The Academy, said Jacques-Louis David, is like a coiffeur; you come out of it covered with talcum powder. [La Boutique d’un merlan: Literally, the shop of a whitefish, because of the powder used for wigs, similar to the flour to coat a fish before frying. Merlan is still a common expression for “coiffeur.”]
The same could be said of most museums. Gail Levin has kindly forwarded a link to her latest chronicle of her past experience curating at the Whitney:
https://newcriterion.com/issues/2024/1/hopper-horrors-at-the-whitney
Levin’s article raises a number of questions: was the Whitney aware that a number of the works that had come into its possession could not reasonably be attributed to Edward Hopper? And, if so, how did that affect the works they palmed off on unsuspecting buyers? And where are these works today? How are they valued?
Something’s fishy. What’s certain is, that Levin “s’est fait rouler dans la farine,” meaning, literally, that she got herself rolled in flour; meaning, figuratively, she got played. For a sucker. Which is also a kind of fish.
In the (hopefully) mortal words of a US presidential candidate, “We have to secure our schools the same way we secure our airports.” Hey, the Louvre Museum has thought of that already, everything short of making you take off your shoes. My colleague and contributor Jean-Michel Tobelem has published an article on what businesspeople call CRM, Customer Relationtionship Management, as it affects the old royal palace in Paris:
As Andrew L. McClellan has argued in a classic, influential, and off-the-wall article, the bad old days for visitors to the Louvre were the height of Robespierre’s Terror, when the Museum was planned (says he) to provide a calming atmosphere for visitors.1 Of which the visitors back then perhaps were in dire need. Looks like it’s been downhill ever since. To quote an old French proverb, ne dort a seur ki urs leche le cul. Which translates loosely:
WOID XXIII-36
January 6, 2024
Andrew L. McClellan, “The Musée du Louvre as Revolutionary Metaphor During the Terror,” Art Bulletin, June 1988 (LXX, 2), p. 308.