Museums
216 results
Page 21
That cross at the 9/11 Memorial
God and propaganda at Ground Zero
The new 9/11 Memorial Museum is planning to exhibit, among other artifacts, a pair of girders recovered from Ground Zero in the shape of a cross. It’s a bad idea for several reasons.
Articles
4 minute read
Renzo Piano Pavilion at Kimbell Art Museum
What if they built an art museum and forgot the art?
These days, the buildings in which art museums are housed seem to get more attention than the art within.
Articles
6 minute read
Amsterdam: The city as museum
Rembrandt would recognize this place (and so would John Adams)
Yes, Amsterdam remains a Mecca for aging hippies, hash parlors and whores. But hold the snarky jokes. The city is an architectural wonderland of the 17th and 18th Centuries, full of dozens of remarkable museums.
Articles
7 minute read
Searching for Grace Kelly at the Michener Museum
Will the real Grace Kelly please stand up?
An exhibit that promises to reveal the real Grace Kelly does little more than cater to her gorgeous myth.
Articles
4 minute read
Diego Rivera's ghost in Detroit
Where art and ideology meet: Can a dead Communist artist save Detroit?
The city of Detroit may be broke, but the Detroit Institute of Arts owns $2 billion worth of art works. Its most valued pieces, by the Communist Diego Rivera, portray heroic workers triumphing over stoic managers. In the best capitalist tradition, Rivera’s frescoes are now being held hostage by a pair of union-busting Republican politicians.
Articles
5 minute read
The Barnes contemplates its audience
Don’t you dare go to the rest room, or: Like old times at the Barnes
The old, insular Barnes Foundation treated its visitors as suspicious interlopers, and not much has changed.
Articles
2 minute read
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The anti-Barnes on the Parkway
On moving Chartres Cathedral to Ben Franklin Parkway
The Barnes Foundation's home in Merion was the Chartres of Modernism, designed by Albert Barnes to proclaim that the greatest European art of his own time represented a radically new way of seeing the world, as well as a reaffirmation of the great art of the past. So, would the French move a great cathedral to Paris to double the tourist draw?
Articles
5 minute read
The new bittersweet Barnes (2nd review)
Welcoming the new, but missing the old
If you set aside the history of the Barnes Foundation, perhaps the new building and its contents can be viewed objectively. But how can anyone disregard history when we're talking about a museum— which is, after all, a place for preservation of the history of art?
Articles
5 minute read
The new Barnes: Worth the wait (1st review)
The brilliance of Barnes, with more breathing room, too
In its new lodgings on the Parkway, the Barnes Collection looks reassuringly the same but wonderfully refreshed, and the art is as amazing as ever.
Articles
4 minute read
The new Barnes: a sneak preview
First peek at the new Barnes: And the verdict is….
The Barnes Foundation's new home on the Parkway, set to open on May 19, barely resembles its previous Beaux Arts building in Merion. My sneak-preview tour last week convinced me that's not a bad thing.
Articles
3 minute read