Category: research spotlights

Reports from Researchers Working in the Field, in Archives, and on the Ground

From the Tomb to the Museum Plinth: Chinese Burial Objects on Display in the Victoria and Albert Museum and the Metropolitan Museum of Art

by Elaigha Vilaysane In his 2009 journal article entitled “Enlivening the Soul in Chinese Tombs,” Chinese art historian Wu Hung contends that most European and American museums do not display Chinese funerary objects in their ritual and architectural context.1 As a result, the decontextualized display of these artifacts limits an understanding of their original function.2  Museums […]

The Secrets We Keep

by Danielle Wirsansky   The Secrets We Keep is a new musical that immerses audiences in the mystical realm of rusalki, using folklore to explore sensitive historical themes and reveal hidden truths. The story follows Luba, a Jewish Polish woman tragically transformed into a rusalka— an undead, enchanting water spirit both alluring and eerie—during the […]

The Provenance Reliability Index

by Liz Neill Provenance: literally, where something comes from. Once considered secondary to the aesthetic value of an artwork or a secret to be hidden in restricted files, object histories have become more widely discussed by archaeologists and art historians in recent decades. Major US museums, such as the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston and […]

Fabricated Faces: Obscured Self-Portraiture in the Works of Jo Spence and Mary Sibande

by Michaela Peine While the self-portrait occupies a unique liminal space on the spectrum of affectation and reality, the “hidden” or “obscured” self-portrait pushes farther, using the selfhood of the artist as a medium to be objectified, concealed, or symbolically transformed. However, as is demonstrated in the work of Jo Spence and Mary Sibande, this use […]

Following Institutional Critique Inside the Library

by Levi Sherman When artists in the 1960s began challenging systemic authority, it seemed any cultural heritage institution—library, archive, or museum—could be a target of what would become known as Institutional Critique.1 The same period heard the first rumblings of today’s “digital convergence,”2 or the collapse of libraries, archives, and museums into repositories of information, […]

From Léon Spilliaert’s Vertigo to…?

by Jin Wang A few years ago, I stepped onto a train in Brussels and accidentally ended up in Ostend, where I first encountered works by the Belgian painter and graphic artist Léon Spilliaert. Wandering in the city’s museum, the Mu.ZEE, I was immediately intrigued by Spilliaert’s Vertigo (fig. 1, 1908). Similarly enthralled, a group […]

Collections in Catastrophe: A Study of Disaster Preparedness in New Orleans Art Museums

by Heather Burich United States art museums located in geographically hazardous zones should be well-informed about the considerable risks posed to their collections at any given time. As the impact of climate change intensifies, public institutions need to review their collection management policies in response to the growing frequency of natural disasters. After the devastation […]