The Politics of Recognition

This week we read Charles Taylor’s The Politics of Recognition. Taylor argues that the demand for recognition stems from a new understanding of identity first articulated in the 18^th century. Individuals, and individual cultures, came to be seen as unique, equally valid, and inwardly generated. Because of this, a new emphasis was placed on societal recognition. Misrecognition and nonrecognition became forms of oppression because they can alter a group’s image of itself, trapping them within a distorted vision.

These ideas are particularly important for public museums that strive to represent diverse cultures from a variety of vantage points. Misrecognition and nonrecognition play a large role in conceptions of African art. This can be seen in the exhibition held at the Museum of Modern Art, “‘Primitivism’ in Modern 20^th Century Art: Affinity of the Tribal and the Modern,” in which African art and Western art were placed together based on their formal characteristics alone. Critics have observed that there was little attempt made to understand the non-Western cultures represented in the displays or the inherent racism found in many of the Western artworks. Taylor argues that the middle ground between ethnocentric misrecognition and homogenizing nonrecognition can be achieved through the study of cultures. What role does the gallery play in this study? Can a gallery create an exhibition that showcases various cultures without embedded value judgments and biases?