Utopia would mean a park - some large, some small - every four or five blocks.
— Thomas Hoving
When I became director of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, it was stodgy, gray, run by elitists. I said, 'Hey, let's kick the thing around.' I wanted to attract young people to the museum. I said, 'Make it hospitable. I want them to come. I want them to make dates, pick up girls, pick up boys - either way; I don't care.'
My heavily-cleverly disguised low self-regard manifested itself in my constant showing off, my addiction for publicity, and my intolerable 'me-me-me' attitudes and actions. But it's done, isn't it? And no one can really change, can they? And, hey, it has been a lot of fun being the life-long irresponsible, snarky, nasty art scamp.
Parks are works of art just as a painting or sculpture is.
If you don't work yourself up into a fever of greed and covetousness in an art museum, you're just not doing the job.
My address book of dealers and private collectors, smugglers and fixers, agents, runners and the peculiar assortment of art hangers-on was longer than anyone else's in the field.
No matter how hard I tried to popularize, I never cheapened a great work of art.
The 'Artful Tommy' will never change - and perhaps shouldn't.
Great art should be shown with great excitement.
