ABSTRACT
The notion and role of museums have completely changed: it is common to find in them defiant exhibits a-la-Duchamp, urinals, piles of bricks, and other objets trouves. Museums of contemporary art have become so innovative, both in their contents or buildings and in terms of operation, that it would be absurd to chronicle their spread as an uninterrupted course following nineteenth-century policies. Instead, the goal is to convey an idea of the change process by 'organic stages', as many cultural historians have done, including number of museum historians. The denominations 'museum of living artists', 'museum of nineteenth-century art', 'museum of contemporary art', and 'museum of modern art' have been alternatively employed hitherto in this essay as synonyms, opposing them to the 'gallery of old masters'. Existing galleries were purged of ageing works, in order to make true museums of 'modern' art.
