Leonard Lauder; the giver who keeps on giving

"Focus, Focus,Focus" is my story about Leonard Lauder and his billion dollar gift of cubist art to the Metropolitan Museum of Art. It is in print (and on line) in this week's The Economist. More about the story will be posted here soon.
  Latest post here is Surprise: Curators are people, too.

Surprise: Curators are people, too.

First the gripe--also known as statement of fact: Museum exhibition catalogues are often written by curators who may know a lot but who usually seem to be talking to themselves, the person in charge of promotions, or a couple of colleagues. The focus is often as painfully narrow as pointy toe shoes. Boring. Irritating. Apart from the images, a waste of money or, in my case, of space.

Now the praise: The Metropolitan Museum of Art has a fantastic on-line feature called 82nd and Fifth (its address for strangers to Manhattan). It started on February 13; a Valentine to all of us. For one year, 100 curators are each presenting a work from the Met's collection that "changed the way they see the world." Subscribing is free. Every Wednesday an e mail arrives. Click on, and two, two minute videos are offered. These vary with the personality and presenting gifts of the curators, the work chosen and how the viewer reactions to it.I take back the last bit. In "Compassion," Carrie Rebora Barratt makes me pay attention and even admire John Trumbull's 1789 battle scene (below), a work I never stopped to look in my many visits to the Met. I will next time!.

One thing for sure: It has changed this writer's way of seeing curators. Often these videos have an intimate feel. The visual subject is the object; the curator does the voice over. It is has if he or she is talking to a good friend; a family members.Almost every curator seems smitten. These stories seem personal--you know in contrast to professional. There is no jargon; no hot hair. Passion and appreciation, honed by knowledge but not buried by it.  And speaking of hair:


The image at the top of this post comes from a recent video, "Curls". It was chosen by Wolfram Koeppe who tells us that it is an early eighteenth century bust of Alexander Danilovich  Menshikov  but who made it? So far this remains a mystery. Koeppe is working on it. "Gorgeous," is the title of the video presented by Diane Topkis. It's subject is  the dragonfly hairpiece above. It was made in the early twentieth century by Louis Comfort Tiffany. You Tube has plenty of these posts, too. Probably so do a zillion other places.
   The series ends on December 25. A request to Santa in the guise of Tom Campbell the museum's director: Another year please.