Museology (Signed First Edition)

ROSS, Richard and David Mellor

ISBN 10: 0893813761 / ISBN 13: 9780893813765

Published by Aperture in association with The University Art Museum of Santa Barbara, New York & Santa Barbara, CA, 1989

About this Item

First edition and first printing. Hardcover. 79 pages. Features a foreword by J. David Farmer and Phyllis Plous, an introduction by Marcia Tucker along with an essay by David Mellor. A collection of color photographs taken in museum all over the world. A clean and tight very near fine copy in paper covered boards with a cloth spine and in a very near fine dust jacket with some very slight sunning to the spine. Signed and very warmly inscribed by Ross on the front free endpaper and dated in the year of publication. A very nice copy as the recipient was a museum curator and author.

Seller Inventory # 191689

Bibliographic Details

• Title: Museology (Signed First Edition)
• Publisher: Aperture in association with The University Art Museum of Santa Barbara, New York & Santa Barbara, CA
• Publication Date: 1989
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0893813761
• ISBN 13: 9780893813765
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition: First Edition.
• Dust Jacket Condition: dj
• Weight: 2.938 pounds
• Signed: Signed
• Seller catalogs:
  • Photography

About this title

Synopsis

Published on the occasion of an exhibition of the same name organized by the University Art Museum, Santa Barbara. In a unique collection of color photos from museums around the world, Ross (photography, U. of Calif., Santa Barbara) deconstructs the formal, public display of art and artifacts, and reveals the museum itself as a cultural product embodying both the sublime and the ridiculous. 10x12". Annotation copyright Book News, Inc. Portland, Or.

Reviews

In these color photographs of art and natural history museums and their holdings, Ross, who teaches at UC Santa Barbara, wields considerable wit in constructing images of the institutions as we don't usually see them. In some cases, an animal's spirit is shown to have survived the taxidermist's art, flouting the authority of the knife (the face of a stuffed rhinoceros peers skeptically through glass, as though once again regnant). Elsewhere, held in suspended animation, victims in display cases seem sustained only by artifice, creating illusions of a perfectly orderly, hierarchical nature brought home to roost. In pure fun, Ross portrays a classical nude sculpture appearing to take cover from onlookers in a museum corner, and offers a delightful closeup of stuffed lions engaged in ferociously kitsch battle. But his thoughtful book, an exhibition catalogue, does more than amuse; it leaves readers with disquieting thoughts of predator and prey in museums and culture at large.
Copyright 1989 Reed Business Information, Inc.