The whole picture : the colonial story of the art in our museums & why we need to talk about it / Alice Procter.
Publisher: London : Cassell, 2021Description: 308 pages : illustrations (black and white, and colour)Content type: text | still image Media type: unmediated Carrier type: volume001: BDZ0046589817ISBN: 9781788402453 (pbk.) :Subject(s): Museum exhibits
| Cultural property -- Repatriation | Human remains (Archaeology) -- Repatriation | Art, Colonial | Society & culture: general | Forgery, falsification & theft of artworks | History of art | History of art | History of art | Colonialism & imperialism | National liberation & independence, post-colonialism | Historical states, empires & regions | The arts: general issues | Museology & heritage studies | Central / national / federal government policies | Popular culture | Politics & government | Modernism | Renaissance style | Crafts | Great Britain -- Colonies | Great Britain -- Cultural policyAdditional physical formats: Ebook version :: No titleDDC classification: 306.470941 LOC classification: N72.S6 | P7 2021Summary: If you think art history has to be pale, male and stale - think again. "Probing, jargon-free and written with the pace of a detective story... [Procter] dissects western museum culture with such forensic fury that it might be difficult for the reader ever to view those institutions in the same way again. " Financial Times 'A smart, accessible and brilliantly structured work that encourages readers to go beyond the grand architecture of cultural institutions and see the problematic colonial histories behind them.' - Sumaya KassimShould museums be made to give back their marbles? Is it even possible to 'decolonize' our galleries? Must Rhodes fall?How to deal with the colonial history of art in museums and monuments in the public realm is a thorny issue that we are only just beginning to address. Alice Procter, creator of the Uncomfortable Art Tours, provides a manual for deconstructing everything you thought you knew about art history and tells the stories that have been left out of the canon.The book is divided into four chronological sections, named after four different kinds of art space: The Palace, The Classroom, The Memorial and The Playground. Each section tackles the fascinating, enlightening and often shocking stories of a selection of art pieces, including the propaganda painting the East India Company used to justify its rule in India; the tattooed Maori skulls collected as 'art objects' by Europeans; and works by contemporary artists who are taking on colonial history in their work and activism today.The Whole Picture is a much-needed provocation to look more critically at the accepted narratives about art, and rethink and disrupt the way we interact with the museums and galleries that display it.
| Item type | Current library | Collection | Call number | Copy number | Status | Date due | Barcode | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Book | MAIN LIBRARY Book | 306.470941 PRO (Browse shelf(Opens below)) | 1 | Available | 114565 |
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Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:
If you think art history has to be pale, male and stale - think again.
Should museums be made to give back their marbles? Is it even possible to 'decolonise' our galleries? Must Rhodes fall?
From the stolen Wakandan art in Black Panther , to Emmanuel Macron's recent commitment to art restitution, and Beyoncé and Jay Z's provocative music video filmed in the Louvre, the question of decolonising our relationship with the art around us is quickly gaining traction. People are waking up to the seedy history of the world's art collections, and are starting to ask difficult questions about what the future of museums should look like.
In The Whole Picture , art historian and Uncomfortable Art Tour guide Alice Procter provides a manual for deconstructing everything you thought you knew about art, and fills in the blanks with the stories that have been left out of the art history canon for centuries.
The book is divided into four chronological sections, named after four different kinds of art space:
The Palace
The Classroom
The Memorial
The Playground
Each section tackles the fascinating and often shocking stories of five different art pieces, including the propaganda painting that the East India Company used to justify its control in India; the Maori mokomokai skulls that were traded and collected by Europeans as 'art objects'; and Kara Walker's controversial contemporary sculpture A Subtlety , which raised questions about 'appropriate' interactions with art. Through these stories, Alice brings out the underlying colonial narrative lurking beneath the art industry today, and suggests different ways of seeing and thinking about art in the modern world.
The Whole Picture is a much-needed provocation to look more critically at the accepted narratives about art, and rethink and disrupt the way we interact with the museums and galleries that display it.
Originally published: 2020.
Includes bibliographical references.
If you think art history has to be pale, male and stale - think again. "Probing, jargon-free and written with the pace of a detective story... [Procter] dissects western museum culture with such forensic fury that it might be difficult for the reader ever to view those institutions in the same way again. " Financial Times 'A smart, accessible and brilliantly structured work that encourages readers to go beyond the grand architecture of cultural institutions and see the problematic colonial histories behind them.' - Sumaya KassimShould museums be made to give back their marbles? Is it even possible to 'decolonize' our galleries? Must Rhodes fall?How to deal with the colonial history of art in museums and monuments in the public realm is a thorny issue that we are only just beginning to address. Alice Procter, creator of the Uncomfortable Art Tours, provides a manual for deconstructing everything you thought you knew about art history and tells the stories that have been left out of the canon.The book is divided into four chronological sections, named after four different kinds of art space: The Palace, The Classroom, The Memorial and The Playground. Each section tackles the fascinating, enlightening and often shocking stories of a selection of art pieces, including the propaganda painting the East India Company used to justify its rule in India; the tattooed Maori skulls collected as 'art objects' by Europeans; and works by contemporary artists who are taking on colonial history in their work and activism today.The Whole Picture is a much-needed provocation to look more critically at the accepted narratives about art, and rethink and disrupt the way we interact with the museums and galleries that display it.
Description based on ebook version record.
Table of contents provided by Syndetics
- Introduction (p. 8)
- Part I The Palace (p. 20)
- 1 Vases & Attitudes (p. 27)
- 2 The Sarcophagus (p. 36)
- 3 Pitt's Diamond (p. 46)
- 4 An Offering (p. 53)
- 5 Forged Relics (p. 63)
- Part II The Classroom (p. 72)
- 6 The Kangaroo & the Dingo (p. 80)
- 7 Mai (p. 89)
- 8 The Tiger of Mysore (p. 100)
- 9 Abolitionists (p. 110)
- 10 England's Greatness (p. 119)
- 11 The Shield (p. 129)
- Part III The Memorial (p. 140)
- 12 A Haida Carving (p. 147)
- 13 Mokomokai (p. 154)
- 14 Mining the Museum (p. 163)
- 15 Human Zoos (p. 169)
- 16 The Coffin (p. 178)
- Part IV The Playground (p. 188)
- 17 Museum Highlights (p. 197)
- 18 Crowd Control (p. 204)
- 19 The Ship (p. 215)
- 20 Sugar Baby (p. 224)
- 21 Change the Date (p. 236)
- 22 Return (p. 246)
- Conclusion (p. 254)
- Coda (p. 264)
- Endnotes (p. 272)
- Bibliography (p. 296)
- Picture Credits (p. 306)
- Index (p. 308)
- Acknowledgements (p. 316)
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