Category Archives: Museums

Why do we need museums? Why was art removed from everyday life, and put in a holy temple for rarefied contemplation?

Art was originally in homes, places of worship, and public places. Often it was created by craftsmen or anonymous creators. Over the course of the centuries identifiable, individual creators arose, and identifiable individuals became patrons and individual collectors. Art moved from the public sphere to the private sphere.

To recapture art for the public, museums began to be created after the French Revolution. As they began to collect art, and remove it from their original contexts, the idea arose that art was an independent idea, that art was to be created as “art for art’s sake.” For some, such as Ad Reinhardt, the ultimate aim was to produce something for a museum.

Today, as museums compete with sports and other activities for people’s entertainment dollars, the role of the museum has become increasingly questioned.