Comments on: Why the MoMA Should Have Dinosaurs

By: Would we have dinosaurs in Singapore? – by Tan Swee Hee « Raffles Museum News

Mon, 11 Jul 2011 09:47:38 +0000

[...] comment from a young museum visitor to New York’s Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) got me thinking (http://blogs.smithsonianmag.com/dinosaur/2011/04/why-the-moma-should-have-dinosaurs/). It is interesting to me that children usually associate museums with dinosaurs. While Annabelle [...]

By: Laura

Laura — Thu, 12 May 2011 21:12:01 +0000

Overheard in DC lists a similar critique from a young visitor at the American History Museum:

http://dcist.com/2011/05/overheard_in_dc_mothers_day.php

By: General updates 2011: Apr/May « The Outer Hoard

General updates 2011: Apr/May « The Outer Hoard — Sat, 07 May 2011 07:27:07 +0000

[...] No museum should ever be without dinosaurs. [...]

By: Doug

Doug — Wed, 27 Apr 2011 15:39:00 +0000

A while ago i floated the idea of having a paleo art gallery http://accpaleo.wordpress.com/2010/03/01/paleo-art-gallery/ (if my museum ever made it that far). The idea was inspired by a gallery at the Huntington Library. I imagine it would have work done by the greats: Bill Stout, Charles Knight, Karen Carr, Mark Hallet, Raul Marten, Mauricio Anton, and others. And instead of busts, little sculptures of prehistoric beasts. Yep, just another thought…

By: Babbletrish

Babbletrish — Tue, 26 Apr 2011 21:24:06 +0000

If I were running MoMA, I’d make plans for an exhibit focusing on late twentieth century paleoart as quickly as possible.

By: Kafi Benz

Kafi Benz — Tue, 26 Apr 2011 17:46:04 +0000

If MoMA (the Museum of Modern Art in Manhattan) reads this and realizes that they may be interested, please contact me regarding a Jim Gary sculpture for the museum.

I am the studio director and publicist for the late sculptor and maintain his official web site. In 1990 the exhibition was invited for a solo show at the Smithsonian Museum of Natural History. Exhibitions in museums were the regular fair for Gary’s sculptures. The last solo shows featuring his exhibition on tour were two related ones in North Carolina in 2004. First the exhibition was displayed at Lowe’s Motor Speedway in Concord for its Spring Extravaganza, after which they traveled to the University of North Carolina at Charlotte for an exhibition hosted by its Belk College of Business.

Jim Gary died in January of 2006. Placement of sculptures from his traveling exhibition, Jim Gary’s Twentieth Century Dinosaurs, into museums is in progress and both MoMA and Smithsonian would be appropriate.

By: David

David — Tue, 26 Apr 2011 16:35:38 +0000

I’ve been catching this news on my paleo-blogs while my wife gets it through art history!

The story puts me in mind of WJT Mitchell’s excellent book The Last Dinosaur, which dwells at length on the significance of the near-absence of dinosaurs from MOMA.

Mitchell also tells the story of Robert Smithson’s obsession with fossils as a young man growing up in New Jersey who took regular trips to the Museum of Natural History, a story that should resonate with you Brian! In addition to the mechanical “dinosaurs” that helped him create spiral jetty, Smithson produced paintings like “Blue Dinosaur” and “White Dinosaur”, as well as other works incorporating “deep time.”