“To many of the people who run our museums—not art people but bean counters—art is merely branding for the institution.”

The Nation’s Barry Schwabsky on why the the National Gallery and three other museums should not “hide the Art of Philip Guston.”

Never mind that [Darren Walker, the head of the Ford Foundation] cannot distinguish between racist imagery and imagery depicting racists. The real tell is that in a statement he said that to mount the exhibition now would have been “tone deaf.” That’s the language of corporate image control. To many of the people who run our museums—not art people but bean counters—art is merely branding for the institution.