what is a museum? Most museums try to answer that question, although some can't make up their minds. The Frick Collection -- my favorite small museum -- is the tour of an ambition: Henry Clay Frick, robber baron, wanted to build a house that would celebrate his ability to say "I'll have one of those and two of these."
I don't find grabbing up your own personal History of European Art 101 to be an especially admirable goal, but the perhaps-intended consequence is quite wonderful . Back in the early 80's I saw Hoibein's portraits of More and Comwell, faced off in an unequal aesthetic battle, suggesting a relationship that Hilary Mantel would deconstruct in Wolf Hall. Here hangs my very favorite de la Tour: The Education of the Virgin. Look at the light leaking between the fingers of her hands. Frick is only a name. Art transcends greed. |
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my Tate Britian of favs: |
what is a museum? A very deliberate answer to this question is to be found at the Tate -- well both Tates. The first Tate, called Tate Britain now, was built to house the overflow from the National Gallery. The second Tate, Tate Modern, was built to house the overflow from the Tate.
OK, that's fairly pedestrian, but now it gets exciting. The Tate reorganized its non-mods into topical rooms, boring things like "portraits," but also "war" and "emotions, concepts, ideas" and "religion and belief." So does Rossetti's Joan of Arc reside in "war," in "religion and belief," or in "beauty"??? |