Museum Critiques

Hasn’t The Times another reviewer it could send out to Orange County museums? I’m getting tired of Cathy Curtis’ remarks about local museums.

In her recent critique of a Muckenthaler Center exhibit in Fullerton (“O.C. Collects Paints Portrait of Collectors,” Calendar, May 22), she even criticized the gallery space. After all, it is an old mansion and one works with what one has.

She took another swipe at Bowers Museum in the review, too. In an earlier critique of Bowers Museum’s last exhibit before closing for major repairs and renovation, she completely missed the theme of the show and her column was quite inappropriate.

In the first place, it was not an art exhibit per se. It was a show designed to display to museum members and the general public a sampling of the many paintings which have been in storage and never before displayed. Ms. Curtis suggested that other paintings should have been borrowed.

I think Ms. Curtis judges paintings from her personal taste. It is understandable that anyone who likes Kienholz might consider California plein-air paintings “bland.” Judging from the going price of these paintings, a lot of people don’t agree.

LOIS MADLEY

Fullerton