The Capital of Culture
What we now consider and accept as art today is a direct function of “museology and the various forms of museography which came to be professionally organised since the early nineteenth century art history.”[1] Anything that has been accepted as art by museum culture and canonised has also been afforded the luxuries of historicism, “wherein the import, value, or meaning of an item is a direct function of its relative position in an unfolding diachronic array.”[2] In plain terms the art audience accepts anything as an example of art as long as museum culture has deemed it to be acceptable and these examples of art become almost infallible as they are supported by literature and the weight of historicism. Art is based on a system of epistemology in the way that one builds a theory based on a previous theory that may or may not be virtuous, but the fact that it was widely accepted and institutionalised makes it a good stepping stone for an artist or theorist hoping to find their own direction.
[1] Robert S. Nelson & Richard Shiff,
[2] Ibid,

Museums have the power to authenticate forms of “art” and justify them by giving them an evolutionary direction and weight, art movements and trends are only deemed so because they have a relation to previous works and are seen to be part of an evolution of art.

The function of the white cube is to reinforce the autonomy of the work, while at the same time to be devoid of all references to commerce. This space is then cut off from the outside world by means of architecture; in small galleries there may be a stairs and in larger galleries there will be a hall of some kind. The influence comes from nineteenth-century design of art museums, ‘’this passage serves to disconnect the world of art from everyday life.”[3] [1] Robert Hughes,
[2] Nicholas Bourriaurd,
[3] Olav Velthuis,
[4] Ibid, p.21
[5] Robert Hughes,
[6] Olav Velthuis,
[7] Ibid,
[8] John Burns,
[9] Olav Velthuis,
[10] Ibid,
[11] Whitney, Price of Everything . . . Perspectives on the Art Market.



[1] Ibid,
[2] Alexander Alberro,
[3] Rita Hatton & John Walker
[4] Alexander Alberro,
[5] Rita Hatton & John Walker,
[6] Robert S. Nelson & Richard Shiff, Op Cit., p.409
[7] Robert Hughes,
[8] Olav Velthuis,
[9] Nat Finkelstein,
[10] Neil de Marchi,