European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - February 10, 1994, Darmstadt, Hesse                                A France a continued from Page 3. Display space albeit in new and somewhat cramped basement rooms. The louvre is now organized from end to end according to a plan that is characteristically French in its logic sculpture on the ground floor decorative arts on the floor above and paintings on the top floor. Just As Northern painting predominates in the new Northern Wing and Southern painting meaning italian is in the Southern Wing called Deno North and South Are United by a Middle Wing Sully that houses a what else a French painting. I leave it to others to decide whether political meaning should be gleaned from this arrangement at a time when european statesmen Are grappling with unification but some of their own Peoples Are noisily dividing along. Nationalist lines. In the museum world such an arrangement according to National schools is unremarkable traditional and probably the Only practical Way to display a collection As Large As the louvre s in a building As singular As this former Palace. Richelieu s galleries seem to have benefited from past failures. Pei was the guru for the Overall scheme of the More than $1 billion grand louvre project nearly half of which was spent on the new Wing. But the Sully galleries for French paintings which were renovated Over the last few years were designed by other architects and they have turned out to be a Hodgepodge that at its worst has All the Charm of an Airport lounge. The museum is already changing some of these rooms. The new Richelieu galleries on the other hand Are largely handsome clean modernist spaces that should work Well for a Long time. Reportedly against the wishes of Pei who wanted White or beige rooms the galleries for paintings Are done in Strong but mostly reasonable colors chosen by the curators. Not All of Richelieu is successful. The most monumental spaces Are the least persuasive. The Centrepiece of the paintings galleries is a room for a Cycle of canvases Rubens painted for Marie de Medici. The works had been in a room too Small to display them All the new vaulted gallery has an amplitude appropriate to the scale of the Cycle. But Pei has designed a fussy dour Green framework in which to set the paintings a modernist interpretation of their original setting in the Luxembourg Palace. An equally distracting sky lighting system makes the whole room feel As if it s trying too hard. The architectural egotism of this gallery May make it look dated before the rest of the Wing does. The big courtyards covered by skylights also left me cold. The one for Gigantic assyrian sculpture in t big enough. The others Are Clever As places in which to display a variety of Large outdoor French sculptures but they have a Stony corporate grandiosity reminiscent of Pei s design for the East building of the National gallery in Washington. The Paradox of Pei s legacy at the louvre is that the arresting Pyramid vilified before the fact As Radical is the Centrepiece of an essentially conformist scheme a scheme to rationalize organize and corporative a museum that was idiosyncratic and full of character a to link it physically and symbolically to an underground shopping mall with its own upended Pyramid and make the louvre altogether seem More like a modern american museum. Judging from the big rises in attendance from 2.8 million visitors in 1988 to 4.9 million in 1992 and membership 18,000 to 40,000not to say the gawking crowds that throng around it every Day without Ever entering the galleries the Pyramid has weathered the Early storms of protest and come to be loved. But it has also made the museum even More intimidating. And i Don t mean that the new louvre is More intimidating simply because it has one room of the new Wing above is devoted entirely to a Cycle of paintings by Rubens. What once was an open courtyard right has been covered and a now houses French sculptures. Not a Sas put so Many More works on View. A visitor entering the museum now rust spend a considerable amount of time and Energy in the huge Pyramid Complex before encountering a single work of Art. You used to go into the louvre through entrances that put you almost immediately face to face with Art and that had about them a haphazard and informal spirit. Practically speaking it was a ridiculous system. You d go in at one end of the museum and might walk for half a mile before getting to the galleries you had come to see. The Pyramid Entrance especially now with the expansion into the Richelieu and Sully wings is a logical and perhaps inevitable response to the architectural problems posed by the Palace organizing the layout and shortening the travelling time Between various parts of the building. It works. But there s something formal officious and even a amps Kathy Platt misleading about funnelling through an Entrance that does t clearly invite you into the realm of Art. And while the Pyramid makes the museum More suited to masses of people it also has the effect of making it seem All the More like a giant edifice of state. For the last two centuries the louvre has assiduously cultivated its status As the ultimate Center of culture the secular Temple of Paris. No wonder of mile Zola in his novel l As Sommour has m. Marinier the cardboard entrepreneur Parade his supposed sophistication to the members of a working class wedding party by guiding pm on a tour of the museum. Visiting the louvre remains the signal rite of passage for tourists with artistic pretensions. I Jarl  Only reinforces this status. The Art is Uci y displayed in distinguished new galleries. The project is a Success. But not without costs. Stripes Magazine february 10, 1994