Rounder Than The O, parts 1924 - 1927

1924. And Buboni could remember another time, a time when the great museums of the world were empty day after day, and when exhibits were mounted, intended for, and visited by only the experts in the field and educated collectors.

1925. But then came King Tut: the Tutankhamun Exhibit way back in 1976, when the Metropolitan Museum decided to mount a gigantic exhibit and send it out to the world addressed to ordinary folk, people who, up until that day did not even know there was a Metropolitan Museum. And now Buboni could see that all museum exhibits are created not for him, the specialists and historian, but for the tourists in their droves.

1926. And when those tourists arrive in the lobby of the museum anxious to find out something about whatever subject is being served up, docents will greet them and those docents will be armed with simple anecdotes, anecdotes to make the art experience understandable to the visitors in strictly literary terms.

 1927. For the tourist art has to be translated and digested in literary terms, because otherwise the art experience, which is private and personal, is impossible to share. And the tourist is there to “like” something, and to share it with someone.  Which is an experience almost the opposite of an art experience.