and storytelling: significant lives 2. ‘Hobson’s choice’: art and grog in Liverpool Uncultured and uncivilised: public perceptions of Liverpool Liverpool’s leading men: towards the design of a Gallery of Art Sanitising the city: the role of architecture and culture The McDougall Cartoons: scandal, outrage and censure The opening ceremony: pomp, celebrations and protest Conclusion 3. ‘It is, of course, very easy to make merry over the Alderman in Art’: the 1930s extension and renovation Social change, economic uncertainty and popular culture Protest and dissent: perceptions of the Walker Art Gallery by 1921 A new professionalism Reshaping the Walker Art Gallery: a committee, a city and the profession New scientific approaches to lighting picture galleries The new Walker Art Gallery Conclusion 4. Ration cards, food hordes and art: occupation by friendly forces and thebattle for liberation 1939–1951 A building transformed through use Night time defenders of the Walker Art Gallery An arts programme for wartime Liverpool The battle for control of the Walker Art Gallery Rebuilding Conclusion: celebrations, openings and accolades 5. Art (and architecture) in a city: ambition, illusion and revolution Introduction Hugh Scrutton 1952–1970: the birth of the modern profession, standardisation and art ‘Standard for any art gallery’: collection care, storage and documentation Acquisition and increasing state support for art in the regions Art exhibitions: commanding a national stage Research, scholarship and publication Piecemeal architectural change Art (and architecture) in a city ‘We weren’t in the business of saving the Walker’: the abolition of the Metropolitan County Councils and nationalisation, 1983–1986 Conclusion 6. The social architecture of museums The social architecture of museums Differential space Critical spatial practice Notes Appendix: Harold Furniss’ Testimony Abbreviations Primary sources Secondary sources Index