Ruth Berenson on Art

illustrated catalogues, often unreadable, but eminently suited to coffee table display. And there are continuous special concerts, lectures, children’s classes, which they alone may attend. So much for snob appeal. Even more energy is put into luring the masses with bus advertisements, radio and television programs, school classes, teen-age classes, electronic guided tours “explaining” the works of art. Last but by no means least are the rapidly proliferating museum shops, often staffed by comely volunteers, where merchandise ranges from Christmas cards to Polish toys to folk art from Afghanistan. Though supposedly non-profit-making, they not only manage to turn over tidy sums each year but—even more important—they raise the door count, since many people persist in going to museums once a year, to do their Christmas shopping.

It all mounts up. Last year the Metropolitan played host to 6,141,691 people—nearly as many as the population of greater Los Angeles. These included babies in strollers, school classes, harassed fathers ordered to take over the kids on a Saturday afternoon, interior decorators, Seventh Avenue designers seeking inspiration for next year’s bikinis, tired shoppers, and young secretaries hoping an eligible young executive will turn up in front of a Rembrandt. They also doubtless included a goodly number of people who came to look at the art—though some of them may have found it pretty hard to see anything.

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Ruth Berenson

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illustrated catalogues, often unreadable, but eminently suited to coffee table display. And there are continuous special concerts, lectures, children’s classes, which they alone may attend. So much for snob appeal. Even more energy is put into luring the masses with bus advertisements, radio and television programs, school classes, teen-age classes, electronic guided tours “explaining” the works of art. Last but by no means least are the rapidly proliferating museum shops, often staffed by comely volunteers, where merchandise ranges from Christmas cards to Polish toys to folk art from Afghanistan. Though supposedly non-profit-making, they not only manage to turn over tidy sums each year but—even more important—they raise the door count, since many people persist in going to museums once a year, to do their Christmas shopping.

It all mounts up. Last year the Metropolitan played host to 6,141,691 people—nearly as many as the population of greater Los Angeles. These included babies in strollers, school classes, harassed fathers ordered to take over the kids on a Saturday afternoon, interior decorators, Seventh Avenue designers seeking inspiration for next year’s bikinis, tired shoppers, and young secretaries hoping an eligible young executive will turn up in front of a Rembrandt. They also doubtless included a goodly number of people who came to look at the art—though some of them may have found it pretty hard to see anything.