Reading list, 24 February 2018

A thorough review by Roberta Smith for the NYT of “Outliers and American Vanguard Art” at Washington's National Gallery of Art. Five years in development, curator Lynne Cook has chosen to focus on three periods of the 100 years when 'taught' and 'self-taught' artists and practices overlapped. I wish I could see this show, it sounds like a great model for a exhibition that is overdue in Aotearoa.

Steve Braunias rounds up pay rates for book reviews across New Zealand publications.

The second part of that Charles Venables interview (part 1 here). His observations about smaller galleries, smaller exhibitions and smaller collections are very interesting in terms of contemporary museums' bigger-bigger-best focus.

Interjection: I think one thing to remember when reading about this refashioning of the Indianapolis Museum of Art (IMA) is that (a) it does have these beautiful adjoining gardens to make the most of but also that (b) it's on a (from the perspective of a public-transport-inclined New Zealander) godforsaken highway on the outskirts of Indianapolis, sandwiched between a cemetery and a country club, and more like the Gibbs farm than MOMA in terms of its accessibility and the likelihood you'd just drop in for a half-hour browse. It makes sense to think of it as an entertainment campus. It doesn't necessarily make sense to think of it as a model for the future of museums (unless you happen to own a 550-seat theatre and some spacious gardens as well as a museum with an outstanding collection and acres of exhibition space ....).

And a fascinating response to the Venables interview from Tim Schneider, looking at the longer 9but actually reasonably short) history of our current Western museum model: Why Newfields, the Museum the Art World Loves to Hate, Was Inevitable (and Other Insights).

Musing on the dearth of leadership development programmes for arts leaders in Canada.

Following the Pantograph Punch's announcement that is is going to reduce the amount published, pay contributors better and stop running reviews, the site's editor Lana Lopesi writes persuasively on the necessity of reviews for an informed culture. I'm of course chair of the PP board, and my decision to stand (and to originate The Dowse's partnership with the site) was strongly influenced by my belief that we need to find new ways of funding criticism.