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Inventing
the Art Collection Patrons, Markets, and the State in Nineteenth-Century
Spain
Oscar Vázquez
August | 2001 | 8 1/2 x 11 inches
Art History
Hardback: $79.00 SH
ISBN-10: 0-271-02084-9
ISBN-13: 978-0-271-02084-6
Winner of the 2003 Eleanor Tufts Award for Outstanding English-language
publication, sponsored by the American Society for Hispanic Art
Historical Studies
"An
extremely important contribution to our understanding of the nineteenth
century in general, to our knowledge of Spain, and to our understanding
of the phenomena of patronage, collecting, and public support for
the arts." —Marcus B. Burke, Curator of Paintings, Hispanic Society
of America
The pace and scale of the exchange of cultural goods of all sorts—paintings,
furniture, even ladies' fans—increased sharply in nineteenth-century
Spain, and new institutions and practices for exhibiting as well as
valorizing "art" were soon formed. Oscar Vázquez maps this
cultural landscape, tracing the connections between the growth of
art markets and changing patterns of collecting. Unlike many earlier
students of collecting, he focuses not upon questions of taste but
rather upon the discursive and institutional frameworks that came
to regulate art's economic and symbolic worth at all levels of Spanish
society.
Drawing upon sources that range from newspaper reviews to notarial
documents, Vázquez shows how collecting acquired the power
to mediate debates over individual, regional, and national identity.
His book also looks at the emergence of a new state apparatus for
arts administration and situates these social and political changes
in the broader European context. Inventing the Art Collection
will be of interest to historians and sociologists of Spain and
Europe, as well as art historians and cultural theorists.
Oscar
E. Vázquez is Associate Professor of Art History at Binghamton
University. His articles have been published in Art History, Word
& Image, and Art Journal.
