Western European Museums and Visual Persuasion: Art, Edifice, and Social Influence

J. Donald Ragsdale

07/2020 · Cambridge Scholars Publishing

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Western European Museums and Visual Persuasion is an assessment of the visual persuasiveness of art museums. It demonstrates that museums are as capable of influence as speeches or advertisements are and that an awareness of this influence provides an insight into museums’ cultural roles.

The book considers a diverse array of institutions ranging from such national cultural icons as the Louvre, the British Museum, and the Prado to museums of partisan advocacy such as the Centre Georges Pompidou, the Tate Modern, and the Museo Nacional Centro Arte de Reina Sofia. The museums’ architectural significance, the importance of their collections, and the persuasiveness of their exhibition designs are the bases for assessment.

Western European Museums and Visual Persuasion is an important extension of theories of persuasion and visual communication to art, art history, and museology. It utilizes a theory of visual signs based on the semiotics of C. S. Peirce to demonstrate that museum buildings, the art within them, and the spaces used for display all may be thought as ways of influencing society.

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J. Donald Ragsdale is Professor and Chair of the Department of Communication Studies at Sam Houston State University, Huntsville, Texas, USA. He holds a BA from Samford University and an MA and PhD from the University of Illinois. Professor Ragsdale is a member of the Southern States Communication Association, the National Communication Association, the International Communication Association, and the International Pragmatics Association.