This is my 92nd story for National Review in 2022. I wrote twice a week, with a miss here and there owing to far-and-wide travels, covering exhibitions at 52 museums, seven art fairs, and a dozen or so straight news stories. I profiled ten museums, most of which I’d never visited. Art museums in Tennessee, Alabama, Maine, New Hampshire, Philadelphia, Venice, London, and Paris were each subjects of a close look at their histories, collections, donors, and directions.
The Met, the Whitney Biennial, and the Biennale in Venice got more than one look. The Met is the world’s greatest museum. Its exhibitions get the best loans because of its prestige and clout, and its curators are very good. The art in The Tudors and Crosscurrents, a big Winslow Homer exhibition, was extraordinary. Intellectually, alas, Crosscurrents was a sham and The Tudors obese. The Met is in an odd state. I see most of its exhibitions. Many feel and look like they’re done by committees, rambling or with too many dead ends, and painfully, awkwardly PC.
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