Alex Taylor will discuss enterprising curators of American decorative artsin 1950s who began licensing and selling three-dimensional reproductions of objects in their care as a way to generate museum revenue. These reproduction programs helped promote their collections and, more broadly, boost middle-class tastes for antiques. Among the businesses that would capitalize on this growing market was Sears, Roebuck, and Co., which launched their own range of some 500 “authentic reproductions” in 1966. Taylor’s talk at the Humanities Center considers how the store’s “National Treasures” line – ironically named after the kind of cultural patrimony defended from commerce – mined the collections of the Brooklyn Museum to make mass-produced copies and, in the process, put the very objects they sought to exploit at risk.
This event will be hybrid, so you can attend it either in person at 602 CL or via Zoom. Respondents include Jung Eun Kwon from the Department of Anthropology and Rachel Delphia, Alan G. and Jane A. Lehman Curator of Decorative Arts and Design at the Carnegie Museum of Art. Precirculated material for this colloquium will be available here about two weeks prior and up to the event.
12:30 to 2:00 PM in CL 602 or Zoom
Thursday, October 24, 2024
Register for in-person or Zoom attendance here.