Manufacturing the Modern Patron in Victorian California: Cultural Philanthropy, Industrial Capital, and Social Authority (The Histories of Material Culture and Collecting, 1700-1950) - Hardcover

Ott, John

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1409463346 ISBN 13: 9781409463344

Publisher: Routledge, 2014

Synopsis

Through the example of Central Pacific Railroad executives, Manufacturing the Modern Patron in Victorian California redirects attention from the usual art historical protagonists - artistic producers - and rewrites narratives of American art from the unfamiliar vantage of patrons and collectors. Neither denouncing, nor lionizing, nor dismissing its subjects, it demonstrates the benefits of taking art consumers seriously as active contributors to the cultural meanings of artwork. It explores the critical role of art patronage in the articulation of a new and distinctly modern elite class identity for newly ascendant corporate executives and financiers. These economic elites also sought to legitimate trends in industrial capitalism, such as mechanization, incorporation, and proletarianization, through their consumption of a diverse array of elite culture, including regional landscapes, panoramic and stop-motion photography, history paintings of the California Gold Rush, the architecture of Stanford University, and the design of domestic galleries. This book addresses not only readers in the art history and visual and material cultures of the United States, but also scholars of patronage studies, American Studies, and the sociology of culture. It tells a story still relevant to this new Gilded Age of the early 21st century, in which wealthy collectors dramatically shape contemporary art markets and institutions.

About this title

About the Author:

John Ott is Associate Professor of Art History, James Madison University, USA.

Review:

Prize: Winner of a College Art Association Wyeth Foundation for American Art Publication Grant

About this edition

• Publisher: Routledge
• Publication date: 2014
• ISBN 10: 1409463346
• ISBN 13: 9781409463344
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 330