Do Museums Still Matter?
Here are some of my favorites:
The Busch-Reisinger, Boston. Its focus is German art, with tremendous works by the German Expressionists.
The Gulbenkian, Lisbon. Created by a wealthy industrialist, this museum, surrounded by beautiful gardens, has a small, perfect array of collections, including a spectacular room of Art Nouveau jewelry.
The Kimball Art Museum, Forth Worth. A small museum with a few well-chosen pieces, from European paintings to pre-Columbian pottery.
The Gardiner Museum, Toronto. This low-slung contemporary building, steps from the University of Toronto’s handsome downtown campus (and across from the equally amazing Royal Ontario Museum), contains 3,000 spectacular examples of porcelain and china, ancient, antique and modern.
The Bata Shoe Museum, Toronto. Anyone who loves shoes will love this serious, well-regarded museum, created by the heir to a shoe manufacturer, Sonja Bata. With more than 125,000 pieces in their collection, you’ll find everything from mukluks to chopines.
The Japan Society, New York. Often overlooked in favor of larger, better-known competitors like the Met and MOMA, this small building sits on one of the quietest and prettiest blocks of Manhattan. It shows only one exhibit at a time, so an hour or 90 minutes is plenty of time to absorb whatever they’ve got on hand. I’ve seen, and loved, shows of hair combs, contemporary pottery, antique textiles. Its calm, cool interior includes a bamboo-filled pool.
The Asia Society, New York. Another manageable museum, the Asia Society offers a broad look at the arts of Asia, from India to Korea.
The Neue Galerie, New York. I am a fiend for its narrow focus, the brooding Viennese Secessionists: Klimt, Kokoschka and Schiele. The Upper East Side townhouse housing the museum is a marvel, its Café Sabarsky, where you can read newspapers stored on thin wooden rods and sip café mit schlag, an oasis of elegance.
Musee Guimet, Paris. Set in the 16th. arondissement, across the street from the museum of fashion, this small museum is devoted to Asian art. It has some of the best Tibetan tangkas I’ve ever seen.
The Arthur M. Sackler Museum, Boston and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery, D.C. Another museum devoted to Asian art. The D.C. spaces, part of the Smithsonian, are austere and soothing, the materials and objects astonishing. Great bookstore and gift shop.
Sir John Soane’s House, London. If you have any interest in the decorative arts, especially of the 18th century, this is a must-see, the private home of a man whose extraordinary collections of antiquities cram every corner of his exquisite townhouse. There are sarcophagi in the basement and a mind-blowing array of Hogarth drawings and paintings.
The Canadian Canoe Museum, Peterborough, Ontario. Filled with authentic Eskimo kayaks and a wide array of contemporary craft, the enormous vessels used by the voyageurs offer a powerful and unusual insight into Canadian history.
The Royal Tyrrell Museum of Paleontology, Drumheller, Alberta. The best dinosaur museum anywhere.
What are some of your favorites?