I had to laugh when I read this article in the Independent. The story is about the group calling themselves Renoir Sucks protesting in front of Boston’s Museum of Fine Arts. Renoir Sucks’ main tenant is, well, that Renoir sucks. The group maintains that they are tired of the ‘irredeemable treacle of Pierre-Auguste Renoir diluting the collection.’ They are…
Michael J. Lewis‘ long piece in Commentary titled, How Art Became Irrelevant, is a tour de force of cultural analysis. In his well-written and long article (did I mention it is long?), Lewis’ breadth of knowledge provides a wealth of thoughtful observations and quotable passages. To buttress his main thesis, which I think is reasonably embodied in the…
I had two more painting sessions on Washington Square. I finally got the pigeons in there (can you see all 7 of them*?). Washington Square has a hole in the middle which is supposedly a no-no. Cleveland has a painting by Poussin with the same empty center, and it’s very effective. It took me awhile to…
The Whitney Museum recently opened its new digs in Chelsea. My first (tiny) apartment in New York was in Chelsea (20th & 8th), of course, that was before Chelsea became an art center. I plan to pay my first visit this summer.
I read a slashing review, A Monument to Tastelessness, by THEODORE DALRYMPLE in the City Journal. Dalrymple is a doctor and an author. I enjoyed his book about Africa, Zanzibar to Timbuktu. The review, subtitled The new Whitney Museum looks like a torture chamber, is scathing. He also excoriates Michael Kimmelman’s piece in the NY Times, A New Whitney, saying, “I have seldom read a piece of criticism in which the fundamental question was avoided in so pusillanimous a fashion.”
As I have yet to visit the museum, I’ll withhold comment. Dalrymple is an incisive thinker. His experience as a doctor to the poorer classes in Africa and Europe infuse his writing with an interesting perspective, although his liberalism is old fashioned by today’s standards, That’s fine by me because so is mine.
Here is a different review–a typical art world fawning-type review–of the new museum.
Excellent article about the sate of the modern art museum.
The author, Jerry Saltz, hits many of the points I’ve written about. Of course, it doesn’t take special insight to notice the immense changes taking place in the modern museum. Museums are becoming fun-house extravaganzas filled with events designed to attract the young. Whatever is taking place, vast changes are underway. Read the article yourself.
In their fierce competition for the vast pool of entertainment dollars, art museums are attempting to use technology to reinvent themselves. The theme-park-ization of museums is replete with interactive attractions and high-tech gewgaws. On the surface this sounds, if not exactly winning, reasonable. After all, what could be more natural for our (so-called) cultural leaders than to provide technological leadership as well.…