A native New Yorker who lives not far from the Metropolitan Museum of Art in Upper Manhattan, Eckstein began by compiling a list of 150 museums, which he eventually narrowed down to the 75 featured in the book. He spent a little over a year visiting the museums, taking photographs and sketching, and talking to curators, guides and visitors.
His illustrations capture the feeling of walking through a gallery or stopping to look at a work of art like John Singleton Copley's “Watson and the Shark” at the Boston Museum of Fine Arts. (His wife, artist Tamar Stone, is the woman reading the label on the wall to the right of the painting.) While working on the book, Eckstein says, “I took a photograph, sketched a little, then went back to my studio and illustrated it, trying to make the museum as sexy and exciting as possible.”
This conversation has been edited for length and clarity.
“Sexy” and “exciting” may not be everyone's first impression of a museum.
I get so excited when I go to a museum. Twenty years ago, I didn't go to museums much, but now I'm obsessed with museums. I can't wait to see what I'll see. I've seen more art in the past two years than most people see in a lifetime. My mind is full of inspiration.
As a tourist, do you always visit a museum when you go to a city?
Yes, that's one of the things I do. One of the first things I check is to see what's going on at an exhibition or show so that I don't miss anything.
Have you ever found a museum that you really fell in love with?
For this book, I went to Los Angeles with a list of museums I wanted to visit, but I didn't know there was a museum called the Museum of Jurassic Technology. It became my favorite museum. All I can say about this museum is that it's a complete mystery and saying more might ruin the experience for others. It was one of the most surprising museums I've been to. I often say it's like the Andy Kaufman of the museum world.
This book features a huge variety of museums, from the Museum of Bad Art to the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Why did these museums make the list?
There were many factors that went into choosing the museum, one of which was simply being entertaining, being a museum that everyone could enjoy, and understanding that not everyone has a taste for art, I wanted people to know that there is a museum out there for everyone.
Your own encounter with the museum did not start off well.
I think anyone who is taken to a museum for the first time as a child feels like screaming in protest. In my case, my mother took me to the Smithsonian Museum in Washington DC, which was not very interesting, just full of reading material, not that interesting.
How can you help your child go from hating museums to loving them?
I think the first fun museum that kids usually visit is the American Museum of Natural History. There aren't many books and it's too dark to read. I think a museum like that quickly changes a child's idea of ​​what is fun. There's nothing more fun than seeing a stuffed grizzly bear just 12 feet away.
Most museums offer a story about a personal connection to the museum, like the woman who was taken by her autoworker father to the Van Gogh exhibit at the Detroit Institute of Arts.
The story was really important to the whole book because it brings it to life. Art in a museum is what people expect, but what people don't expect is that there are different dramas happening in the museum, different things that can happen to people and their relationships.
How did you select these stories?
It's hard to decide which story is the best, but there were certainly a few similar ones. There aren't that many stories about people proposing in museums.
Is it popular to propose in a museum?
Yes, MASS MoCA has a room that is a light installation, and the lighting in the room makes it seem like the horizon disappears, as if you're floating on clouds.
James Turrell?
Yes. And everyone who enters the room is asked to wear protective footwear over their shoes, because the whole room is one piece of art. The person handing out the protective gear knows that the person who wants to put a third piece on their lap is ready to propose.
The Frick Collection explained that certain spots on the carpet are worn, and that the degree of wear can indicate which artworks are most popular.
There is a mention of the Mütter Medical Museum in Philadelphia, but I was a little frightened by the description of “jars of damp specimens” – I think they were organs or something like that.
Well, it's mind-blowing. It's like a Fear Factor museum. But if you're interested in the history of medicine, you have to go. And it's a museum that kids will love to go to, for obvious reasons.
Are you disgusted and scared?
Absolutely. Most kids agree. I want to go to the car museum, but that's because I'm a coward.
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