The logic of the collection

Abstract

In our culture 'serious', 'autonomous', art is produced primarily to be collected. Unlike in the past, it is no longer conceived as an element of a temple, a church, a palace or a functional public space. It is even possible to argue that the modern notion of 'art' is a result of the emerging of the modern museum in the 18th century. The historical museum didn't collect art but rather produced it through displaying the very heterogeneous objects which were used in many different sacred, political ritual, decorative etc - ways in their original cultural contexts inside the unified and secularized space of the aesthetic presentation in the museum.