From “Museum of Decorative and Industrial Arts” to the Errázuriz family house-museum: paths for the creation of a National Museum of Decorative Art

Abstract

The decades prior to the creation of the National Museum of Decorative Art in Argentina (1937) saw a strong development of the applied arts in general. Unlike the educational field that was destined to train a mass of artisans and craftsmen, men and women workers who would graduate from schools of arts and crafts, or the exhibitions dedicated to the decorative arts of national production, the MNAD never contemplated Argentine productions. Rather, it focused mainly on collecting European and Oriental art, strongly marked by the founding purchase of the Errázuriz family collection. The main goal of this article is to identify and analyze the different projects for the creation of a museum of decorative art in Argentina and to study them considering Raymond Williams’ concept of selective tradition. In this sense, the first publications and catalogs made since the inauguration of the Museum are also closely investigated to examine the past history it sought to establish itself on, the level of attention paid to previous and contemporary projects on decorative arts in the country, the imaginary of the decorative arts that sought to promote and the public chosen as recipient. In this sense, this article also seeks to question the conception of the “house museum” of the National Museum of Decorative Art in Argentina to problematize its scope and limits.