Art And Museum

A museum is a complex institution and has a long history in the west. In classical times it signified a temple dedicated to the Muses, and the most famous museum of that era founded at Alexandria about the third century B. C. by Ptolemy. The idea of modern museum is a product of Renaissance humanism; with keen interest in the classical past and the world about him, the humanist began to throw off the reins of superstition and take halting steps toward a scientific method and the sense of history. Influenced by the humanist and artists, the princes and his family of Europe also began to collect works of art, antiques and animals, botanical rarities, which were installed mainly in cabinet, usually a square-shaped room, and gallery, a long grand hall for pictures and sculptures. Both types of collections rarely open to the public and remained the playthings of princes, popes, and plutocrats. These collections may be based upon the desire for physical security, social distinction, political power, the pursuit of knowledge, and a wish to achieve a kind of immortality. The Palace of the Louvre in Paris, opened to the public during the French Revolution, may be regarded as the first public art museum, and after that the nineteenth and twentieth centuries were called the museum age, in which all the nations from Europe to America and Asia began to establish their own national museums. Today, the museum was regarded as a cultural and tourist center performing with political, economical and social power, and also became a field of academic study.Museology is a term used to describe the theoretical study of museums, including the museum history, theory of museum practice, and the various academic studies of museum profession. Museography, another important term in museum study, used to depict the museum practices, which also called applied museology, distinct from the philosophical study of museum. With the development of museum culture and museology, in Anglo-American writing, there appeared a trend of new museology in the later twentieth century. These scholars of new museology, in the critical standpoint, came from different disciplines and fields focused on the different parts of museum, especially the political and social role of the museum. The new museology continuously expending its fields inspired by the theories of history, anthropology, sociology, and some new thoughts, such as culture studies, post-colonialism, feminism and so on, has become a multi-and inter-disciplinary study fields. Except these areas, the main contribution to museum studies made by the art history, which has a well-established tradition in studying the art museum history and art collection history, as well as the art exhibition phenomena.Among the various questions asked by art museum studies experts, the relationship between art and museum is the first and most important one. The institution of modern art museum appeared much later than art itself, and old paintings and sculptures were not produced originally for the museum; so removing the works of art from churches and private houses to the public museum is good for art? Some speakers said that museum killed art. If it were true, so what would be the justification of art museum? And then, what is the purpose of art museum? Is there any potential intention of an art museum except for education which is the primary base of museum founded on? All these questions asked by critics and researches with suspicions, but the most people support museum for different reasons including the modern and living artists who both hate and love museum. The relationship between art museum and art history is another subject in this dissertation, for art museum providing the first materials and object for art history and at the same time it destroy the original settings of works of art.