Neil Harris (1) (1938–)

Picked this up since I have an interest in museums... however, I tend to go towards natural history and not art, but the humanities are a valuable experience so why not? Exhaustively detailed (with plenty of citations), this covers the life of J. Carter Brown and his tenure at the National Gallery of Art through expansion, artifact acquisitions, and exhibit building/promotion/etc. Despite the interesting subject matter, I found this a very dry read (even with the sharp barbs critics threw at some of the exhibits over time). Marked as a 14 day book at the library, it took me much longer than that to finish.

If one has a strong interest in art museums, art history, or the administrivia of museums, this is worth a read. Otherwise, not exactly great for light reading.… (mer)

Harris presents an interesting take on architectural history. Rather than look at the role of the architects, he calls for a reexamination of built structures in terms of the life patterns of the buildings themselves. While he makes valid points about the need to contextualize buildings' histories by adding the evolution of meanings and personalities ascribed to them by the people who have used them, he occasionally belabors his point. This is particularly evident when he uses words such as "euthanasia" to describe demolition (pg. 164). However, this book does represented a new thread in architectural historiography.… (mer)