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Book Synopsis
Alexander Dorner's radical ideas about the purpose of museums and art, examined through his tenure as Director of the RISD Museum.

Alexander Dorner (1893-1957) became Director of the Rhode Island School of Design Museum in 1938, and immediately began a radical makeover of the galleries, drawing on theories he had developed in collaboration with modernist artists during his directorship of the Provinzialmuseum in Hanover, Germany. Dorner's saturated environments sought to inspire wonderment and awe, immersing the museum visitor in the look and feel of a given period. Music, literature, and gallery talks (offered through a pioneering audio system) attempted to recreate the complex worlds in which the objects once operated. Why Art Museums? considers Dorner's legacy and influence in art history, education, and museum practice. It includes the first publication of a 1938 speech made by Dorner at Harvard as well as galleys of Dorner's unpublished manuscript, “Why Have

Why Art Museums The Unfinished Work of Alexander

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    A Hardback by Sarah Ganz Blythe, Andrew Martinez

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      View other formats and editions of Why Art Museums The Unfinished Work of Alexander by Sarah Ganz Blythe

      Publisher: MIT Press Ltd
      Publication Date: Publication Date: 25/09/2018
      ISBN13: 9780262039147, 978-0262039147
      ISBN10: 0262039141

      Description

      Book Synopsis
      Alexander Dorner's radical ideas about the purpose of museums and art, examined through his tenure as Director of the RISD Museum.

      Alexander Dorner (1893-1957) became Director of the Rhode Island School of Design Museum in 1938, and immediately began a radical makeover of the galleries, drawing on theories he had developed in collaboration with modernist artists during his directorship of the Provinzialmuseum in Hanover, Germany. Dorner's saturated environments sought to inspire wonderment and awe, immersing the museum visitor in the look and feel of a given period. Music, literature, and gallery talks (offered through a pioneering audio system) attempted to recreate the complex worlds in which the objects once operated. Why Art Museums? considers Dorner's legacy and influence in art history, education, and museum practice. It includes the first publication of a 1938 speech made by Dorner at Harvard as well as galleys of Dorner's unpublished manuscript, “Why Have

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