In his last book, The Ephemeral Museum, the great art historian Francis Haskell cast a sceptical eye on the emergence of today’s ‘blockbuster’ art exhibition and brilliantly evoked the phenomenon. ‘Miles above us jets speed through the skies carrying their freight of Titians and Poussins, Van Dycks and Goyas’, he wrote, while below curators prepare ‘large new explanatory labels’, accountants check the ‘impact likely to be made on this year’s budget deficit’, ‘printers work overtime to make sure that bulky catalogues are ready on schedule’ and, he concluded, ‘academics are putting the finishing touches to the papers they will shortly read at the inevitable symposium’.…
By
Peter Funnell, Head of Research and Senior Curator
01 May 2015
