Art, museums and touch

Art, museums and touch' examines conceptions and uses of touch within arts museums and art history. Candlin deftly weaves archival material and contemporary museology together with government policy and art practice to question the foundations of modern art history, museums as sites of visual
learning, and the association of touch with female identity and sexuality.

This remarkable study presents a challenging riposte to museology and art history that privileges visual experience. Candlin demonstrates that touch was, and still is, crucially important to museums and art history. At the same time she contests the recent characterisation of touch as an accessible
and inclusive way of engaging with museum collections, and argues against prevalent ideas of touch as an unmediated and uncomplicated mode of learning.

An original and wide-ranging enquiry, this book is essential reading for scholars and students of museum studies, art history, visual culture, disability, and for anyone interested in the cultural construction of the senses.


Author: Fiona Candlin
Publisher: Manchester University Press
Published: 08/01/2010
Pages: 224
Binding Type: Hardcover
Weight: 1.40lbs
Size: 9.10h x 6.10w x 0.90d
ISBN: 9780719079337

About the Author

Fiona Candlin is Senior Lecturer in Museum Studies at Birkbeck (University of London)