Ten Worst Paintings at the MIA
Nicola di Maestro Antonio d’Ancona, Madonna and Child Enthroned (c. 1490) This will introduce you to the very subjective nature of this tour. For starters, I just don’t like my women (in art) to be heavy-lidded, flat-chested and with lips no wider than their nostrils. The human face may be shaped like an egg, but […]
Until Now: The Contemporary Art Tour
Welcome to Until Now, the MIA’s first exhibition of Contemporary Art. We’ve picked the period from 1960 to 2010, which happens to be half a century, a nice round number. But is there a significance to this particular 50-year span? I think you will see that there is, and the place to start is where […]
New York Notes
Three days in Manhattan in early June gave me a chance to randomly check out galleries and museums – never time enough for all I wanted to see, but enough to provide some insight and inspiration. Far and away the highlight was the Otto Dix retrospective at the Neue Gallerie, both for the power of […]
Glazing at the MIA
Oftimes when touring a special exhibition I will be asked by a visitor, “Why does this painting have glass over it?” and my answer is always, as we were taught, “Good question.” In so many ways, glass on a painting distracts and detracts from the museum visitor’s experience of the artwork. First, depending on the […]
On Visiting Houston
The docent told me that the Museum of Fine Arts Houston (MFAH) has recently become the 16th largest museum in the country. I assume the rankings are for art museums and are based on size of collection, but she wasn’t sure. MFAH’s literature speaks of 60,000 objects, whereas its catalogue from 2000 mentions 40,000. Size […]