Irish Intellectuals and Aesthetics: The Making of a Modern Art Collection

This book offers a novel sociological approach to art collecting with a study of the practices involved in the making of the collection for the Irish Musem of Modern Art in Dublin. Drawing on the work of sociologists Zygmunt Bauman and Pierre Bourdieu on intellectuals, it argues that art collecting can be theorised as a form of intellectual practice whereby art objects are assigned collecting value. The study is based on interviews with professionals in Dublin’s art world, museum and gallery directors, curators, and in its historical context, it also explores the practices surrounding the creation of Dublin’s first modern art collection for the Municipal Gallery of Modern Art in 1908.