Still Life

Ecologies of the Modern Imagination at the Art Museum

Fernando Dominguez Rubio

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Hardback

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English

University of Chicago Press
19 August 2020

Conservation, restoration & care of artworks; Exhibition catalogues & specific collections; Museums & museology; Sociology

How do you keep the cracks in Starry Night from spreading? How do you prevent artworks made of hugs or candies from disappearing? How do you render a fading photograph eternal—or should you attempt it at all? These are some of the questions that conservators, curators, registrars, and exhibition designers dealing with contemporary art face on a daily basis. In Still Life, Fernando Domínguez Rubio delves into one of the most important museums of the world, the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in New York, to explore the day-to-day dilemmas that museum workers face when the immortal artworks that we see in the exhibition room reveal themselves to be slowly unfolding disasters.

Still Life offers a fascinating and detailed ethnographic account of what it takes to prevent these disasters from happening. Going behind the scenes at MoMA, Domínguez Rubio provides a rare view of the vast technological apparatus—from climatic infrastructures and storage facilities, to conservation labs and machine rooms—and teams of workers—from conservators and engineers to guards and couriers—who fight to hold artworks still.

As MoMA reopens after a massive expansion and rearranging of its space and collections, Still Life not only offers a much-needed account of the spaces, actors, and forms of labor traditionally left out of the main narratives of art, but it also offers a timely meditation on how far we, as a society, are willing to go to keep the things we value from disappearing into oblivion.

By: Fernando Dominguez Rubio
Imprint: University of Chicago Press
Country of Publication: United States
Dimensions: Height: 229mm, Width: 152mm,
ISBN: 9780226713922
ISBN 10: 022671392X
Pages: 424
Publication Date: 19 August 2020
Audience: General/trade , ELT Advanced
Format: Hardback
Publisher's Status: Active

Introduction Towards an Ecology of Modern Categories Part 1 Ecologies of Care Introduction Caring for the Same Chapter 1.1 The Modern Object of Care Chapter 1.2 The Elusive Object of Contemporary Art Chapter 1.3 The Modern Subject of Care Part 2 Ecologies of Containment Introduction The Aesthetics of Containment Chapter 2.1 Containing Eternity Chapter 2.2 Eternity on the Move Part 3 Ecologies of Imagination Introduction Into the White Chapter 3.1 The Interior Space of Art Chapter 3.2 Exhibitions as Material Acts of Imagination Part 4 Ecologies of the Digital Chapter 4.1. The Work of Art in the Age of Digital Fragility Conclusion The Cracks of the Modern Imagination Notes Bibliography Index

Fernando Dominguez Rubio is assistant professor of communication at the University of California, San Diego. He is coeditor of The Politics of Knowledge.

Reviews for Still Life: Ecologies of the Modern Imagination at the Art Museum

"""The timely book by Fernando Domínguez Rubio [Still Life]. . . . in an original and exhaustive way. . . . Looking at the curatorial and conservation departments at MOMA (as well as its storage facilities) and combining approaches from material cultural studies, anthropology, and social studies of science and technology, presents what its author calls “an ecological vision” of modern art."" * Public Books *"