ABSTRACT
Exhibitions were undoubtedly always part of art-historical writing, yet it is only recently that one can speak of their evolving into a new branch of scholarship in its own right. Like any other newly established field of study, the history of exhibitions had to establish a canon of its objects. This chapter examines the construction of the canon(s) of exhibitions: How did the history of exhibitions become a topic worthy of interest? What values went into forming its configuration of studies? What is it that continues to keep them in place?1 And what is the resonance of exhibition histories to curatorial practice?
