Art Review: Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art

Whether new or old, most museums are struggling today over how to present their permanent collections, both how the art is arranged and what the wall text tells us. Crystal Bridges in Bentonville in Arkansas is no different. It has a first-rate American art collection from the colonial period to today, and on my visit last month it seemed it was trying new ways, some good, some bad, some weird, to interpret what it shows.

Today, gender, race, justice, repudiation, and revenge are some of the new filters through which American art is called to pass. At the same time, self-righteousness and historical illiteracy are at pandemic levels. Even the best art can take only so much cultural sludge before it dissolves as a visual experience, leaving a label writer’s or curator’s animus tossing its curls in triumph.

About the Author

Brian T. Allen

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

Whether new or old, most museums are struggling today over how to present their permanent collections, both how the art is arranged and what the wall text tells us. Crystal Bridges in Bentonville in Arkansas is no different. It has a first-rate American art collection from the colonial period to today, and on my visit last month it seemed it was trying new ways, some good, some bad, some weird, to interpret what it shows.

Today, gender, race, justice, repudiation, and revenge are some of the new filters through which American art is called to pass. At the same time, self-righteousness and historical illiteracy are at pandemic levels. Even the best art can take only so much cultural sludge before it dissolves as a visual experience, leaving a label writer’s or curator’s animus tossing its curls in triumph.