Submitted by Sir Joshua, Mar 20, 2008 10:34

In The Sun, full of Mullarkey is a good thing. Good to read a non-pandering tell-it-like-it-is review of a collection put together by people for which it is more important to be known as 'Art Collectors' than monied dullards. They fell head first into the trap of collecting contemporary art. Led not by taste, but either by a fast talking dealer (s) or their own lack of direction; no passing vogue was left unattended by them. It is a shame that this lot ended up at Vassar which has a good little museum and an earnest director. Oh the terror of having to pander to benefactors! But what good are benefactors when all they have to give an institution is their egos? I've been a dealer for almost forty years and I can swear on a stack of bibles that money and taste rarely come in the same package.

The late Philip Consibee once told me that in the early days of the National Gallery museum employees only had to know three words, 'Yes, Mr. Mellon' to succeed there (he told me this as a parallel to a middle size institution here in NYC where a recent donor had pretty much taken over as the residing persona, but that's another story). Lelt's hope that Vassar doesn't fall into that same trap.

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