BIROn - Birkbeck Institutional Research Online

    The spectre of empire in the British art museum

    Thomas, Sarah (2013) The spectre of empire in the British art museum. Museum History Journal 6 (1), pp. 105-121. ISSN 1936-9816.

    [img] Text
    thomasmhj7.pdf - Published Version of Record
    Restricted to Repository staff only

    Download (405kB)

    Abstract

    This paper examines the virtual invisibility of colonial art in British art museums today, despite a wealth of recent scholarship calling for ‘empire’ to be understood as central to British art history. While history museums tend to take a broadly inclusive view of the subject, fine art institutions such as Tate continue to define British art in its narrowest geographic sense, despite Britain ruling over what at its peak was the world’s largest global empire. The art of colonial Britain is more likely to be seen in such institutions as the National Maritime Museum, where the grand oils of such artists as John Webber and William Hodges sit comfortably within a narrative about British exploration and Empire. The exhibitions and collection displays at Tate, on the other hand, operate in effect as gate-keepers of an established British art historical canon, despite the institution’s acquisitions policy which promises to ‘frame and address changing historical narratives’. Why do colonial subjects continue to remain of minimal interest to British curators and directors today, despite a wealth of vigorous postcolonial scholarship over the last decade arguing for empire to be understood as being central to British art?

    Metadata

    Item Type: Article
    Keyword(s) / Subject(s): Nationalism and art, Great Britain, History, 18th century, Nationalism and art, 19th century ; National characteristics, British in art, Art and the British empire
    School: Birkbeck Faculties and Schools > Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences > School of Historical Studies
    Research Centres and Institutes: Nineteenth-Century Studies, Centre for
    Depositing User: Sarah Thomas
    Date Deposited: 18 Jun 2014 11:27
    Last Modified: 02 Aug 2023 17:11
    URI: https://eprints.bbk.ac.uk/id/eprint/9976

    Statistics

    Activity Overview
    6 month trend
    1Download
    6 month trend
    394Hits

    Additional statistics are available via IRStats2.

    Archive Staff Only (login required)

    Edit/View Item Edit/View Item