The Freer's Studies in Connoisseurship

After the totalitarian wastes and obtrusive technology of the East Wing of the National Gallery-or is it the North Wing of the Air and Space Museum across the Mall?-the Freer Art Gallery appears as a welcome human space eminently suitable for the contemplation of works of art with resulting delectation, the prime reason for confronting works of art in the first place. The interior spaces, ample, without crushing power, are bathed in the changing light of day. This requires frequent changes of works employing fugitive grounds and pigments, thus insuring that the viewer be rewarded with new and unexpected pleasures from time to time and that the staff be continuously challenged by the strategies of choice and the tactics of display. Recent years have witnessed major improvements in the labeling at the Freer, greater flexibility of display techniques, and a renewed and justified emphasis on the gallery's considerable holding of American painting-to say nothing of the cleaning and the refurbishing of Whistler's Peacock Room. These exemplary changes are all ancillary to the Freer's pride and joy, the extensive and deep collection of the art of China, Korea, and Japan, with strong supplementary collections of Indian and Near Eastern Art.