The small museum

Its modesty permits an intimacy of acquaintance that a big-shot museum makes far more difficult. And whatever the works on display might be, they cannot be seen anywhere else. That J. Francis Murphy painting? Those T.C. Steele paintings? They’re here, and here only. The big-shot cannot help.

That paragraph is prompted by a visit Elaine and I made to Terre Haute’s Swope Art Museum. The highlight for us: Gil Wilson: The Art of Letters, an exhibition devoted to the correspondence of Gilbert Brown Wilson, Terre Haute-born artist and writer. One small room, with minimal explanation on museum cards. But reading the letters, to and from, made it possible to put together a story of a life.