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Monograph
Barnes, Amy Jane. 2014. Museum Representations of Maoist China: from Cultural Revolution to Commie Kitsch. Ashgate (now Routledge).
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Edited volumes
Watson, Sheila, Amy Jane Barnes and Katy Bunning (eds). 2018. A Museum Studies Approach to Heritage. Leicester Readers in Museum Studies. London: Routledge.
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Dudley, Sandra, Amy Jane Barnes, Jennifer Binnie, Julia Petrov and Jennifer Walklate (eds). 2012. Narrating Objects: Collecting Stories. London: Routledge.
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Dudley, Sandra, Amy Jane Barnes, Jennifer Binnie, Julia Petrov and Jennifer Walklate (eds). 2011. The Thing about Museums: Objects and Experience, Representation and Contestation. London: Routledge.
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Knell, Simon, Peter Aronsson, Arne Bugge Amundsen, Amy Jane Barnes, Stuart Burch, Jennifer Carter, Viviane Gosselin, Sally Hughes and Alan Kirwan (eds). 2010. National Museums: new studies from around the world. London: Routledge.
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Book chapters
Barnes, Amy Jane. 2018. ‘Representing the China Dream: A case study in revolutionary cultural heritage’. In Watson, Barnes and Bunning (eds). A Museum Studies Approach to Heritage. Leicester Readers in Museum Studies. London: Routledge.
Kraamer, Malika and Amy Jane Barnes. 2018. ‘Suits and Saris: Exploring multiple migrations and transnational identities’. In Watson, Barnes and Bunning (eds). A Museum Studies Approach to Heritage. Leicester Readers in Museum Studies. London: Routledge.
Hyde, Colin and Amy Jane Barnes. 2016. ‘Displaying Ghost Signs Online’. In Schutt, Roberts and White (eds). Advertising and Public Memory: Social, Cultural and Historical Perspectives on Ghost Signs. London: Routledge.
Barnes, Amy Jane. 2011. ‘Displaying the Communist Other: Perspectives on the Exhibition and Interpretation of Communist Visual Culture’. In Dudley, Sandra, Amy Jane Barnes, Jennifer Binnie, Julia Petrov and Jennifer Walklate (eds). The Thing about Museums: Objects and Experience, Representation and Contestation. Routledge.
Barnes Amy Jane. 2010. ‘Exhibiting China in London’. In Knell, Simon, Peter Aronsson, Arne Bugge Amundsen, Amy Jane Barnes, Stuart Burch, Jennifer Carter, Viviane Gosselin, Sally Hughes and Alan Kirwan (eds.). National Museums: new studies from around the world. London: Routledge.
Barnes, Amy. 2002. ‘Catalogue Entries’. In Pierson, Stacey (ed). Qingbai Ware: Chinese Porcelain of the Song and Yuan Dynasties. London: Percival David Foundation.
Edited journals
Barnes, Amy Jane, Anna Chrusciel, Mette Houlberg-Rung, Jeong-eun Lee, Christina Lleras, Jeremy Ottevanger, Anna Woodham (eds.). 2008. Museological Review, 13.
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Journal articles
Barnes, Amy Jane. 2018. 大英图书馆收藏的中国革命年画研究 [‘ Research on Chinese Revolutionary New Year Paintings Collected by the British Library’]. 年画研究2018 [‘Nianhua Journal 2018’]. Tianjin: Feng Jicai Research Institute of Literature and Art.
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Barnes, Amy Jane and Malika Kraamer. 2015.’Japanese Saris: Dress, Globalisation and Multiple Migrants’. In Textile History (November). Maney.
In this article, which is based on research in Leicester and Nairobi undertaken for the Cultural Olympiad exhibition Suits and Saris (New Walk Museum and Art Gallery, Leicester, 2012), we examine the phenomenon of Japanese saris — fashion-forward synthetic saris manufactured in Japan — and Leicester sari shop owners’ role in their design and popularity in the 1970s and early 1980s. We use this previously untold story to explore transnational identities as manifested through cultures of dress. We investigate the transnational space in which these saris were produced and used, and we focus in particular on the multiple migrant experiences of East African Asians, many of whom emigrated to Britain during the late 1960s and 1970s. We argue that the truly global phenomenon of Japanese saris would not have been possible without the transnational and multiple migrant nature of the South Asian diaspora.
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Barnes, Amy Jane. 2014. ‘Introduction: Forum on Health and Wellbeing in Museums and Galleries’. In Museum Worlds, 2.
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Barnes, Amy Jane. 2012. ‘A Trojan Horse? An icon of the anti-establishment at the Victoria & Albert Museum’. In Museum and Society, 10 (2), 69-80.
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Barnes, Amy. 2003. ‘China in Britain: The representation of twentieth-century Chinese art and culture in contemporary British museums.’ In Museological Review, 9.
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Other articles
Barnes, Amy Jane. 2019. ‘ “Knock Down the Gang of Four!”: Caricatures in the British Library’s collection of post-1949 Chinese posters”. The Language of Authoritarian Regimes. 20 Mar.
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Barnes, Amy Jane. 2016. ‘The British Library’s Collection of Chinese Propaganda Posters: An Overview’. Asian and African Studies: British Library. 25 Jan.
Barnes, Amy Jane. 2015. ‘Revolutionary nian hua in the British Library’. Asian and African Studies: British Library. 31 Dec.
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Barnes, Amy Jane. 2015. ‘Chinese Propaganda Posters and Copyright’. British Inter-University China Centre. 21 Dec.
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Barnes, Amy Jane. 2015. ‘BICC Cultural Engagement Partnership: Maoist posters at the British Library’. Asian and African Studies: British Library. 12 Nov.
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Barnes, Amy Jane. 2014. ‘What makes a good museum? The Art Fund knows’. The Conversation. 11 July.
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Unpublished PhD thesis
Barnes, Amy Jane. 2009. From Revolution to Commie Kitsch: (Re)-presenting China in Contemporary British Museums through the Visual Culture of the Cultural Revolution. University of Leicester.
To date, the study of communist visual culture in the museum environment has been limited. While interest in revolutionary art continues to develop thanks to its twenty-first century appropriation and ‘kitschification’ in Western contexts, communist art remains problematic. Taking Saidian discourse as a theoretical starting point, this thesis explores the collection, interpretation and display of the visual culture of the Chinese Cultural Revolution (1966-1976) in contemporary British museums. It explores the image of China in the popular consciousness and looks for intersections between the contemporary political Sino-British relationship and interpretive approaches to this material. The historiographical survey analyses contemporary primary sources to reveal images of the Cultural Revolution during three periods which correspond with mind shifts in the British response to China. Interviews with key members of curatorial staff situate the thesis in contemporary practice. The thesis is divided into three sections. The first, the ‘pre-historical’ context to the main body of the thesis establishes a methodological approach, theoretical grounding and surveys the Sino-British relationship from the Enlightenment to the foundation of the People’s Republic of China in 1949. Section 2 looks at the contemporary British response to the Cultural Revolution and how these visions of China were translated into exhibitionary practice. Section 3 explores the collections and practice of three case studies. It examines the different and diverse reasons for the establishment of these collections and how they have interpreted (as art, artefact or document). The thesis concludes with the argument that museums and collecting institutions have a key role to play in the difficult debate which envelopes the West’s historical response to communism and the legacy of the Cultural Revolution, in the light of challenges to the grand narrative.
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Reports
Parry, Ross and Amy Jane Barnes. 2010. Proposed research strands, projects and intellectual framework: consultative report for Tate Research Centre, the Art Museum and its Future. University of Leicester.
Catalogues
Barnes, Amy Jane. 2015. Chinese Propaganda Posters at the British Library. Unpublished.
Pierson, Stacey with Barnes, Amy. 2002. A Collector’s Vision: Ceramics for the Qianlong Emperor. London: Percival David Foundation.
Book reviews
Barnes, Amy Jane. 2013. ‘Hand-Painted Signs of Kratie’ by Sam Roberts. In Modern Art Asia. Issue 15, August.
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Barnes, Amy Jane. 2012. ‘Grand Designs: Labor, Empire, and Museum in Victorian Culture’ by Lara Kriegel. In Museum and Society, 10 (1), 60-61.
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Barnes, Amy Jane. 2010. ‘The Comfort of Things’ by Daniel Miller. In Museological Review, 14.
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Barnes, Amy Jane. 2009. ‘Championing the twentieth-century Chinese artist’. In Art History, 32 (3).
Barnes, Amy Jane. 2009. ‘Bushell, Yetts and the mystery of the missing photographer: A Curatorial detective story’. In Art History., 32 (3).
Barnes, Amy. 2005. ‘Chinese Silk’ by Shelagh Vainker. In Journal of Museum Ethnography.
Exhibition Reviews
Barnes, Amy. 2016. ‘The Portland Collection, Harley Gallery, Welbeck, Nottinghamshire’. Museums Journal, May 2016: 44-47.
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Barnes, Amy Jane. 2012. ‘The Spirit of Striving for Happiness in Hard Times, Song Dong: Waste Not, Barbican Art Gallery, London’. Modern Art Asia, Issue 11, August.
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Barnes, Amy Jane. 2012. ‘Rashid Rana, Everything is Happening at Once, New Art Exchange, Nottingham’. Modern Art Asia. Issue 9, March.
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