期刊名称：BURLINGTON MAGAZINE
 期刊简介(About the journal)
投稿须知(Instructions to Authors)
编辑部信息(Editorial Board)
About the journal
About the Magazine
What is The Burlington Magazine?
The Burlington Magazine is the world's leading monthly publication devoted to the fine and decorative arts. It publishes concise, well-written articles based on original research, presenting new works, art historical discoveries and fresh interpretations.
The Magazine is both an enduring work of reference and a running commentary on the art world of today as well as editorials on topical issues, it features authoritative reviews of all important books and major exhibitions, and the monthly Calendar is the best available guide to art events all over the world.
The Magazine's advertising pages present a view of some of the finest works of art on the international market from both galleries and auction houses, together with announcements of museum and dealer exhibitions, art fairs and the latest art books; here too can be found notices of curatorial vacancies, services provided by insurers, conservators, restorers, shippers, financial institutions and luxury goods on offer.
"Among art-historical periodicals The Burlington Magazine is pre-eminent if not unique in its combination of depth and range." nbsp; Sir Michael Levey
"The Burlington Magazine has always been and remains in a class of its own " the most important and best journal of its kind in the world.' nbsp; John Golding
The Magazine's history
Founded in 1903 by a group of art historians and connoisseurs that included Roger Fry, Bernard Berenson and Herbert Horne, The Burlington Magazine has appeared monthly without interruption ever since. Their aim was to cover all aspects of the fine and decorative arts, to combine rigorous scholarship with critical insight, and to treat the art of the present with the same seriousness as the art of the past.
The Magazine's editors have included two of the twentieth century's most important art critics Roger Fry and Herbert Read two directors of the National Gallery Charles Holmes and Neil MacGregor and the pioneer scholar of the Caravaggesque movement Benedict Nicolson. Its contributors form a roll call of twentieth-century art historians and critics from Kenneth Clark, John Pope-Hennessy and E.H. Gombrich to Denis Mahon, Francis Haskell, Theodore Reff, John Rewald, Pierre Rosenberg, Douglas Cooper and David Sylvester. Notable figures from the world of the arts and literature have also made contributions over the years from Henry James, Osbert Sitwell and Walter Sickert to Georg Baselitz, Howard Hodgkin and Bridget Riley.
For twenty years, until July 1986, the Magazine was published by International Thomson, a multinational publishing company. When that arrangement ceased, The Burlington Magazine was established as a non-profit-making company with independent charitable status (Reg. Charity No. 295020) but owned jointly by The Burlington Magazine Foundation, a UK charity (Reg. Charity No. 295019), and The Burlington Magazine Foundation Inc., a not-for-profit corporation incorporated in the State of New York (Employer ID No. 13?347776).
Centenary
The Burlington Magazine celebrated its centenary in March 2003 with a series of special events and publications. These included a lecture series and display at the National Portrait Gallery in London, the publication of an anthology, a re-design of the Magazine, special Centenary issues and a new Web site. A Centenary appeal was launched to secure the Magazine's long term future and to fund special projects.
The Burlington Magazine published two centenary issues
March 2003 carried articles on the early years of the Magazine: 'A more and more important work'; Roger Fry and The Burlington Magazine by Caroline Elam, and Holmes, Fry, Jaccaci and the 'Art in America' section of The Burlington Magazine, 1905?0 by Flaminia Gennari Santori. Also in this issue: New documentation for the Portinari altar-piece by Margaret L. Koster and A newly discovered volume from the office of Sir John Soane by Bianca de Divitis.
February 2004 included articles by Caroline Elam and Richard Shone on the eminent art historian and past Editor, Benedict Nicolson (1914?8). Also in this issue, Colin Rhodes explores the treatment of non-European 'primitive' art during the early years of The Burlington Magazine.
Both issues are available at the special centenary price for two issues of: ?0.00 (UK); €30 (Europe); $40.00 (USA/CAN and Rest of World).
Instructions to Authors
THE BURLINGTON MAGAZINE
This Web site employs JavaScript, preferred style sheets and cookies. To use this site as it was designed, please enable these features in your browser.
Notes for contributors
Manuscripts submitted for consideration
Main articles should be between 2,500 and 5,000 words long, certainly no longer than 5,000. Shorter notices are usually up to 2,500 words (please provide an approximate word length at the head of the manuscript).
Contributions to The Burlington Magazine cannot be too short.
Where possible, manuscripts should be submitted in English, although submissions in other major European languages are acceptable.
Manuscripts can be submitted be e-mail sent to editorial@burlington.org.uk. Alternatively manuscripts can be sent by mail. They should be double-spaced with notes (also double-spaced) at the end. The first line of each new paragraph should be indented, as should long quotations. Long quotations in languages other than English are best translated or paraphrased in the main text, with the original appearing in a note or, if previously unpublished, as an Appendix.
Acknowledgements should go before, not as, the first footnote, but they should not be marked by an asterisk, nor should an asterisk be placed after the title.
Contributors are requested not to use different fonts on their printouts, but to observe the usual conventions of underlining for italics. Submissions should be accompanied by illustrations, if necessary in high-quality scans on photocopies. If an article is accepted for publication, contributors will be asked to send high quality illustrations, preferably in colour, either transparencies, photographs or j-pegs of no less than 300 DPI and at least 10 cm. wide.
Spelling and usage
English orthography is preferred. For general questions of spelling and usage, contributors are referred to The Oxford Dictionary for Writers and Editors, Oxford 2000.
Footnotes
Footnotes should be as few and as brief as possible, their purpose citatory more than discursive. Citations to publications should take the form of the following examples (and contributors are particularly asked to include all relevant accents, especially those in authors' names).
Show examples...
I. Books:
first reference:
3 A. Dézallier d'Argenville: Abrége de la vie des plus fameux peintres, Paris 1745-2, II, pp.105-7.
6 G. Vasari: Le vite de' pie eccellenti pittori, scultori ed architettori, ed. G. Milanesi, Florence 1878-5, III, p.57.
subsequent references:
25 Dézallier d'Argenville, op. cit. (note 3), p.157.
32 Vasari, op. cit. (note 6), p.32.
II. Articles:
first reference:
5 E. Harris: 'Velázquez and Murillo in nineteenth-century Britain: an approach through prints', Journal of the Warburg and Courtauld Institutes 50 (1987), pp.148-3.
subsequent references:
15 Harris, op. cit. (note 5), p.151.
III. Exhibition catalogues:
first reference:
4 W.B. Jordan: exh. cat. Spanish still life in the Golden Age, Fort Worth (Kimbell Art Museum) and Toledo OH (Toledo Museum of Art) 1985, p.105.
9 S. Ebert-Schifferer et al., eds.: exh. cat. Guido Reni e l'Europa, Frankfurt (Schirn Kunsthalle) 1988-9, p.233, no.A36.
subsequent references:
56 Jordan, op. cit. (note 4), p.32.
58 Ebert-Schifferer, op. cit. (note 9), p.12.
IV. Academic theses:
first reference:
3 I. Rose-de Viejo: 'Manuel Godoy: Patrón de las artes y coleccionista', Ph.D. diss. (Universidad Complutense de Madrid, 1983), III, p.37.
subsequent references:
17 Rose-de Viejo, op. cit. (note 3), II, p.543.
V. Archival documents:
first reference:
7 Rome, Archivio di Stato, Archivio Spada, vol.454, fols.463r?01v.
subsequent references:
15 Document cited at note 7 above, fol.466r.
When documents from the same archive are cited frequently, abbreviations should be used, with an indication in the first reference:
23 Sansepolcro, Biblioteca comunale (cited hereafter as BCS).
Capitals in titles of books, exhibition catalogues, etc, should not be used, except in obvious cases such as beginnings of (sub)titles, proper nouns, etc.
Documents
When an article is based on unpublished documents, a transcription should appear as an appendix. Good quality photocopies of the original documents should also be submitted if possible.
Illustrations
All submitted manuscripts should be accompanied by relevant photographs or photocopies of good quality, numbered on the back in pencil to correspond with references to them in the text. These numbers should also be used on a list of captions which must include full details of the work, including its date (if known), medium, dimensions in centimetres and present location.
Show examples...
Landscape with Psyche seated near Cupid's palace, by Claude Lorrain. c.1663?4. Pen and brown wash, with red chalk. 18.2 by 34.5 cm. (Staatliche Kunsthalle, Karlsruhe).
Footed bowl, by François-Desir?Froment-Meurice, executed by Jules Wièse. Paris, c.1851. Silver, partly gilt, with pearls, 35.3 by 26.2 cm. (Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam).
Apart from the first word and proper names, titles should be in lower-case throughout, except when quoting an artist's own formulation.
Show examples...
Courtyard in Naarden with a woman laying out linen, by Isaack van Ruisdael.
but:
Life-Boat and Manby Apparatus going odd to a stranded Vessel making Signals (Blue Lights) of Distress, by J.M.W. Turner.
Contributors are responsible for obtaining permission to reproduce photographs, and should inform institutional and private owners that The Burlington Magazine is a charitable, non-profit-making scholarly magazine. Copyright of twentieth-century works must be cleared with the appropriate holder. Museums should not charge reproduction fees for items published in the Magazine. If a work from a museum is to be illustrated in colour, arrangements will be made only after a manuscript has been accepted and scheduled for publication, but contributors should check the availability of good quality transparencies or electronic files (at least 300 dpi). Please do not ask museums to send transparencies direct to the Magazine unless we have asked you to do so.
Book and exhibition reviews
Manuscripts should observe the same conventions as those of articles, but notes should be used only when absolutely necessary. Reviewers who wish to make detailed points about individual works in, say, a catalogue raisonne or an exhibition, are encouraged to list them at the end of the review after their more general comments, following the numeration used in the exhibition or book and including the title of the work and the artist's name. Contributors who have agreed to write book and exhibition reviews are particularly requested not to exceed agreed word- and time-limits. The following guidelines should also be observed:
Book reviews:
Publication details should be listed at the head of the text as follows: Full title. By author or authors (or Edited by editor). 000 pp. incl. 000 col. + 000 b. & w. ills. (Publisher, Place, Year), Price. ISBN number. If a book review is to be illustrated, photographs, transparencies or j-pegs should be sent with the manuscript together with captions (see above).
Exhibition reviews:
It is most important that exhibition reviews be sent to the Magazine as early as possible, and that full details of any catalogue should be included in a footnote, preferably at the point where the catalogue is first mentioned, in this form: Full title. By author or authors (or Edited by editor). 000 pp. incl. 000 col. pls. + 000 b. & w. ills. (Publisher, Place, Year), Price. ISBN number. If the exhibition is being shown at several venues, these and the relevant dates should be mentioned in a footnote.
Colour transparencies, slides, high resolution electronic files (at least 300 dpi), black-and-white photographs with full captions, including media and dimensions (see above) should be sent with the review, or as soon afterwards as it is feasible. In most cases the institution showing th
THE BURLINGTON MAGAZINE
?This Web site employs JavaScript, preferred style sheets and cookies. To use this site as it was designed, please enable these features in your browser.
Notes for contributors
Manuscripts submitted for consideration
Main articles should be between 2,500 and 5,000 words long, certainly no longer than 5,000. Shorter notices are usually up to 2,500 words (please provide an approximate word length at the head of the manuscript).
Contributions to The Burlington Magazine cannot be too short.
Where possible, manuscripts should be submitted in English, although submissions in other major European languages are acceptable.
Manuscripts can be submitted be e-mail sent to editorial@burlington.org.uk. Alternatively manuscripts can be sent by mail. They should be double-spaced with notes (also double-spaced) at the end. The first line of each new paragraph should be indented, as should long quotations. Long quotations in languages other than English are best translated or paraphrased in the main text, with the original appearing in a note or, if previously unpublished, as an Appendix.
Acknowledgements should go before, not as, the first footnote, but they should not be marked by an asterisk, nor should an asterisk be placed after the title.
Contributors are requested not to use different fonts on their printouts, but to observe the usual conventions of underlining for italics. Submissions should be accompanied by illustrations, if necessary in high-quality scans on photocopies. If an article is accepted for publication, contributors will be asked to send high quality illustrations, preferably in colour, either transparencies, photographs or j-pegs of no less than 300 DPI and at least 10 cm. wide.
Spelling and usage
English orthography is preferred. For general questions of spelling and usage, contributors are referred to The Oxford Dictionary for Writers and Editors, Oxford 2000.
Footnotes
Footnotes should be as few and as brief as possible, their purpose citatory more than discursive. Citations to publications should take the form of the following examples (and contributors are particularly asked to include all relevant accents, especially those in authors' names).
Show examples...
I. Books:
first reference:
3 A. Dézallier d'Argenville: Abrég?de la vie des plus fameux peintres, Paris 1745?2, II, pp.105?7.
6 G. Vasari: Le vite de' pi?eccellenti pittori, scultori ed architettori, ed. G. Milanesi, Florence 1878?5, III, p.57.
subsequent references:
25 Dézallier d'Argenville, op. cit. (note 3), p.157.
32 Vasari, op. cit. (note 6), p.32.
II. Articles:
first reference:
5 E. Harris: 'Velázquez and Murillo in nineteenth-century Britain: an approach through prints', Journal of the Warburg and Courtauld Institutes 50 (1987), pp.148?3.
subsequent references:
15 Harris, op. cit. (note 5), p.151.
III. Exhibition catalogues:
first reference:
4 W.B. Jordan: exh. cat. Spanish still life in the Golden Age, Fort Worth (Kimbell Art Museum) and Toledo OH (Toledo Museum of Art) 1985, p.105.
9 S. Ebert-Schifferer et al., eds.: exh. cat. Guido Reni e l'Europa, Frankfurt (Schirn Kunsthalle) 1988?9, p.233, no.A36.
subsequent references:
56 Jordan, op. cit. (note 4), p.32.
58 Ebert-Schifferer, op. cit. (note 9), p.12.
IV. Academic theses:
first reference:
3 I. Rose-de Viejo: 'Manuel Godoy: Patrón de las artes y coleccionista', Ph.D. diss. (Universidad Complutense de Madrid, 1983), III, p.37.
subsequent references:
17 Rose-de Viejo, op. cit. (note 3), II, p.543.
V. Archival documents:
first reference:
7 Rome, Archivio di Stato, Archivio Spada, vol.454, fols.463r?01v.
subsequent references:
15 Document cited at note 7 above, fol.466r.
When documents from the same archive are cited frequently, abbreviations should be used, with an indication in the first reference:
23 Sansepolcro, Biblioteca comunale (cited hereafter as BCS).
Capitals in titles of books, exhibition catalogues, etc, should not be used, except in obvious cases such as beginnings of (sub)titles, proper nouns, etc.
Documents
When an article is based on unpublished documents, a transcription should appear as an appendix. Good quality photocopies of the original documents should also be submitted if possible.
Illustrations
All submitted manuscripts should be accompanied by relevant photographs or photocopies of good quality, numbered on the back in pencil to correspond with references to them in the text. These numbers should also be used on a list of captions which must include full details of the work, including its date (if known), medium, dimensions in centimetres and present location.
Show examples...
Landscape with Psyche seated near Cupid's palace, by Claude Lorrain. c.1663?4. Pen and brown wash, with red chalk. 18.2 by 34.5 cm. (Staatliche Kunsthalle, Karlsruhe).
Footed bowl, by François-Desire Froment-Meurice, executed by Jules Wièse. Paris, c.1851. Silver, partly gilt, with pearls, 35.3 by 26.2 cm. (Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam).
Apart from the first word and proper names, titles should be in lower-case throughout, except when quoting an artist's own formulation.
Show examples...
Courtyard in Naarden with a woman laying out linen, by Isaack van Ruisdael.
but:
Life-Boat and Manby Apparatus going odd to a stranded Vessel making Signals (Blue Lights) of Distress, by J.M.W. Turner.
Contributors are responsible for obtaining permission to reproduce photographs, and should inform institutional and private owners that The Burlington Magazine is a charitable, non-profit-making scholarly magazine. Copyright of twentieth-century works must be cleared with the appropriate holder. Museums should not charge reproduction fees for items published in the Magazine. If a work from a museum is to be illustrated in colour, arrangements will be made only after a manuscript has been accepted and scheduled for publication, but contributors should check the availability of good quality transparencies or electronic files (at least 300 dpi). Please do not ask museums to send transparencies direct to the Magazine unless we have asked you to do so.
Book and exhibition reviews
Manuscripts should observe the same conventions as those of articles, but notes should be used only when absolutely necessary. Reviewers who wish to make detailed points about individual works in, say, a catalogue raisonn?or an exhibition, are encouraged to list them at the end of the review after their more general comments, following the numeration used in the exhibition or book and including the title of the work and the artist's name. Contributors who have agreed to write book and exhibition reviews are particularly requested not to exceed agreed word- and time-limits. The following guidelines should also be observed:
Book reviews:
Publication details should be listed at the head of the text as follows: Full title. By author or authors (or Edited by editor). 000 pp. incl. 000 col. + 000 b. & w. ills. (Publisher, Place, Year), Price. ISBN number. If a book review is to be illustrated, photographs, transparencies or j-pegs should be sent with the manuscript together with captions (see above).
Exhibition reviews:
It is most important that exhibition reviews be sent to the Magazine as early as possible, and that full details of any catalogue should be included in a footnote, preferably at the point where the catalogue is first mentioned, in this form: Full title. By author or authors (or Edited by editor). 000 pp. incl. 000 col. pls. + 000 b. & w. ills. (Publisher, Place, Year), Price. ISBN number. If the exhibition is being shown at several venues, these and the relevant dates should be mentioned in a footnote.
Colour transparencies, slides, high resolution electronic files (at least 300 dpi), black-and-white photographs with full captions, including media and dimensions (see above) should be sent with the review, or as soon afterwards as it is feasible. In most cases the institution showing the exhibition will supply reviewers with a catalogue and the slides and photographs they request; but if any difficulty is encountered in obtaining photographs of works that reviewers particularly wish to comment on they should contact the Magazine as early as possible. If photographs are not available by the deadline for submission, photocopies from the catalogue should be sent, with full captions, as an interim measure.
e exhibition will supply reviewers with a catalogue and the slides and photographs they request; but if any difficulty is encountered in obtaining photographs of works that reviewers particularly wish to comment on they should contact the Magazine as early as possible. If photographs are not available by the deadline for submission, photocopies from the catalogue should be sent, with full captions, as an interim measure.
Editorial Board
Editorial
November 2007 ?nbsp; Number 1256 nbsp; Volume CXLIX
Museums in Britain: bouquets and brickbats
PAST EDITORIALS IN this Magazine have frequently discussed the difficulties facing many museums and galleries throughout Britain. In spite of moments of considerable optimism and a heightened public awareness of the plight of regional collections, the future for many remains uncertain, even bleak. In investigations of several individual cases, the litany of woes includes, above all, a shortage of funds, diminishing numbers of effective curators, unsympathetic local authorities, restricted acquisition policies and the limitations imposed on institutions by misguided directives at national and local levels. But, as can be seen from the specific examples considered below, such woes are not the experience of all museums. In the last decade, for instance, a number of success stories have emerged through the transformation of a museum (or a group of museums in larger conurbations) into a charitable trust (e.g. Sheffield and York). This allows some autonomy from the local authority (which nevertheless continues to part-fund and to own the collections of the museums) as well as a clarity of purpose and an independent future which have obvious benefits both for museum staff and public alike. In York, for example, the City Art Gallery is a member of a trust with three other local museums; an agreement is in place with the Council for stable, inflation-linked funding until 2013, enabling the Gallery to plan well ahead in a way that other museums, subject to the vagaries of reduced budgets and governance restructuring, are not always able to do. Admirably, York is concentrating on the resources of its rich permanent collection in its exhibition and educational programming. A small number of museums have received a shot in the arm from the local authority, notably the beleaguered and neglected Leeds City Art Gallery which reopened this June after renovation and redisplay. Other galleries have focused on capital projects - extensions and public facilities - often through National Lottery grants and matching private enterprse; here, however, there is the danger of being all dressed up with nowhere to go, the museum facing reduced or ephemeral exhibitions and curtailed or even non-existent acquisitions. Further help has come from the collaboration between the Department for Culture, Media and Sport and the Wolfson Foundation, with substantial annual grants going to the care of often more modest museums. There are also the continuing publications of the Public Catalogue Foundation whose chief aim is the compilation of as complete an index as possible of all oil paintings in public ownership in the United Kingdom, from the great galleries and museums to town halls, charitable foundations and hospital corridors. Each volume focuses on a particular county or institution, each work is illustrated in colour with basic details and all have useful introductory texts. It is a superb undertaking. Those museums already included, unable to finance their own catalogues (whether printed or online), have all expressed their gratitude to this privately funded scheme. Most recently, the Heritage Lottery Fund has stepped in to make million available for the development of acquisitions, curatorial expertise and research, open to application from museums registered with the Museums, Libraries and Archives Council (MLA). And there are of course those stalwart charities such as the Art Fund without which many a museum would never be able to add works to their permanent collection.
Perhaps the single most helpful outstretched arm for galleries and museums in England has been the Renaissance in the Regions scheme. This was first announced in a report in 2001 which outlined a strategy to revitalise regional museums through the intervention of central government funding. This began to be implemented in 2002 and is still in operation, funding nine 'hub' regions in England. It has seen a closer cooperation between national and regional museums, help given to small, specialised institutions, the development of education initiatives and aid for the training of staff. All this is to the good. But anyone reading the progress report on this scheme put out by its originator, the MLA, is likely to be as dismayed by its socially inclusive, politically correct tone as were readers of the founding document of 2001 which, as an Editorial here commented, appeared to perpetuate the belief that the main function of museums was 'to be an extension of the social services'(1). It might also have added that many museums seem to have become almost the sole province of schoolchildren on mass visits who are then pictured on nearly every brochure and website as being the dominant, targeted audience.
Herein lies the root of the chief criticism levelled at mus-eums today, especially many of those which have 'benefited' from recent initiatives. In a desire for increased visitor numbers, 'accessibility' and a quantifiable return on funding (not unworthy objectives per se), displays, exhibitions, visitor experience and acquisitions fall far short of the standard of excellence that should be a guide. Frequently incon-sequential thematic displays, wall-texts and labelling couched in banal, often highly subjective language, obtrusive and not always enhancing audio-visual aids, too much stress on parochial matters, the community privileged over the individual: all these are representative of business and managerial objectives over curatorial decisions, a 'let-the-people-decide' mentality that disguises a loss of nerve and direction and one that does little to create public confidence in professional expertise. In putting some detail to these more general remarks, this Editorial considers some specific museums and the current state of their public profile. We have chosen a great municipal collection, Kelvingrove in Glasgow; a big city collection - Southampton; a much smaller museum, Reading; and a city museum in relation to a local university's collections, Norwich Castle Museum and the Sainsbury Centre at the University of East Anglia.
The City Art Gallery in Southampton is a local authority collection founded in 1939 and housed in purpose-built galleries within the civic centre. It is especially well known for its fine-art collections, particularly some outstanding Dutch and Flemish paintings, its Burne-Jones room, good French pictures (Monet, Sisley, Bonnard and others) and its comprehensive holdings of twentieth-century British art from Sickert to Whiteread. It had the early good fortune to receive local bequest funds for purchases which have involved an advisor from the national collections; and it has long been known for the high quality of its temporary exhibitions. It has no funds for acquisitions from the local authority; it is pitifully short of space (adjoining rooms have not been made available); it has suffered heavy staff cuts (two people are doing the work of five in a busy curatorial department) during local government reorganisation (and the city is heavily in the red); there is no designated shop. Given these circumstances, it is little short of a miracle that the Gallery continues to function.
The Norwich Castle Museum is more comprehensive in its collections than Southampton and includes displays of archaeology, natural history and decorative arts as well as its internationally important holdings of the East Anglian School. Norwich City Council provides core funding but there are no budgets for purchase, conservation and temporary exhibitions (partly offset, however, by an extremely active Friends association, the East Anglian Art Fund and much local patronage). It is the hub museum for East Anglia in the Renaissance scheme and it benefits from a close association with the Tate, particularly in its exhibition programme. Unusually it charges for admission.
Complementing the Castle Museum in its Norman keep is the newly refurbished Norman Foster-designed Sainsbury Centre with its splendid Robert and Lisa Sainsbury collections, and the University Collection which focuses on twentieth-century abstraction. At present, along with other university museums, it receives an annual grant from the Higher Education Funding Council for England, but this funding stream is currently under serious threat. In recent decades both the Centre and the Castle Museum have provided the region with exceptionally good and varied exhibitions.
The small Museum of Reading is found in Alfred Waterhouse's Victorian town hall; its fine-art holdings, one of several constituent collections, are 'housed' in the refurb-ished 'John Madjeski Art Gallery' named for the Museum's benefactor, the well-known collector and patron of the Royal Academy of Arts and the Victoria and Albert Museum. We write 'housed' but in fact the collection, with good modern British paintings, is rarely visible in any permanent display, a situation that hardly honours the generosity of the Reading Foundation for the Arts, a charity established in 1974 to acquire works on the Museum's behalf. Designated gallery space must be a top priority.
So far the cases mentioned here have concerned the running of museums more than their displays. In turning to the reopened (2006) Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum in Glasgow the question of curatorial excellence and intellectual credibility can no longer be avoided. The renovated fabric of the Museum is welcome but it has come at a formidable price. The complete new display demonstrates a positively contemptuous attitude to its collections as if from some embarrassment and lack of confidence in its renowned holdings of fine art. Kelvingrove is rooted in Victorian philanthropy and moral improvement, its beginnings inextricably linked to the International Exhibitions held in Glasgow in 1888 and 1901. This is reflected not only in the fine-art collections but in objects relating to local and natural history, all of which make for a possibly complex display, needing imaginative thought and flair if traditional taxonomies are abandoned. They certainly have been, and with a vengeance, to be replaced by platitudinous stories (as against a coherent narrative) in thematically organised rooms. The hang is crowded and distracting, many of the works presented as pawns in some quest for the lowest common denominator. Children are the key to the patronisingly simplistic level of interpretation on offer.
That Kelvingrove has become a kindergarten is obvious from the introductory room ('Looking at Art'). Here major (unglazed) paintings by Ribera, Constable and Turner are hung perilously low; indeed, a recent visitor observed there was no guard to stop a child from putting both hands on Constable's Hampstead Heath. Highly representative is this label beside Braque's still life of fruit, a glass and a bottle, quoted complete: 'If Georges Braque was struggling with a complex painting, he would often paint still lifes to clear his mind. This bowl of fruit in his studio also provided a handy snack!'. Botticelli's celebrated Annunciation is shown with a permanent light projection onto the work itself to explain its perspectival structure with additional, timed projections highlighting those elements of the work singled out in words from nearby speakers.
When Fiona MacCarthy wrote recently in the Guardian that, with the exception of Manchester and Glasgow, Britain's chief municipal museums were 'in a parlous state', she was mainly referring to their underfunding (2). But we beg to differ: Glasgow, whether over- or underfunded, is indeed 'in a parlous state'.
It would be easy to read the above account of Kelvingrove simply as spluttering indignation against change. Certainly we should acknowledge the Glasgow rehang as having 'vision' and having been carried through, on a grand scale, down to the last horrible detail (3). But its concept, paradoxically, is dogmatic, and its approach, ironically, exclusive. Furthermore, the museological and social shibboleths it embraces seem to belong to a political era already under scrutiny. Here lies the perhaps unpalatable lesson for the development of museums, a subject we shall consider in a future Editorial.
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