What's the most overrated museum you've ever visited?

[bif]

Mine is the Getty in L.A. The museum itself is pretty interesting. but I have to say, Getty had more money than taste. I found the collection to be very uninteresting. and talk about a waste of wall space! They could put about 5 times more paintings in there if they wanted to. And the lighting was mediocre at best.

[terrya]

1. The Andy Warhol museum in Pittsburgh.

If you like Warhol, it's great.

[Beware the Beast Man]

7. It's ironic-

Warhol HATED living in Pittsburgh. When he was a student at CMU, he tried his damnedest to get out.
Personally, I never cared for Warhol. If social climbing is an art, I guess he perfected it.

[Westegg]

38. Agreed. And I like Warhol and was born/raised in Pittsburgh

...But the Warhol should do more to showcase contemporary "pop art"( is there such a thing? Sure there is) than it does. Because I visit it once every year-and-a-half, I know they've made an effort, but not enough of one. I've seen some fine exhibits there, but the majority of Warhol's work---the museum's dominant subject---doesn't exactly prime you for repeat visits.

"Oh yeah. Marilyn. Campbell's soup cans. Un-huh, un-huh. Next?"

Pretty good Edie Sedgewick exhibit there a few years back. Any 'burghers out there want to tell me why I should go to the Warhol on my next visit to the ol' homestead?

[Fenris]

2. The new Getty

Massive modern complex. Totally unimpressed. I liked the old Getty much better.

[Beaverhausen]

43. the best thing about the new Getty is the view

from the various outside "patios" of the south building at sunset. Watching the sun go down and the lights of the city come up is amazing. Great date spot.

But I agree the art collection is really lacking.

3. Guggenheim in New York

-- depending on the exhibit they have up at the time.
The architecture of the building is superb, but I have seen spotty exhibitions there.

[bif]

4. The Crazy Guggenheim?

That's what my wife and I call it. And I agree.

[cheezus]

28. ditto that

we stopped breifly, but the exhbit didn't look like something we wanted to waste part of our one day nyc tour on. Cool building, though

[skippysmom]

34. all part of FLW's plan

he wanted you to look at the building, not the art.

plus I hear it's a real pain to hang exhibitions there.

[troublemaker]

5. National Gallery of Art (Wash DC)

they should have "the worst paintings by the greatest artists" carved over the door. The best thing you can say about the collection (taken as a whole compared to collections of equal value) is that almost every piece is exceedingly 'safe.'

[bif]

6. Except for the Vermeers.

Don't they have 5 or 6 of them? I'm a huge fan of Vermeer.

[radwriter0555]

26. My next visit to europe will entail a visit to belgium to see the great

masters, including Vermeer. Wanna go?

[bif]

41. What time does the flight leave?

n/t

[Kolesar]

10. that modern art museum was nothing to howl about

After touring the American History museum and the other Smithsonian art museum, that one just bored me. I could not relate to any of it.

[WoodrowFan]

8. Dearfield Village

An artifical town built with historic buildings by Henry Ford. All the buildings taken out of their original context. For example, the Wright Brother's home was in a city neighborhood, Ford made it look like it was part of some idealized small town. FEH! Most of the buildings were not endangered so you can't even say he "saved" them.

note: their collection of old cars and other industrial age items is impressive, I'm talking about Ford's little small town section.

[bif]

9. Do you mean Greenfield Village in Dearborn MI?

And I disagree. We're members and go out there all the time.

[ScreamingMeemie]

37. Us too. Edison's lab was wonderfully restored. They have done a

great job keeping to detail. We are members too. :hi:

[ProfessorGAC]

11. The Louvre

The statuary is cool, but aside from Mona Lisa, the place is jammed full of all that rennaisance stuff. It all looks alike, is highly unimaginative, and it takes 4 hours to see the same picture 2000 times.

Musee d'Orsae (sp?) is FAR better, and it's only about a mile away.
The Professor

[bloodyjack]

14. "all that renaissance stuff"? "unimaginative"?

are you, like, joking?

[ProfessorGAC]

17. Did It Seem Like A Joke?

The Professor

[GOPisEvil]

15. My parents liked the D'Orsay better, too.

But then, they are more inclined to like the impressionists.

[bif]

18. I agree with ya there 100%

The Louvre bored me to tears. Huge rooms with 6 paintings. And the kind of stuff I just don't enjoy like the Davids and the Watteaus and the other neo-classical painters. I could rollerskate through there and not miss much. the time would have been better spent sipping wine in a sidewalk cafe.

[radwriter0555]

24. We lucked into the Michelangelo exhibit at the Louvre which was AMAZING

and the highlight of our museum tour... so I'd have to disagree with your on the Louvre. I found it a brilliant historical retrospective collection. I can't wait to go back and see MORE.

[ProfessorGAC]

29. Differernt Strokes For Different Folks

However, Michelangelo is one thing. Botticelli, Raphael, Goya, et al are another. One is Clyburn, the other the Shaggs. So, i'd understand why you would have found it more impressive than i did.

The statuary, i did like. But, that only takes a half hour to see all the most noteworthy stuff.
The Professor

[DBoon]

12. Kathe Kollwitz Museum in Berlin

Tourist trap to the max.

[LuCifer]

13. Edison's Winter Home in Ft. Myers

I liked Edison's Winter Home as a kid, but now that I have since found out just what a bastard anti-Semite Edison was, that place can kiss my ass! NO WONDER that museum had so much of Henry Ford's stuff...birds of a feather. Too bad those 2 couldn't have eloped with Nixon and Billy Graham.

Lu Cifer

[LynneSin]

16. The Thomas Kinkade Gallery at both the Christiana & Concord Mall

http://www.thomaskinkade.com/magi/servlet/com.asucon.ebiz.home.web.tk.HomeServlet

Rumor has it he's found at other malls too!!!

[radwriter0555]

25. LOL his work is in MUSEUMS? ROFLMAO!

I feel sorry for the people who buy that shit and consider it collectable... poor things.

[Insider]

19. Ripken Museum

it's a teeny, weeny, itsy, bitsy little place. in one door, and out the other...and there are THREE of them baseball-playing Ripkens!

[tjwash]

20. SD Museum of Natural History.

It just flat out sucked.

[La Lioness Priyanka]

21. louvre

[radwriter0555]

22. The Uffizi in Florence. THOUSANDS of boring renaissance portraits

of nobles, worse than looking at some stranger's family pictures with NO explanations; and even worse, MORE thousands of christian interpretive religious iconry. Seriously, how many TIMES must one view with awe, the spectacle of the virgin mary or jesus on the cross? HOLY CRAP!

There was some nice statuary there, that's for sure, but I got so sick of all the religious iconry that we just left. We sought out the couple of significant works, and bailed.

[La Lioness Priyanka]

23. i loved that museum

[radwriter0555]

27. I liked the Galileo Museum of Science around the corner WAY WAY

better... there was some astounding amazing stunning miraculous stuff in that place..... indescribable.

[ProfessorGAC]

30. Did You Go To The DaVinci In Milan?

I really liked that one, too!
The Professor

[radwriter0555]

31. sadly no, we didn't make it to milan, but it's on the list.....

da vinci and michelangelo are my faves of the era.

[bif]

32. Sad museum

It was very run down when we where there. And most of the exhibits were broken. I remember in the courtyard the grass was overgrown and they had a rusted out race car there.

[ProfessorGAC]

33. Huh? Not So When I Was There

I've been there twice about 2 years apart. (Biz trips are notable for their ability to create boredom. Going to the same museum twice is not a bad thing.)

I didn't find it bad at all. There is some stuff in disrepair, but the stuff i remember was as they found it. Just entropy i guess. But, the museum as a whole was fine. Not very big, but ok condition.

I just like DaVinci a lot, so maybe i'm very forgiving.
The Professor

[bif]

44. We were there in the early 80s

And believe me, it was a dump. Plus they hardly had anything in it. I'm fan of DaVinci's too and was pretty dissapointed.

[Zero Gravitas]

40. But

where else has museum gaurds that wear sunglasses indoors? I love Italy :)

[skippysmom]

35. Winterthur

Gorgeous house, beautiful grounds, great collection of dec arts. But they have a real attitude there -- if you don't know your antiques, in most cases they don't want to know you.

(Of course, their grad program was a rival with mine, so I'm biased.)

I have heard that the best thing about the Getty is the building, but I've never been there so I can't comment.

[jmowreader]

36. Old Waynesborough in Wayne County, North Carolina

Waynesborough was the first county seat of Wayne County. There was a town there. Everyone moved away. Sherman destroyed the five empty buildings that stood when he got there. Someone decided to "commemorate" the town of Waynesborough, so they bought up a bunch of old buildings that no one else wanted, none of which had any historical value, and made a Colonial Williamsburg-type attraction there. Fortunately, they also put a boat ramp into the Neuse there, so someone would actually come.

Goldsboro (where it is) has two redeeming features: the Air Force base and a shingle factory.

[tsakshaug]

39. museum of bad art?

http://www.museumofbadart.org/

[sus]

42. Franklin Institute in Philly

As a kid, we were forced to go there like every two weeks. even when the teachers were on STRIKE!

[devilgrrl]

45. I wasn't impressed with the Getty either...

I also felt that the security and greeters were a pain in the ass. It seemed like they were in my face like a bunch of gnats the entire time I was there.

Then there's the rather bizarre collection of "art," consisting of the "whose wasn't" of Reneissance artists. The gardens were nice but I couldn't help but think about what land had to be destroyed to build that waste of space.

[henslee]

46. The bottlecap museum in Modesto.

[DBoon]

47. Liberace Museum near Vegas

I never thought bad taste could be so miserably presented.

[Westegg]

48. I enjoyed The Liberace. God knows I wasn't expecting much!

...and I still have a refrigerator magnet to commemorate my visit there. My favorite magnet! Later that same day I won $1000 at video poker from Caesar's Palace. Royal Straight Flush. When you add on the unlimited shrimp cocktails, it was a FINE day in Vegas.