This is my history of art and the history of my taste (Pierre-Auguste Renoir doesn’t get in. Neither does William-Adolphe Bouguereau. My rules, thank you).
Many objects pictured are, in fact, old friends from many places. Building this Imaginary Museum is a consolation for my inability to go and see everything that I’d prefer to see in person, as well as joyful armchair visits to distant treasures.
Geopolitics puts some things out of reach (it’s unlikely that I’ll be ever visit The State Hermitage Museum in St Petersburg, a coveted bucket-list destination. I am, of course, also getting older, which may very well rule out more strenuous trips like Angkor Wat, Machu Picchu, or Easter Island.
And at some point every traveler reaches the end of the road.
In 1947, because of the new availability of high-quality color photographs of visual art from everywhere in the world, André Malraux postulated the existence of an Imaginary Museum.
The Internet is an Imaginary Museum on an unimaginable scale. I hope you enjoy my collection.