When it comes to viewing great art, Americans face a disparity of opportunity -- a fact that has always troubled me. It may be politically incorrect, but it shouldn't be controversial to say that most of the best visual art in the United States lies east of the Mississippi, largely because the East's museums had a head start. They were richer, and more conscious of catching up with sophisticated Europe, first. What is more troubling is the perpetuation of this pattern, partly because of money and partly because … [Read more...]

Surprisingly, some RCA readers seem to have interpreted my last post, about Mark Bauerlein's criticism of the arguments used to advocate for arts education -- which was certainly not against arts education itself -- as a lack of interest in early arts education. Nothing could be further from the truth. I'm for arts education, no matter how we get it done -- and where. In fact, among the items of interest that I've saved in the last few weeks to comment on here is one about a museum pre-school. The … [Read more...]

Why do we want students to learn about the arts? Is it for their social benefits? Because they "save" students who are little interested in math or English? Because they teach tolerance for other viewpoints? Why are we all for arts education? I'd guess that many (most?) Arts Journal readers don't even think about the why. We just know the arts are intrinsically wonderful. But are we making the best argument for arts in education? Mark Bauerlein, an English professor at Emory University, doesn't think so. In a recent post on his … [Read more...]

Real Clear Arts readers know that I am a fan of The Wall Street Journal's Saturday Masterpiece column, subtitled "Anatomy of a Classic." Today's piece -- about music -- is no exception. It celebrates the 200th anniversary of Chopin's birth with a column about his 24 Preludes, "tiny microcosms [through which] Chopin established the hegemony of the Romantic miniature." The piece, by David Dubal, a professor of piano performance at the Juilliard School, also contains this statement, which astonishes and pleases me (a Chopin fan) … [Read more...]

I've been wanting to weigh in on museum blogs for a long time now. Trouble is, there are too many, and they seem to me to be inconsistent. Frequently, museums have lowly curatorial assistants writing the posts, probably because curators don't want to. Many posts don't seem all that interesting. Maybe they're heavily edited -- or maybe they're not edited at all.  So I put the idea aside. Now someone at Best Colleges Online has come up with a list of "50 Awesome Art Museum Blogs." I had to look. It seems that raters at … [Read more...]

Another art museum is in trouble: the Taubman Museum of Art in Roanoke, Va., which just opened in late 2008, announced its fourth round of layoffs in its less than two years of existence. Current staff numbers just 17, according to the Roanoke Times. The museum, in downtown Roanoke, with roots going back to 1951, had high hopes. Read from its "about" statement: At the heart of downtown Roanoke, the new 81,000 square foot Taubman Museum of Art proves an arresting landmark for visitors...As Roanoke's most contemporary … [Read more...]

Ordinarily, I would pass up this opportunity to cite yet another example of an art museum dumbing down for the sake of attracting crowds. And I almost did, until I saw who organized the exhibition. In September, the marvelous Walters Art Museum in Baltimore, home to Raphael's Madonna of the Candelabra (below), Manet's At the Cafe, and Veronese's Portrait of Countess Livia da Porto Thiene and her Daughter Porzia (to name just a few works I picked off the website catalogue randomly), will open Walter Wick: Games, Gizmos and Toys in the … [Read more...]

What to make of Fernando Botero? I came back from Colombia both more and less appreciative of the painter of porky people. Clearly, he is the best-known Colombian artist: His works are in the National Museum and he has a museum of his own, Museo Botero. There, 123 of his works are on display along with 85 by European artists like Picasso, Bonnard, Caillebotte, Soutine, Roualt, etc., etc. and a few American ones, too -- gilt by association. The museum, which I believe is owned by the Banco de la Republica, is a handsome hacienda-style … [Read more...]

Change usually happens gradually, but every now and then there's a big rupture. I think art museums have been gradually taking a turn in recent years that is now accelerating as a new generation of directors take over the top slots at America's big museums. In the last several weeks, I've talked with a fair number of directors -- a few over 50, but most younger. While there's no unanimity -- on almost anything -- there is a decided movement toward rejecting the idea of museum as "cultural cathedral," a … [Read more...]

Traveling, to me, usually involves looking at the art a country has made and accumulated. Of course, one knows in advance that you don't really go to Colombia, my summer vacation destination, to discover world-class art. But every country has something.  Let's start with Colombia's bright spots: both Bogota and Cartagena (the two cities I visited) have a Museo del Oro, both owned by Colombia's central bank, Banco de la Republica. The main one, in Bogota, was remodeled in 2008, and tells an excellent tale of … [Read more...]