Just inside the Foster Gallery exhibition Contemporary Outlook: Seeing Songs, a Herb Ritts photograph of Michael Jackson. At the top of the label next to it: "IN MEMORIAM." 'Cause his death, you know, hit the MFA right here.
(That was my favorite moment, as the Italians singing Madonna was my least. But the exhibit only made me wish I had seen Visual Music a few years back, and that the catalog for it was not out of print.)
UPDATE: Other museums looking to pay tribute, alert your acquisition committee now.
Too bad we couldn't meet up there! Hope you enjoyed the Venetians.
Posted by: Franklin | August 01, 2009 at 07:30 AM
I'm afraid I didn't see them--I was there for a meeting, not for fun, unfortunately. I could have bought a ticket and gone in, I suppose, but time was short. Probably for the best, as when I did get a chance to go around the galleries a bit, I swiftly found I wasn't really in the proper frame of mind to look at much. There was a rather nice hallway of contemporary-ish portraits (Fairfield Porter, Alice Neel, Alex Katz, and others) for which I wished I had the attention span. The Greene & Greene show also looked wonderful, though I was somewhat disappointed by the selection of contemporary Japanese prints and ceramics on display in their gallery. I also missed a lot of things that have been closed due to construction, etc.; while I look forward to the new building, I think I'll always wants some of those old galleries back.
Posted by: JL | August 01, 2009 at 09:37 AM