BOOK:Art and Artifact, Thames & Hudson Publications

From the early instances of the urge to collect objects, to assemblages of found objects and imitations of museum displays, artists have often turned their attention, both creatively and critically, to the ideas and systems traditionally embodied in the museum: display, archiving, classification, storage, curatorship. They have then appropriated, mimicked and reinterpreted these in their own work.

By Efi Michalarou

Citing a range of examples, James Putnam in “Art and Artifact: The Museum as Medium”, shows not only the ways in which artists have been influenced by museum systems and made their works into simulations of the museum, but also how they have questioned the role of museums, observed their practices, intervened in them and helped to redefine them. From Marcel Duchamp’s Portable Museum “Boîte-en-valise” (1940) to the latest interventions by artists in museums’ displays, merchandise and education, artists of the last seventy years have often turned their attention to the ideas underpinning the museum. The trend towards collaborations between artists and museum curators has in some cases involved the rehanging of existing collections or redesigning of gallery spaces. The works included are accompanied by quotations from the writings of artists, offer a wide-ranging coverage of projects by established and emerging figures like: Christian Boltanski, Sophie Calle, Tracey Emin, Hans Haacke, Donald Judd, Olafur Eliasson, Arman, Rosemarie Tröckel, Claes Oldenburg, Marc Quinn, Martin Kippenberger, Joseph Beuys, West, Ilya Kabakov and Anish Kapoor.