Critique of Misattributed Origins of Modern Museum Design and Museology

Paco Barragán, a Spanish art theorist, argues that American and British academia propagate an inaccurate history of the modern museum's origins, falsely crediting MoMA and Alfred Barr Jr. with inventing concepts like the 'white cube.' He asserts that modern museology and exhibition design were developed in Germany, particularly Berlin, between 1871 and 1933, by figures such as Wilhelm von Bode and Hugo von Tschudi. Barragán criticizes contemporary curators and institutions for lacking knowledge in museology, leading to uninspired exhibition designs, and blames academic sources in English for perpetuating this misinformation, while noting recent German scholarship has begun to address the issue.