{"id":655841,"date":"2026-10-24T15:26:30","date_gmt":"2026-10-24T15:26:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/655841\/"},"modified":"2026-10-24T15:26:30","modified_gmt":"2026-10-24T15:26:30","slug":"has-the-art-world-forgotten-how-to-feel-museums-need-less-explanation-and-more-emotion","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/655841\/","title":{"rendered":"Has the art world forgotten how to feel? Museums need less explanation and more emotion"},"content":{"rendered":"

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\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\tArt\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/a><\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\tOctober 23, 2026\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t3 Min Read\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

Critics might accuse the Lucas Museum of Narrative Art and Switzerland\u2019s Fondation Beyeler of eschewing art-world academicism. But by prioritising emotional and sensory experience, these institutions offer visitors something that galleries have been missing.<\/p>\n

A short time ago, in a country far, far to the right, a museum opened to great fanfare and much debate in the art world. The Lucas Museum of Narrative Art (LMNA) in Los Angeles is the $1bn (\u20ac892m) brainchild of George Lucas, creator of Star Wars and co-creator of Indiana Jones, and his wife, Mellody Hobson. When the futuristic Ma Yansong-designed building recently opened its doors to the public, many critics took the museum\u2019s apparent anti-intellectualism as a Death Star-style attack on the Western museum. The LMNA \u2013 which, in a conscious effort to elevate the art of illustration, employs a laconic labelling system and prioritises experience over academic explanation \u2013 stands accused of collapsing the supposed boundaries between high and low culture.<\/p>\n

The question at the heart of the row is a simple one: should an art museum make us think or feel? Describing the LMNA as everything from \u201cupending the art world\u201d to bringing \u201cthe history of the Western art museum to its inevitable conclusion\u201d, the critics seem to suggest that the experience of art is somehow separate to understanding it. Lucas disagrees. In an interview with Vogue, the world-builder put his cards on the Sabacc table. \u201cMy feeling is that art is emotional,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s not intellectual. Are you emotionally connected to it? If you\u2019re connected, it\u2019s art. And if you\u2019re not, then it\u2019s not art.\u201d<\/p>\n

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\t\tAhead of its time: The LMNA is finding new ways to experience art (Image: Mario Tama\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n

Lucas isn\u2019t alone. As LMNA was lambasted across the media galaxy, the Fondation Beyeler unveiled three new buildings by Swiss architect Peter Zumthor in a picturesque slice of suburban Basel. Forming part of its \u201cexpanded ensemble\u201d, the additions meld into a now-public parkland that all but doubles the footprint of Switzerland\u2019s most-visited museum (more on this in Monocle\u2019s just-published Design Directory<\/a>).<\/p>\n

Like Lucas, Zumthor builds superstructures on the foundation of his beliefs. His architectural style leans on feelings through spaces that prioritise sensory experience and emotional resonance. \u201cFeelings encompass much more than thinking,\u201d he says. \u201cYour emotions contain things that you don\u2019t even consciously remember.\u201d This is not to say that Zumthor dismisses intellect out of hand. \u201cBut let\u2019s not make museums too didactical,\u201d he adds.<\/p>\n

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\t\tA light touch: The new Wyss Museum and Ammann Pavilion at Fondation Beyeler (Image: Sabine Hess)<\/p>\n

Lucas and Zumthor\u2019s desire to do away with art-world didacticism is at odds with the view of critics who believe that museums are essentially places that provide context, interpretation and intellectual architecture for the understanding of art. But these are not just places to think and contextualise; they\u2019re also places to stretch out emotionally, to reach for fresh feelings and new ways of understanding ourselves. Meanwhile, one critic wrote that he left the LMNA disappointed because he failed to learn anything beyond what he already knew, which sounds suspiciously like someone who went in search of facts and was frustrated to find art.<\/p>\n

Just as impressionism emerged as a reaction to the stale sobriety of academic painting, art museums that premise feeling and sensuality are not aberrations but natural reactions to the heady pace of modernity. People don\u2019t want to walk into galleries that make them feel dull or stupid \u2013 they want galleries that make them feel human. Or, at least, feel something. If impressionism was \u201cthe new painting\u201d, the LMNA and Fondation Beyeler are the new museums. The critical backlash can be put down to the fact that the new almost always comes as a shock. But in an era of heightened instability, perhaps the likes of Lucas and Zumthor are simply bringing balance to the force.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Art October 23, 2026 3 Min Read Critics might accuse the Lucas Museum of Narrative Art and Switzerland\u2019s…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":655842,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31],"tags":[30718,62237,437,434,435,436,438,146,85,46,2325,3950],"class_list":["post-655841","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-arts-and-design","tag-art-galleries","tag-art-museums","tag-arts","tag-arts-and-design","tag-artsanddesign","tag-artsdesign","tag-design","tag-entertainment","tag-il","tag-israel","tag-museums","tag-switzerland"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/655841","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=655841"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/655841\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/655842"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=655841"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=655841"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=655841"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}