Civilizing Rituals Inside Public Art Museums

Summary: Carol Duncan writes with prescient insight, brilliance, and humour in her study of the art museum and its practices.... 'Civilizing Rituals' will become a classic of museum scholarship, and of cultural history." Linda Nochlin, Institute of Fine Art, New York University "Carol Duncan is a thinker of enormous stature, whose reputation - deservedly - has begun to assume almost legendary proportions. In her long-awaited ...book, she analyzes the public art museum not as a simple receptacle for art and cultural history but as a powerful agent that has helped to shape that history through architectural symbolism, spatial dynamics, installation choices and their ritualistic associations ... she leads her readers to question, constructively, their previously unexamined cultural assumptions and values." Norma Broude, The American University, Washington DC "A lively and authoritative discussion of some key issues facing museums past and present. Civilizing Rituals is a good read and a must for anyone interested in museums." Andrew McClellan, Tufts University, Massachusetts "A welcome contribution to a growing body of critical literature from one of the pioneers of work on museum culture. Duncan succeeds in synthesizing contemporary debates in an admirably accessible language without sacrificing the complexities of her subject." Annie E. Coombes, Birkbeck College, University of London Civilizing Rituals is illustrated with over 50 photographs. [read more]