Auctions Are Bizarre Combinations Of Slave Market,

Mission Accomplished. The Museum Of Modern Art's Wide-open, Tall-ceilinged, Super-reinforced Second Floor Was For All Intents And Purposes Built To Accommodate Monumental Installations And Gigantic Sculptures, Should The Need Arise. It Has Arisen.

John Currin's Exaggerated Realism And His Twisted Women Kept Me Off Balance, Never Knowing If They Were Sincere Or Ironic Or Some New Emotion.

Those Who Love Him Love That He Sells The Most Art; They Take It As A Point Of Faith That This Proves Kinkade Is The Best. But His Fans Don't Only Rely On This Supply-and-demand Justification. They Go Back To Values.

Many Museums Are Drawing Audiences With Art That Is Ostensibly More Entertaining Than Stuff That Just Sits And Invites Contemplation. Interactivity, Gizmos, Eating, Hanging Out, Things That Make Noise - All Are Now The Norm, Often Edging Out Much Else.

After 1909, Monet Drastically Enlarged His Brushstrokes, Disintegrated His Images, And Broke Through The Taming Constraints And Delicacy Of Impressionism For Good. Nineteen Gnarly Paintings, Starting In 1909 And Carrying Through His Final Seventeen Years, Finish Off The Notion That Monet Went Happily Ever After Into Lily-land.