Damage Being Done to Museums in the Nation’s Capital

It’s funny how you can see things over and over without really seeing them. How many times have I visited the National Gallery of Art over the years? Plenty, but it never struck me until recently that it has a direct and uninterrupted sightline across the National Mall to the Capitol. Maybe spending too much time with art has got me into a habit of finding allegories everywhere, but I suddenly sensed that the two buildings, and the two distinct powers they represent—art and politics—were inexorably at odds. I was in Washington to visit the opening of an exhibition at the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden by the painter and video artist Adam Pendleton, for which I had written a catalog essay. But I also had a secret mission: to see if I could get a closer look at the damage being done to the museums in our nation’s capital. I’d already tried to get some DC-based curators I know to speak with me—off the record, of course—and came up empty: Their lips were sealed. That unwillingness to respond worried me even more than any direct expression of unease would have done. These people, I thought, must be terrified.