Entrusted, Blind: On the Art Museum as Unwitting Sacred Space

Abstract: Art museums are often understood as classic products of the Enlightenment, in which traditional objects are removed from their original contexts and reassembled according to rational paradigms (chronological, regional, technical, etc.). This essay argues, however, that art museums are charged and unstable repositories of sacred objects whose original significance has been lost to the collective imagination, but whose residual power still beckons with magnetic power. As repositories of the sacred, art museums unwittingly preserve certain liturgical behaviors otherwise lost to the modern mind. Can today's art museums become a tool to reclaim ancient religious rhythms and perspectives on the sacred?