The Philadelphia Museum of Art has borne a fair amount of criticism for ignoring the local in favor of, well, the non-local, thereby stepping back from any sense of mission of supporting excellence within Philadelphia. That sort of local modesty seems to be part and parcel of the culture of Philadelphia.
But, after Thomas Chimes death last week, Michael Taylor, who curated the PMA’s Chimes retrospective in 2007, hung three Chimes works in the Surrealist Gallery in the modern and contemporary wing, a gesture that seems a lovely mix of personal and professional. So if you stop by the PMA over the summer (of course you will), take a moment to pay your respects to Chimes, who died Monday, by visiting his panel portraits of Apollinaire, Artaud and Jarry.
