I had an invitation to go up and see someone's etchings yesterday and I actually went! To be honest, the invitation was from my mother for a member's night at MOMA, and the etchings Lucian Freud's and were part of an exhibit that looked at the relationship between his painting and etching of the same subjects. It was mostly portraiture, which I love, although there were also a few still lives. I really love Freud's work (the grandson of Sigmund, by the way - another generation is creating myths of identity - and I don't mean that at all insultingly for either generation). I always see Freud's work if it comes to a New York gallery and this is my favorite kind of exhibit, small and focused on something particular the curator sees rather than an assembly of every splotch Seurat or someone committed to a surface. Here it all is, those exhibits seem to say to one, memorize it; more is better. Here's the headphone. Learn your lessons well. What a dreary way to look at art. No headphones here. Very few placards with explanations at all. And there weren't hoards of thousands to compete with to see them either. I don't know if it is touring to anywhere else but if you have an opportunity to see it, it's a terrific exhibit.
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