Join us Wednesday, May 2 at 7:30pm for an Arts & Letters Live Special Event, Seeing Art Through a Museum Director’s Eye: Dr. Maxwell Anderson in Conversation with Krys Boyd.
The Quality Instinct: Seeing Art Through a Museum Director's Eye by Maxwell L. Anderson
The Quality Instinct: Seeing Art Through a Museum Director’s Eye was published less than a month after Maxwell L. Anderson began as The Eugene McDermott Director of the Dallas Museum of Art. In an interview, he said “The book is really an introduction to a ground floor of understanding about artistic intention and artistic result, and I hope people will take something away from it in feeling more comfortable with objects that, even today, great professors of artistic and art historical theory may be a little out of touch with.”
Maxwell describes his family’s travels when he was a child as “great exposure to new ways of seeing the world”. These experiences clearly made an indelible impression on him, as he states “I used, in the course of a career as an art historian, and a museum curator and director, to go back and refresh my eye about what I learned as a child and how it would influence the way I see today as an adult.”
Rather than our standard interview format, I decided instead to ask our new Director five quick questions:
- Are there any books you’ve read multiple times? Catcher in the Rye, by J.D. Salinger. The Way We Live Now, by Anthony Trollope.
- Do you have a “can’t miss” TV show? The Big C is one Jacqueline and I don’t miss. That, and Shark Tank.
- What is your favorite quote? “I’d rather be an optimist and a fool than a pessimist and right.” – Albert Einstein
- If you could have dinner with any historical figure, who would it be? Montesquieu – he was so funny and casual and arch.
- Coming from Indianapolis, how are you preparing for the Dallas summer? I’m looking forward to it. It will be cooler than growing up in New York in the summer; there, I would walk out on the hot street, get in a cab and stick to the vinyl seat, and go to a walk-up apartment without air conditioning.
Don’t miss what will surely be an interesting conversation between Maxwell Anderson and Krys Boyd.
Melissa Nelson
Manager of Teaching in the Community