Is the Getty Really Spending That Much Money for Its Redo?

I atone for mistakes, correct them as soon as I discover them, and thank God I don’t make them as often as, say, the New York Times, which does indeed have an errata section. I used to read it but don’t bother anymore. There, a true and honest correction page would involve reprinting the entire paper and adding “no,” “not,” “nunca,” “oops,” “never mind,” and “what a lyin’ dogface pony soldier thing to say” to nearly every sentence. I’ll start my monthly news story not so much with a correction but an admission and elaboration.

I have to be less diplomatic, less like a dove and more like one of those saber-toothed cats whose models I saw at the La Brea Tar Pits when I was in Los Angeles last week. Many of my reader friends think I’m high as a kite on the new Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA). “Oh, you really do love it,” I’ve heard over and over. No, I don’t. It’s fine, and I like it and see room for experimentation in our country’s multifaceted museum world, but when it comes to the new LACMA, one is enough. I wrote that many of the galleries look like boutiques. If I were still a curator, I’d die if someone said a gallery I arranged looked like a high-end shop. “Good luck finding an old favorite,” I warned, in case you were looking for one. “It could be anywhere, or . . . in storage,” because the galleries are organized by theme rather than period or nation or style. After spending $725 million, LACMA’s got less, not more, gallery space.

About the Author

Brian T. Allen

Brian T. Allen is National Review’s art critic.

Featured Tags

Manage following

Art

I atone for mistakes, correct them as soon as I discover them, and thank God I don’t make them as often as, say, the New York Times, which does indeed have an errata section. I used to read it but don’t bother anymore. There, a true and honest correction page would involve reprinting the entire paper and adding “no,” “not,” “nunca,” “oops,” “never mind,” and “what a lyin’ dogface pony soldier thing to say” to nearly every sentence. I’ll start my monthly news story not so much with a correction but an admission and elaboration.

I have to be less diplomatic, less like a dove and more like one of those saber-toothed cats whose models I saw at the La Brea Tar Pits when I was in Los Angeles last week. Many of my reader friends think I’m high as a kite on the new Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA). “Oh, you really do love it,” I’ve heard over and over. No, I don’t. It’s fine, and I like it and see room for experimentation in our country’s multifaceted museum world, but when it comes to the new LACMA, one is enough. I wrote that many of the galleries look like boutiques. If I were still a curator, I’d die if someone said a gallery I arranged looked like a high-end shop. “Good luck finding an old favorite,” I warned, in case you were looking for one. “It could be anywhere, or . . . in storage,” because the galleries are organized by theme rather than period or nation or style. After spending $725 million, LACMA’s got less, not more, gallery space.