Viewed Cleveland As Belonging to the Second Group of Museums,” but He Likely
© 2015 CHRISTA ADAMS ALL RIGHTS RESERVED BRINGING “CULTURE” TO CLEVELAND: EAST ASIAN ART, SYMPATHETIC APPROPRIATION, AND THE CLEVELAND MUSEUM OF ART, 1914-1930 A Dissertation Presented to The Graduate Faculty of The University of Akron In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree Doctor of Philosophy Christa Adams December, 2015 BRINGING “CULTURE” TO CLEVELAND: EAST ASIAN ART, SYMPATHETIC APPROPRIATION, AND THE CLEVELAND MUSEUM OF ART, 1914-1930 Christa Adams Dissertation Approved: Accepted: ____________________________ ____________________________ Advisor Department Chair Dr. Gregory Wilson Dr. Martin Wainwright ____________________________ ____________________________ Committee Member Interim Dean of the College Dr. Martin Wainwright Dr. John Green ____________________________ ____________________________ Committee Member Dean of the Graduate School Dr. Gang Zhao Dr. Chand Midha ____________________________ ____________________________ Committee Member Date Dr. Gary Holliday ____________________________ Committee Member Dr. Rebecca Pulju ii ABSTRACT In the early twentieth century, staff members at the new Cleveland Museum of Art worked to build a well-balanced, cosmopolitan collection of art objects and antiquities from global sources. While objects from Europe were certainly prized, this dissertation examines the unusual preoccupation of the museum’s first director, Frederic Allen Whiting, and first Curator of Oriental Art, J. Arthur MacLean, with sourcing, acquiring, and placing on display the very best examples of art objects and antiquities from China, Japan, and Korea. I argue that these individuals were not motivated by Orientalist fervor to acquire fine examples of East Asian material culture; instead, by engaging in what I call sympathetic appropriation, objects from Asia were carefully displayed in Cleveland’s new museum, where they might serve a broad educational function.
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