Kuratorische Universalismen

When modernist artworks first entered museums, they were frequently accompanied by a wide variety of other objects. Emerging collections advocated for a universal concept of art, positioning avant-garde works alongside art from “all eras and regions”. Lisa Anette Ahlers traces the trajectory of a specific art-historical narrative – moving from universal-historical atlases around 1900, through Expressionist writings and Weimar-era initiatives to reform museums, to the comparative image albums and formalist exhibitions of the early post-war period. Case studies from museums in Essen, New York, and Baltimore illustrate the continuities, strategic objectives, and blind spots of this particular curatorial approach to legitimizing modern art.

• Uncovering a specific curatorial programme for the legitimizing of modern art 
• Referring to current debates on the future viability of so-called “universal museums”
• Including previously unpublished visual material