This book explores the key battlegrounds in the design of the
contemporary-art museum, describing the intersection of art, aesthetics,
and politics at the highest levels, and the commitment of states,
cities, and wealthy individuals to the display of art. It describes
museum building as the projection of political power, but also as a
desire to acquire power. It is commonplace to assume that the
contemporary-art museum has become ever more spectacular, and the place
of art ever more subservient within it. This book argues that a tendency
to spectacle coexists with another equally powerful tendency, to make
art museums that celebrate the artistic process, typically attempting to
recreate the feeling of the artist's studio. Richard J. Williams's
stimulating text includes many historical examples to illustrate how we
got to where we are now, from the Centre Pompidou in Paris, to the
Guggenheim museums in New York and Bilbao, London's Tate Modern, Oscar
Niemeyer's work in Brazil and beyond, and the 798 Art District in
Beijing.