The museum as muse

The Museum as Muse: Artists Reflect surveys the ways in which artists, mostly of the present century, have addressed the museum, commented on its nature, confronted its concepts and functions, drawn from its methods, and examined its relationship to the art it contains.

This lively, involving, and intellectually provocative presentation encompasses a tremendous variety of artworks, large and small, intimate and expansive, in mediums both familiar and surprising: paintings, sculptures, photographs, drawings, prints, videos, and installations.

Fully illustrated with the works of an international cross section of more than sixty artists, this volume makes a substantial and lasting contribution to our understanding of the intertwining, continually metamorphosing relationship between artists and museums.

Published by The Museum of Modern Art, New York, in 1999 on the occasion of the major exhibition The Museum as Muse: Artists Reflect, this book features an introductory essay by Kynaston McShine, Senior Curator in the Department of Painting and Sculpture at The Museum of Modern Art and director of the exhibition. In the ensuing plate section, short entries by several authors on the art and artists accompany 233 full-color and black-and-white illustrations representing a wide diversity of works of art.