Why must pools of bored children accumulate on the floors of our national museums? Why must selfie-taking be more important than art-viewing?And why should we have to have that view blocked by crowds standing there with headphones on? Or listen to docents babble platitudes? When I was kid — I'm talking seventh- or eighth-grade — I used to hop on the trolley, catch the el at Bridge Street, get off in Center City, and make my way on foot to the Art Museum, which in those benighted days was free. Why? To look at paintings in glorious silence. The best way to get to know paintings is still to just look at a lot of them on your own. It is, after all, a visual art. The problem with turning art into entertainment is that it betrays a lack of faith in art.
More here: Lost in the hubbub: London galleries patronise us with this PR-led populism.
The problem in short is not blockbusters in themselves. Rembrandt and Leonardo and no doubt Monet are worth the fuss, and the fight to see them. What is poisoning Britain’s exhibitions is the PR sophistication that has become so deeply ingrained in the way galleries and museums operate, that exhibitions – large and small – are now planned like television programmes, all big brash concepts and all too often, a by-the-numbers familiarity.
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