Trivializing ? Yes -- but I'm sure that effect was intended by a top team of marketing consultants -- to make the museum feel more accessible and a more likely destination for family entertainment.
BTW -- prior to 1950, it does not seem like art museums (at least the one here in Chicago) paid much attention to catalog design. Here's one from 1929 -- compared with some graphics created by some Chicago artists for their own art club in the same year. (so it's not as if local talent were not available) http://www.chicagocompactdiscs.com/pictures/1929%20catalogs.jpg Kind of stiff and clunky, isn't it ? No special sense for letters as marks on a page - it might as well have been an announcement for a wedding -- or better yet -- a funeral. And yet -- there's something charming about the museum's lack of concern for their own graphic image -- as if all that mattered was the quality of the art they were displaying. (and sadly, even though catalog design would improve later in the century, the museum stopped having an "Annual Exhibition of American Art") ____________________________________________________________ Get educated. Click here for Adult Education programs. http://thirdpartyoffers.netzero.net/TGL2231/fc/BLSrjnxVwOwfIZkNAoQfDYmBLNEGsl DOr961bmV7VK0UMktb7UU3KN02wJi/
