Jean Clair on museums, iconology, and the future of art

Jean Clair, the French critic and former director of the Musée Picasso and Centre Pompidou, was interviewed in Venice during the summer of 2017. He curated the first Italian institutional exhibition of painter Roger de Montebello at the Museo Correr. Clair criticized contemporary art institutions, arguing that modern museums have become 'emporiums of lost objects' and that the teaching of iconology is neglected. He praised David Hockney's mastery, comparing him to Rubens, and expressed skepticism about the future of museums. Clair discussed the concepts of hybris and the monstrous in art, linking them to Romanticism, Goya, and contemporary artists like Damien Hirst. He also reflected on the destruction of cultural heritage, citing Palmyra, and the rise of religious conflicts. Clair did not visit the 2017 Venice Biennale curated by Christine Macel nor Documenta, though he previously co-curated Documenta with Harald Szeemann.