Balthus at the Met
Once again I was so annoyed by the wall labels of a Met show that I had trouble appreciating the art. This time the show, apparently conceived and titled for marketing purposes, was called “Balthus Cats and Girls” – thus, appealing to the Met’s two main audiences: men and women. The first shortcoming of the […]
An Annoying Exhibition
Met Director Thomas Campbell touts The Civil War and American Art as a “once-in-a-lifetime exhibition [that] proposes significant new readings of some of this country’s most iconic paintings.” It is, however, a reading I’ve seen before – among other places in the MIA’s American Sublime show. Then I wasn’t convinced; this time I was simply […]
Museum-Goer’s Wish List
A Museum-Goer’s Wish List (in no particular order) [work in process] Nearly every sizeable museum now has a Collections Handbook, a softcover, 2/3-size for $20-something book that illustrates and explicates a selection of highlights, usually one to a page. My wish is that this handbook feature primarily, if not exclusively, works on permanent display. What […]
Philadelphia!
Thirty years after our last visit to the City of Brotherly Love, we returned for an art visit to the new Barnes Foundation building and the much older Philadelphia Museum of Art and Pennsvylvania Academy of the Fine Arts (PAFA). As much as we enjoyed those jewels, we also loved the setting: Philadelphia seemed clean, […]
The Louvre
The Louvre A more-or-less forced march of four hours let me survey most, but not all, of the Louvre’s paintings on display and made me wonder how I had seen so much more on previous visits. I don’t know a better strategy, but there must be one. I started with the Flemish and Dutch schools […]