NY Times dislikes Smithsonian's SW exhibit
Daniel O. Miller
ART REVIEW
The 'Star Wars' Effect, and the Part That's Art
By MICHAEL KIMMELMAN
How did I get the idea that "Star Wars: The Magic of Myth" at the Brooklyn
Museum of Art might be a lark and not a witless fiasco?
Chalk it up to a flush of nostalgia: hearing of the show jogged a memory
The wonderment dwindled by the end of the third film and was gone after
the fourth, which I even hesitate to admit I saw. But the initial feeling
evidently lodged in my head. One of the salient qualities of art is to
lodge in your head. Something you see stays with you, sometimes despite
yourself, years after you have rationally decided that its presence is an
embarrassment. That opening scene
Wonderment is not what you derive from this implausible exhibition. What
you get may be a throbbing in the temples from the noise of many competing
video monitors and a jab in the side from some fellow visitor wielding a
light saber, although museum officials alerted me to a Web site
(http://boards.theforce.net /message.asp?topic=6077494&replies=0) where
guidelines for appropriate behavior have been posted for members of the
New York chapter of one of the "Stars Wars" fan clubs. The guidelines
specify "NO DUELING of any kind!" and "NO Blasters! NO BLASTERS!"
Even considering that the event is pitched to preteenagers and "Star Wars"
buffs, I had expected (and the Brooklyn Museum of Art ought to be expected
to provide) something that at least pretends to be serious about art. A
display of Princess Leia's slave girl outfit is not what I mean. I could
have imagined an exhibition about the technology of visual effects, say.
A few months before the first "Star Wars" opened in 1977, the Academy
Award for special effects went to "King Kong," which was just a big guy in
a gorilla suit groping Jessica Lange. No wonder that the giant ship at the
opening of "Star Wars" seemed like a hyperspace leap forward in visual
sophistication.
Alternatively, a show about Saturday afternoon serials, comic books and
"Star Wars" might have done the trick. Like all great visual cinema, "Star
Wars" invented its own vocabulary of images, and it would have been
instructive to see where they came from and how they evolved.
No such luck here. We're served up token drawings and paintings, which
seem orphaned and overwhelmed amid an extravagant toy store of
disappointingly ordinary-looking costumes, props and models, incongruously
exhibited in fancy cases against cartoon backdrops as if they were the
holy relics of St. John the Baptist presented by Mad Magazine. It reminded
me above all of how film transforms mundane objects into magic.
Originally presented by the National Air and Space Museum in Washington
and well-traveled across the country by the Smithsonian's traveling
exhibition service, the show has naturally been an enormous box-office
draw, its true purpose. So it bothers with a rationale only barely.
The rationale is not, as you might expect from the National Air and Space
Museum, scientific. It is the mythology of the movies, presented
straight-facedly as if it were a revelation that "Star Wars" is a cheerful
testosterone-heavy Hollywood B-movie gumbo mixing high and low sources
like the Bible, "Gunsmoke," "Beowulf," the "Nibelungenlied," King Arthur,
Huck Finn, Buck Rogers and "The Odyssey."
The book accompanying the show dutifully enumerates these mythological
connections via plentiful allusions to Carl Jung, Joseph Campbell and Bill
Moyers, a work of deadpan prose that in its earnestness is unintentionally
hilarious. The self-mockery of the original film, as Pauline Kael famously
pointed out, entailed mimicking the tone of bad movies, turning "old-movie
ineptness into conscious Pop Art." The "Star Wars" actors never let on
whether their bad acting was really bad or ironic.
The book's credulous tone might seem to strike a similarly winking pose,
except that it is apparently dead serious.
And speaking of dead serious, I have delayed, because it requires me to be
earnest, too, the issue of commercial opportunism. The last straw for me
was the room of masks of characters like Darth Maul that you can try on at
the end of the exhibition, leading straight into the shop where you may
then buy the same Darth Maul mask among much other "Star Wars"
paraphernalia, so that the show and shop become indistinguishable.
All museums merchandise. But there are limits. Lucasfilm Ltd. has
obviously provided its costumes and props knowing that shows like this
help promote the films and goodies. Why shouldn't it? It's a business. The
next "Star Wars" installment opens on May 16. The exhibition runs through
July 7. Good for George Lucas. Why the Brooklyn Museum would mortgage its
reputation to advertise for him is not so clear.
Museums justify this brand of show by waving the populist flag, talking
about broadening audiences, getting new faces through the front doors.
Sponsors, trustees and government officials like to hear this. But it
almost never works. Typically, this is just a quick, temporary means to
make headlines, boost attendance figures and raise cash.
The Brooklyn Museum, one of the country's most distinguished cultural
institutions, under its showman-director Arnold L. Lehman, is clearly
searching for new visitors in challenging economic times. I love the
museum. I have loved visiting it since I was a boy.
This show made my heart sink.
``Star Wars: The Magic of Myth'' remains at the Brooklyn Museum of Art,
200 Eastern Parkway, at Prospect Park, (718)638-5000, through July 7, then
travels to Sydney, Australia.
Daniel O. Miller
"Does this look familiar? Do you know what it is? Neither do I! I made
it last night in my sleep. Apparently I used gindrogac - highly unstable!
I put a button on it, yes? I wish to press it, but I'm not sure what will
happen if I do..." - Gune
usher
>April 5, 2002
>ART REVIEW
>The 'Star Wars' Effect, and the Part That's Art
>By MICHAEL KIMMELMAN
>
>How did I get the idea that "Star Wars: The Magic of Myth" at the Brooklyn
>Museum of Art might be a lark and not a witless fiasco?
Starts out auspicious enough.
<snip>
>guidelines for appropriate behavior have been posted for members of the
>New York chapter of one of the "Stars Wars" fan clubs. The guidelines
>specify "NO DUELING of any kind!" and "NO Blasters! NO BLASTERS!"
I take it that he doesn't recall Wuher's lines fro ANH and doesn't get
the humour.
<snap>
>to provide) something that at least pretends to be serious about art. A
>display of Princess Leia's slave girl outfit is not what I mean. I could
>have imagined an exhibition about the technology of visual effects, say.
Aparently fashion/costume design is not art to him.
<snorum>
>Alternatively, a show about Saturday afternoon serials, comic books and
>"Star Wars" might have done the trick. Like all great visual cinema, "Star
>Wars" invented its own vocabulary of images, and it would have been
>instructive to see where they came from and how they evolved.
I agree that this would have been nice.
>No such luck here. We're served up token drawings and paintings, which
>seem orphaned and overwhelmed amid an extravagant toy store of
>disappointingly ordinary-looking costumes, props and models, incongruously
>exhibited in fancy cases against cartoon backdrops as if they were the
>holy relics of St. John the Baptist presented by Mad Magazine.
So maybe that wasn't the point of the show, ...
> It reminded
>me above all of how film transforms mundane objects into magic.
THIS was the point.
<clip>
> So it bothers with a rationale only barely.
As do many abstract art exhibits, IMHO.
>The rationale is not, as you might expect from the National Air and Space
>Museum, scientific. It is the mythology of the movies, presented
>straight-facedly as if it were a revelation that "Star Wars" is a cheerful
>testosterone-heavy Hollywood B-movie gumbo mixing high and low sources
>like the Bible, "Gunsmoke," "Beowulf," the "Nibelungenlied," King Arthur,
>Huck Finn, Buck Rogers and "The Odyssey."
Yes, we'd hate to see how this was such a popular story by relating it
to popular stories of the past couple of thousand years.
>The book accompanying the show dutifully enumerates these mythological
>connections via plentiful allusions to Carl Jung, Joseph Campbell and Bill
>Moyers, a work of deadpan prose that in its earnestness is unintentionally
>hilarious.
Humour is an individual thing. I do not find Jerry Lewis funny, but
there are many in France who do.
> The self-mockery of the original film, as Pauline Kael famously
>pointed out, entailed mimicking the tone of bad movies, turning "old-movie
>ineptness into conscious Pop Art." The "Star Wars" actors never let on
>whether their bad acting was really bad or ironic.
"Famously pointed out". I have never heard of Pauline Kael nor her
quote, but then I'm not an art "critic". I just know what I like.
<clop>
>And speaking of dead serious, I have delayed, because it requires me to be
>earnest, too, the issue of commercial opportunism. The last straw for me
>was the room of masks of characters like Darth Maul that you can try on at
>the end of the exhibition, leading straight into the shop where you may
>then buy the same Darth Maul mask among much other "Star Wars"
>paraphernalia, so that the show and shop become indistinguishable.
As if you can't buy miniatures of other works found throught art
museums in their gift shops. Just because this is popular art and
Remington is dead doesn't make a miniature of one of his sculptures or
a print less a capitalization on the visitor's experience.
>All museums merchandise. But there are limits.
Only stuff not already popular can be sold?
> Lucasfilm Ltd. has
>obviously provided its costumes and props knowing that shows like this
>help promote the films and goodies. Why shouldn't it? It's a business.
They also knew that, even without a new film being released, people
would want to see these things. I, for one, would love to tour this
exhibit. The teaser items at the SW Celebration in Denver showed how
ordinary products can be recombined into otherworldly items which can
fire the imagination.
>The
>next "Star Wars" installment opens on May 16. The exhibition runs through
>July 7. Good for George Lucas. Why the Brooklyn Museum would mortgage its
>reputation to advertise for him is not so clear.
I consider the Brooklynites lucky as the tour bypassed the heart of
the USA.
>Museums justify this brand of show by waving the populist flag, talking
>about broadening audiences, getting new faces through the front doors.
So? The Denver Art Museum hosts free entrance on some Saturdays for
Colorado residents. If it were not for such populist activities,
people might want to recind the monies put toward these cultural
scions from their taxes. If it were not for a free day (of which I
was unaware until arriving at said museum), I would not be able to
afford to be exposed to great artists of the past and future, not to
mention that there is a section devoted to the art of everyday items
such as chairs and drinking glasses.
>Sponsors, trustees and government officials like to hear this. But it
>almost never works. Typically, this is just a quick, temporary means to
>make headlines, boost attendance figures and raise cash.
So to keep the doors open to the less affluent and art critics in
employ of the papers.
>The Brooklyn Museum, one of the country's most distinguished cultural
>institutions, under its showman-director Arnold L. Lehman, is clearly
>searching for new visitors in challenging economic times. I love the
>museum. I have loved visiting it since I was a boy.
>
>This show made my heart sink.
Yet, you will go back to the museum, nes pas, Mr. Kimmelman?
I wager so. Not only will the visit be for professional reasons, but
to expand your mind, and dare I say, your soul.
usher
>"Does this look familiar? Do you know what it is? Neither do I! I made
>it last night in my sleep. Apparently I used gindrogac - highly unstable!
>I put a button on it, yes? I wish to press it, but I'm not sure what will
>happen if I do..." - Gune
I recommend against pushing unlabeled buttons unless you are the
ultimate protagonist of your particular vid.
Rambling Old Cynical Jedi Engineer
http://www.shavenwookie.com/rassm/
http://melosh.tripod.com/