Synopses & Reviews
American art museums flourished in the late twentieth century, andand#160;the impresario leading much of this growth was J. Carter Brown, director of the National Gallery of Art in Washington, DC, from 1969 to 1992.and#160;and#160;Along with S. Dillon Ripley, who served as Smithsonian secretary for much of this time, Brown reinvented the museum experience in ways that had important consequences for the cultural life of Washington and its visitors as well as for American museums in general. In
Capital Culture, distinguished historian Neil Harris provides a wide-ranging look at Brownand#8217;s achievement and the growth of museum culture during this crucial period.
Harris combines his in-depth knowledge of American history and culture with extensive archival research, and he has interviewed dozens of key players to reveal how Brownand#8217;s showmanship transformed the National Gallery. At the time of the Cold War, Washington itself was growing into a global destination, with Brown as its devoted booster.and#160;Harris describes Brownand#8217;s major role in the birth of blockbuster exhibitions, such as the King Tut show of the late 1970s and the National Galleryand#8217;s immensely successful Treasure Houses of Britain, which helped inspire similarly popular exhibitions around the country. He recounts Brownand#8217;s role in creating the award-winning East Building by architect I. M. Pei and the subsequent renovation of the West building. Harris also explores the politics of exhibition planning, describing Brown's courtship of corporate leaders, politicians, and international dignitaries.
In this monumental book Harris brings to life this dynamic era and exposes the creation of Brown's impressive but costly legacy, one that changed the face of American museums forever.
Review
“ The genius of Danziger is to get to the heart of an institution through myriad personal interviews . . . from cleaner and waitress through curator, trustee, and CEO.”—
The AtlanticReview
and#8220;Capital Culture impresses on several counts. Harris has conducted a deep dive into the papers of Carter Brown and the Brown family; National Gallery of Art records; newspapers and magazine accounts of the period; and numerous interviews with friends and museum colleagues. . . . His organizational skill is praiseworthy: He has shaped this mountain of material into a highly readable, nimble narrative that skillfully segues from one topic to the next.and#8221;
Review
andldquo;J. Carter Brown was one of the most important and charismatic museum directors of the last fifty years. He almost single-handedly invented the idea that the experience of the museum could be as compelling as any work of art in the museum. In his quest to create great exhibitions and acquire singularly important works of art, he transformed the National Gallery of Art into one of America's finest museums, and Neil Harris elegantly traces how he did this. Meticulously researched and thoughtfully written, Capital Culture places Brown in his historical context and reveals the social, political, and economic issues he contended with during his long tenure at the National Gallery. Harris also brings to life the way Brown used his rivalry with Tom Hoving and later Philippe de Montebello at the Metropolitan Museum of Art to animate the National Gallery and make it the cultural center of Washington, and for a time, the nation.andrdquo;
Review
and#8220;As director of the National Gallery from 1969 to 1992, Brown not only suited the cultural moment, he helped create it. He made the gallery an internationally respected institution by embracing the idea of art as a public right. In Capital Culture, Harris argues that Brownand#8217;s blend of and#8216;glamour, intellectuality, social privilege, and high-mindednessand#8217; made him the perfect personality to lead museums into a wonderland of glitz, glamour, and enterprise. . . . A thoroughly researched and well-written study of Brown as a remarkable cultural figure.and#8221;
Review
andldquo;J. Carter Brown III was Director of the National Gallery of Art in Washington DC from 1969 to 1992, and a long-serving chairman of the US Commission of Fine Arts, which oversaw the aesthetics and architecture of the national capital.and#160;Grand, rich, debonair, well-educated and prodigiously well-connected, Carter Brown was the greatest cultural proconsul in the America of his day.and#160;By turns a snob and a showman, a patrician and a popularizer, he brought money and art and exhibitions and people into the National Gallery as never before, and he also left a permanent mark on the fabric of Washington DC.and#160;Neil Harris has written a superb life of this remarkable and sometimes controversial figure: deeply researched, perfectly structured, and beautifully written. The author is as sure-footed in dealing with the fine social gradations of America's upper class as he is in recounting the many triumphs and few failures of Brown's career as an aesthetic impresario. He has written an enthralling book, which is not only a wholly satisfying biography, but also a major contribution to the cultural history of modern America.andrdquo;
Review
andldquo;With authority and insight supported by excellent research, Neil Harris narrates the politics and personalities, rivalries and backroom deals, glittering blockbusters and boosterism behind the transformation of the National Gallery from provincial latecomer to major force on the museum scene. A significant contribution to the history of the American museum by one of our leading historians.
andrdquo; Review
and#8220;Providing a broad yet detailed examination of Brownand#8217;s achievements, Harris bases his conclusions upon his deep knowledge of American history and culture, extensive archival research, and interviews with key players. Meticulously researched, thoughtfully written, and well presented, this noteworthy scholarly publication places Brown in historical context and reveals the social, political, and economic issues that he and other museum professionals faced.and#8221;
Review
and#8220;The story of how Brown (1934-2002) helped give Washington the global cultural leadership it deserved is one well worth telling. Now Harris, a cultural and art historian, has written Capital Culture. . . . Harris describes in depth how Brown's preparations for being an art museum director were both unconventional--he earned an M.B.A. from Harvard--and highly traditional.and#8221;
Review
and#8220;Harris, the Preston and Sterling Morton Professor of History and Art History Emeritus at the University of Chicago, has written an intensely researched and affectionate history of Brownand#8217;s era at the Gallery and how it changed the world of museum-going forever. It should be difficult to make something as insider baseball-ish as the politics of the museum world seem fascinating and vital, but Harris makes the struggles between Brown and other great museum directors of the time, such as Dillon Ripley, who was making similarly drastic and daring changes at the Smithsonian, and Thomas Hoving, the unrepentantly predatory director of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, exciting and sometimes funny.and#8221;
Review
and#8220;In this and#8216;institutional biography,and#8217; Harris views the evolution of the American museum experience through the career of J. Carter Brown, the director of the National Gallery of Art in Washington, DC between 1969 and 2002. . . . By the close of this fine study, one canand#8217;t but enjoy the gorgeous incongruity of Brownand#8217; populism.and#8221;
Synopsis
A unique oral portrait of the Met, drawing on interviews with everyone from the director to the security guards The Metropolitan Museum of Art is one of the greatest museums in the world. It is an enormous place that takes up five city blocks and has more than two million square feet of space, filled with treasures everywhere the eye can see. There are exquisite vases, jewelry, tapestry, baseball cards, Egyptian mummies, sculptures, and furniture, and many of the most famous and recognized paintings in the world, from Van Gogh to Rembrandt, Monet, and El Greco.
But this famous institution, which attracts four million visitors a year, is not just about objects. This is a place that is supported and maintained by people, which is what this wonderful book celebrates. In the fifty-two interviews in Museum, we meet some of the people who have given their lives to making the Met the success that it is. We are introduced to curators with endless knowledge who look after the collections; as well as cleaners; florists; police and security staff who maintain and secure the building; plus the philanthropists and millionaires who donate their money for new and wonderful art works, including well-known people like Henry Kravis and Annette de la Renta.
Danziger has a rare touch for getting just the right detail, and these interviews are informative, moving, and compulsively readable. Oral history at its best, Museum will appeal not only to the millions who visit the Met every year, but also to anyone with an interest in museums and art.
Synopsis
An ?intriguing? oral portrait of the people behind the Metropolitan Museum of Art (Entertainment Weekly) Using more than fifty interviews, award-winning writer Danny Danziger creates a fascinating mosaic of the people behind New York?s magnificent Metropolitan Museum of Art. From the aristocratic, acerbic director of the museum, Philippe de Montebello, to the curators who have a deep knowledge and passionate appreciation of their collections, from the security guards to the philanthropists who keep the museum?s financial life blood flowing, Danziger brings to life this extraordinary world through the words of those who are devoted to making the Met the American institution it surely is.
Synopsis
A new book by Neil Harris is always an event, and
Capital Culture will be no different. In this monumental and very readable book, Harris brings to life J. Carter Brown, Washingtonandrsquo;s National Gallery, and the cultural life of the national capital. Brown was the longest-serving director of the National Gallery (1969-1992), and his tenure had important consequences not just for that institution but for the American museum world as a whole. In telling this story, Harris leads readers to consider the role of powerful and charismatic cultural leaders, the relationship between politics and art, the birth of blockbuster exhibits such as the King Tut shows of 1976, and much else. The book is filled with many colorful characters aside from Brownandmdash;Smithsonian director Dillon Ripley, for instance, and J. Paul Getty appear throughout these pages. As with all of Harrisandrsquo;s books, the research is deep and impeccable: he draws on interviews (with Brown, Ripley, and many others), on archival material, and on a lifetime of reading in American history and culture. The writing, too, justifies Harrisandrsquo;s place as one of the most important and influential cultural historians of the last fifty years.
About the Author
Danny Danziger is the author of eleven books, including the acclaimed 1215: The Year of Magna Carta and the bestselling The Year 1000. An award-winning journalist and broadcaster, Danziger was educated in England and America and is currently based in London.
Table of Contents
Introduction
Chapter 1and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160; Becoming Carter Brown
Chapter 2and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160; The National Gallery: Directions and Deviations
Chapter 3and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160; Stalking the Prey: The Quest for Old Masters
Chapter 4and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160; The Secretary Arrives: Dillon Ripley and the Smithsonian Challenge
Chapter 5and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160; Reinventing the National Gallery: Creating the East Building
Chapter 6and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160; and#147;What Hath Brown Wrought?and#8221;
Chapter 7and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160; Presenting King Tutand#160;
Chapter 8and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160; Trouble in Paradise: The Light That Failed
Chapter 9and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160; Exhibiting Strategiesand#160;
Chapter 10and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160; The Secretary Carries On: Consolidating Dillon Ripleyand#8217;s Administration
Chapter 11and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160; Minister of Culture: Shaping Washington
Chapter 12and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160; and#147;Treasure Houses of Britainand#8221;: The Anatomy of an Exhibition
Chapter 13and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160; Campaigns and Conquests
Chapter 14and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160; Goodbye Columbus: Celebrating the Quincentenary
Chapter 15and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160; Retirement Projectsand#160;and#160;and#160;
Postscript
Acknowledgments
Notes
Index