Saturday 15 December 2012

Spending money on the wrong things

Photo: York Art Gallery
I went to York Art Gallery recently and was underwhelmed.  There are some good things, but the display is dull and the wall text poor - the well-known artist Domenichino was listed only by his less familiar proper name, Domenico Zampieri.  One of the best-known paintings in York is a fine Baburen Cimon and Pero (below), which was badly lit and hung too high to be seen, with only mediocre paintings hung at eye-level. 
Photo: BBC
Instead of curatorial content, there's a big notice board inviting comment from the public.  None of this inspires confidence in the £8m redevelopment.  A few tens of pounds would pay for re-hanging the collection more sensibly and enhancing the wall text.  The current building is perfectly adequate, but they could make some really excellent additions to collection for £8m. 

No comments:

Post a Comment