Quick trip to New York City last weekend distracted my blogging. Great city -- but not so much of relevance to the themes of this weblog. Except it was good to find museums that can provide well written, literate, useful texts and captions. The Met's captions were consistently good.
MoMA, meanwhile, vindicates another great museological tradition. No text at all. Just the paintings, sculptures and installations. Details of artist, title, date, and provenance on a small label off to one side. It works.
The vastly praised new MoMA building is mostly a modest and understated building aiming to fit its site and provide the maximum amount of natural light for the art. What a great space it is for displaying art! That crystal excresence rising on the side of the ROM in Toronto ain't likely to provide spaces like these.
Okay, one world-historical observation on NYC, not intended to disparage this magnificent city, a great place to visit. Still: How strongly one feels oneself at the heart of empire when in Manhattan. Everywhere, one senses, yes, these are the privileges of rule, these are the bounty of empire. Never quite felt that so strongly anywhere else.
