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therainbowshelf's review
funny
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.0
I just don't appreciate satire the way it deserves to be appreciated. This had a lot of intruiging and funny moments, and I loved the jokes on framing and the Mona Lisa, but I just didn't enjoy this Louvre comic that much.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Death
Destruction of art?aborham's review
4.0
Architecturally wonderful. I think the chapters needed to be a bit longer.. Reminds me of The Name of the Rose
hisaacson's review
3.0
Full review to follow but wanted to say, this is probably a 3 or even less for non-museum folk. Those that studied museum studies may enjoy this one and find humor in its depictions of all things museum-related. It also pokes a little fun at the philosophy of art. Art-history buffs might be interested in this one as well. Very short, fast read. I would give it 3.5 stars on here if I could.
Full review at: http://hollybooknotes.blogspot.com/2009/04/museum-vaults-excerpts-from-journal-of.html
Full review at: http://hollybooknotes.blogspot.com/2009/04/museum-vaults-excerpts-from-journal-of.html
melaniegaum's review
3.0
Weird and twisting exploration of an alternate universe Louvre. It reminded me of some of my art history and museum studies classes from college.
mlindner's review
5.0
Original here: http://marklindner.info/blog/2012/12/05/mathieu-the-museum-vaults/
The Museum Vaults: Excerpts from the Journal of an Expert is an excellent, short graphic novel set in a very Kafkaesque Musée du Louvre. It is volume 3 in a series co-published with the Louvre, which if Goodreads is correct includes 6 titles.
They say that all of these names are nothing but anagrams of the museum’s real name, which has been forgotten. For my part, I’d say that its name hasn’t yet been found, for if it’s true that one only definitively names things that one can grasp, then the museum must be the most difficult to define.” (6)
Contents:
▪ Day One: Conservation
▪ Day Three: The Foundations of the Summit
▪ Day Thirty-Three: Technical Galleries
▪ Day Forty-Six: The Flooded Gallery
▪ Day Two Hundred Twelve: The Repository for Molds
▪ Day Six Hundred Fifty One: The Fragments Room
▪ Day Nine Hundred and Sixty: The Restoration Workshop
▪ Day One Thousand Four Hundred and Thirteen: The Department of Copies
▪ Day Three Thousand Eight Hundred and Sixty-Five: Painting Storage
▪ Day Five Thousand Eight Hundred and Nine: The Archives
▪ Day Nine Thousand Seven Hundred and Twenty-Seven: The Old Expert
▪ Day Ten Thousand: The Frame Depot
▪ Day Eleven Thousand Eight Hundred Ninety-Four: Bricabracology
▪ Day Fourteen Thousand Five Hundred and Seven: The Icon
▪ Day Sixteen Thousand Six Hundred and Ten: The Truly Grand Design
▪ Day Eighteen Thousand One Hundred and Thirty-Four: The Final Chapter
▪ List of works cited (includes Great Sphinx, “Hammurabi’s Head,” a Piet Mondrian, and others)
▪ The Louvre: From a castle to a museum
The Musee du Revolu, as it is now called, hires an expert, Eudeus Volumer, and an assistant, to evaluate the collections. The story follows their progress through the labyrinthine museum, along the way skewering art and art history. Or, as the back blurb says, “Mathieu, an artist who marries Escher with Kafka, brings stinging irony to the pompousness of art history.” All of the various sections comment on different aspects of art, criticism, and art history. Just a few of the tools are anagrams, and other word play, and meta-commentary through the use of the graphic medium and the devices in some of the areas of the museum to comment on some aspect of art. The Mona Lisa is used to make an important point about copies and almost identical works and what the arrival of the daguerreotype means for art. Picture frames poke fun at Piet Mondrian and hint at the coming of the cartoon panel layout. There are others and, no doubt, I missed a few.
All in all, I found this an excellent, and extremely quick, read but one that bears contemplation. I will probably re-read it before returning it and then looking into whether our public library has the other volumes in the series.
Highly recommended.
The Museum Vaults: Excerpts from the Journal of an Expert is an excellent, short graphic novel set in a very Kafkaesque Musée du Louvre. It is volume 3 in a series co-published with the Louvre, which if Goodreads is correct includes 6 titles.
They say that all of these names are nothing but anagrams of the museum’s real name, which has been forgotten. For my part, I’d say that its name hasn’t yet been found, for if it’s true that one only definitively names things that one can grasp, then the museum must be the most difficult to define.” (6)
Contents:
▪ Day One: Conservation
▪ Day Three: The Foundations of the Summit
▪ Day Thirty-Three: Technical Galleries
▪ Day Forty-Six: The Flooded Gallery
▪ Day Two Hundred Twelve: The Repository for Molds
▪ Day Six Hundred Fifty One: The Fragments Room
▪ Day Nine Hundred and Sixty: The Restoration Workshop
▪ Day One Thousand Four Hundred and Thirteen: The Department of Copies
▪ Day Three Thousand Eight Hundred and Sixty-Five: Painting Storage
▪ Day Five Thousand Eight Hundred and Nine: The Archives
▪ Day Nine Thousand Seven Hundred and Twenty-Seven: The Old Expert
▪ Day Ten Thousand: The Frame Depot
▪ Day Eleven Thousand Eight Hundred Ninety-Four: Bricabracology
▪ Day Fourteen Thousand Five Hundred and Seven: The Icon
▪ Day Sixteen Thousand Six Hundred and Ten: The Truly Grand Design
▪ Day Eighteen Thousand One Hundred and Thirty-Four: The Final Chapter
▪ List of works cited (includes Great Sphinx, “Hammurabi’s Head,” a Piet Mondrian, and others)
▪ The Louvre: From a castle to a museum
The Musee du Revolu, as it is now called, hires an expert, Eudeus Volumer, and an assistant, to evaluate the collections. The story follows their progress through the labyrinthine museum, along the way skewering art and art history. Or, as the back blurb says, “Mathieu, an artist who marries Escher with Kafka, brings stinging irony to the pompousness of art history.” All of the various sections comment on different aspects of art, criticism, and art history. Just a few of the tools are anagrams, and other word play, and meta-commentary through the use of the graphic medium and the devices in some of the areas of the museum to comment on some aspect of art. The Mona Lisa is used to make an important point about copies and almost identical works and what the arrival of the daguerreotype means for art. Picture frames poke fun at Piet Mondrian and hint at the coming of the cartoon panel layout. There are others and, no doubt, I missed a few.
All in all, I found this an excellent, and extremely quick, read but one that bears contemplation. I will probably re-read it before returning it and then looking into whether our public library has the other volumes in the series.
Highly recommended.
esquetee's review
3.0
Think of the Borges story Library of Babel and then apply it to an art museum instead of a library -- that's sort of what you get with this little book. An "expert" aging into his job, doing the same work that others have already done before him, and what is it for really?
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