110. Who Gets Collected? Corporate Collections and Gendered Exclusion in Art History

Corporate art collections occupy an increasingly influential yet understudied position within the contemporary art world. Unlike museums, corporations hold no formal public or educational responsibility, yet through acquisition practices, exhibitions, and collection publications they actively shape artistic visibility and influence how cultural value is assigned.  Despite their growing presence, the internal structures, collecting logics, and biases embedded within these collections often remain inaccessible to critical scrutiny.

This session examines corporate art collections as opaque sites of cultural power that contribute to the reproduction of art historical canons and persistent inequalities in representation, particularly concerning women artists and other historically marginalised groups. Drawing on Pierre Bourdieu’s theorisation of cultural capital and distinction (Distinction, 1979), Chin-Tao Wu’s critique of corporate patronage as a mechanism of cultural power (Privatising Culture, 2002), and Hilde Hein’s feminist critique of collecting institutions (Redressing the Museum in Feminist Theory, 2007), the session investigates how corporate collecting practices participate in constructing artistic legitimacy while reproducing inherited hierarchies of value. Following Hein’s argument that feminist methodology requires not simple equality but the conceptual restructuring of categories such as “masterpiece,” artistic excellence, and institutional value, this session asks how corporate collections reproduce gendered biases embedded within the criteria through which art is acquired, displayed, and historically validated.

Papers addressing corporate collections across historical and contemporary contexts, including feminist analyses of acquisition practices, studies of gender and racial imbalance in private and corporate collections, corporate patronage as cultural power, inaccessible archives and hidden collections, and comparative studies examining how corporate institutions shape artistic visibility across the world, are invited.

Themes: Corporate art collections, gender imbalance, acquisition practices.

Additional format comment: The session will consist of four twenty-minute papers followed by a moderated discussion.

Lead Convenor: Derya Sayin, Koc University, Turkey

To submit a Paper to this Session, please follow the guidance on our website and complete the AAH 2027 Call for Papers Proposal Submission Form.