Out Today: Q&A on Coming of Age: American Art 1850s to 1950s

As the American president gets ready to sit down with controversy and a coupla beers, I'd hoped to take a look at past self-images of America via "Coming of Age: American Art 1850s to 1950s." This travelling show is having its sole Canadian stop at the Musee national des beaux arts du Quebec right now. Unfortunately, I couldn't get curator Daniel Drouin to bite on any of my Obama/Shepard Fairey convo attempts. (He pleaded "historical curator.") But, as the Q&A published in the National Post shows today, Drouin did riddle me this on some of the show's bad British reviews:

Q When this show was in England, the London Evening Standard's critic called it "too much of a muddled rag-bag to serve anyone's purpose." What's your response?

A This show was presented in a variety of venues: Venice, London, Dallas and Fort Lauderdale. I saw the show in London, and there were no text explanations on the walls of the galleries. But here it's totally different; I created text supports everywhere and we also offer our visitors an audio guide with a deep explanation about all these paintings. It's not the same exhibition that I've seen before.

Image of John Sloan's Sunday, Women Drying their Hair 1912 from the MNABQ