2025/07/14 by Seang Sokha · 1 voice
Social Sciences · #Asian Geopolitics and Ethnography #Cambodian History and Society #Southeast Asian Sociopolitical Studies
paper · doi:10.1093/arthis/ulaf032
openalex publication_date 2025/07/14 · openalex created_date 2025/12/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/30
Abstract This essay examines the mutual imbrication of ‘progress’ in research on Cambodian art history and the evolution of the display of Hindu-Buddhist sculpture in the National Museum of Cambodia from its founding under colonial auspices in the early twentieth century to the early twenty-first century when museum leadership sought to affirm Cambodian autonomy. It tracks art-historical research developments in relation to the curatorial interventions of three key museum directors: colonial artist-administrator George Groslier (founding director from 1919 to 1942); French art historian Jean Boisselier (director from 1950 to 1955); and Cambodian art historian Khun Samen (director from 1996–2007). Particular attention is given to the politico-cultural underpinnings and implications of periodisation and associated interpretations of civilisational progress — or regress — conveyed through modes of display.