Architecture vs. Art: The Aesthetics of Art Museum Design[1]

Authors

Larry Shiner, University of Illinois SpringfieldFollow

Abstract

Many art critics have complained that the most dramatic art museum designs of the last decade have upstaged or interfered with the art within. This essay examines eight contemporary cases before drawing some lessons for art museum design, and ends by setting the architecture vs. art problem in the context of the philosophy of architecture, focusing on the issues of function and symbolism.