Art Review: Toledo Museum of Art — Great on Glass but Disses American History

Before I write about current exhibitions at the Toledo Museum of Art, I want to report on two conversations I had with curator friends who work at the Smithsonian. Last week, I wrote about the truly rancid inaugural exhibition at the temporary home of the Museum of the American Latino. I said that this in-the-works museum was a waste of money, some $700 million, which is mucho dinero. The topic’s too vast and nebulous and the cultures too disparate.

The exhibition purports to be about Latino history, but it’s fake history and entirely political. The Smithsonian, I also said, is already too big and unwieldy. Both friends told me that the Smithsonian doesn’t even want the museum, and it doesn’t want the new Women’s History Museum, either. A pandering Congress forced them on the Smithsonian, much as it forced the carbuncular Eisenhower Memorial, an aesthetic horror, on visitors and natives alike.

About the Author

Brian T. Allen

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

Before I write about current exhibitions at the Toledo Museum of Art, I want to report on two conversations I had with curator friends who work at the Smithsonian. Last week, I wrote about the truly rancid inaugural exhibition at the temporary home of the Museum of the American Latino. I said that this in-the-works museum was a waste of money, some $700 million, which is mucho dinero. The topic’s too vast and nebulous and the cultures too disparate.

The exhibition purports to be about Latino history, but it’s fake history and entirely political. The Smithsonian, I also said, is already too big and unwieldy. Both friends told me that the Smithsonian doesn’t even want the museum, and it doesn’t want the new Women’s History Museum, either. A pandering Congress forced them on the Smithsonian, much as it forced the carbuncular Eisenhower Memorial, an aesthetic horror, on visitors and natives alike.