Thomas Hoving (1931-2009), as in the art world so too in art literature

Thomas Hoving, the former director of the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the author of numerous books on art, has died.

As art critic Michael Kimmelman once wrote and as was repeated in The New York Times' obituary for Hoving today, "In his establishment-rattling mission to make the art museum a more populist institution, Mr. Hoving was 'probably the most influential and innovative museum official of the postwar period.'" Following his tenure at the museum, Hoving became a prolific author and, not surprisingly, his approach to his books, in their style and in their content, was much like his approach to the museum -- populist, single-minded, unflinching and often, a bit raucous.

 

His titles include Making the Mummies Dance: Inside the Metropolitan Museum of Art, False Impressions: The Hunt for Big-Time Art Fakes, American Gothic: The Biography of Grant Wood's American Masterpiece, Art for Dummies and my personal favorite, King of the Confessors.

One of his earlier works, King of the Confessors is the story of a pretentious young Hoving's semi-illicit acquisition of the Medieval ivory cross of Bury St. Edmunds -- "a remarkable tale of international espionage, art history and museum one-upmanship". Though the cross is now considered one of the great treasures of the Met's Cloisters, the museum's gift shop originally rejected Hoving's book because they said it gave ''a misleading impression of the museum's acquisitions policies." (I can't say if the store's policy has officially changed since, but perhaps to their relief the book is now out of print so they need not worry about it. Then again, in a twist I think Hoving must have particularly appreciated, the shop now sells a cast marble reproduction of the cross for $400.) You might not think a book on Medieval ivory would be much of a page-turner, but like he did with many aspects of the often staid art world, Hoving makes it so. A second, updated edition is currently available as an ebook, but I still think a paperback reprint would make a fantastic Hol project.

Most recently, Hoving published his memoir as a serialization at artnet.com. Artful Tom, a Memoir ran in 35 installments from April to June of this year. From a publisher's and reader's standpoint, I think this was an ill-conceived experiment on artnet's behalf (one they'd previously tried and failed with Peter Plagens' art novel, The Art Critic) but for the chance to work with Hoving as an author and to give him the outlet for the work, I cannot fault them. A singular, and sometimes polarizing figure in what was once a rather quiet world of museums and art literature, Hoving has undoubtedly left his mark on both.