My Private Museum Without Walls

Above is a photograph of a double page from the first of the scrapbooks that form my Museum without Walls. It shows why I am already on my second. If I had placed the large Picasso reproduction further to the left, I would have room for the two smaller pieces by the same artist alongside. Thus there would be space for the Van Gogh from the opposite page underneath. That would have been an improvement; the purposes of my collection are not undermined by compactness. As a practising artist, I am always judging or appreciating when looking at art. I am not particularly fond of the Picassos. They are there with many others in my scrapbook because of the ongoing debate inaugurated by John Berger in his book Success and Failure of Picasso about the quality of the artist's post- Guernica work. The Van Gogh is of interest because I do enjoy looking at it, and I have the cutting because of a misjudgement. Several years ago, when visiting the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam, I ...