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Still Questioning the Ideal: Possibilities for the Critical Curation of Classical Antiquities at the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts

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Still Questioning the Ideal: Possibilities for the Critical Curation of Classical Antiquities at the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts

Miles, Danielle Aimée (2019) Still Questioning the Ideal: Possibilities for the Critical Curation of Classical Antiquities at the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts. Masters thesis, Concordia University.

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Abstract

Although Survey Museums are slowly becoming more receptive to the possibility of creating exhibitions using critical frameworks, Mediterranean archaeology collections within these institutions are overwhelmingly presented using a grand narrative of idealization of the Classical world. These exhibitions of the Classical world not only negate the diversity of realities of the Classical past, but also deny the existence of problematic discourses within the fields of art history and archaeology thereby contributing to the perception of a Western supremacy inside and outside of the museological context. This thesis examines art historical and archaeological discourses surrounding Mediterranean archaeology, and the impact of its presentation as art or artifact, historically and within the context of the Survey Museum, as a starting point for the curation of a new exhibition of Mediterranean Archaeology at the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts due to open in the fall of 2019. This examination is then countered with an overview of relevant Critical Museological theory and Institutional Critique artistic practice in order to suggest a possible critical curatorial methodology for the display of Mediterranean archaeology. Using this curatorial methodology, the proposal for the new exhibition of the Mediterranean Archaeology collection at the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts is presented, including all didactic panels, object labels and images.

Divisions:Concordia University > Faculty of Fine Arts > Art History
Item Type:Thesis (Masters)
Authors:Miles, Danielle Aimée
Institution:Concordia University
Degree Name:M.A.
Program:Art History
Date:31 August 2019
Thesis Supervisor(s):Whitelaw, Anne
Keywords:Critical Museology, Ancient Greece, Ancient Rome, Archaeology, Art History, Montreal Museum of Fine Arts, Museums, Exhibitions
ID Code:985828
Deposited By: DANIELLE AIMEE MILES
Deposited On:14 Nov 2019 15:59
Last Modified:14 Nov 2019 15:59

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