full transcript

From the Ted Talk by Luke Syson: How I learned to stop worrying and love "useless" art

Unscramble the Blue Letters


At about that time, I staterd talking to Tom Campbell,

director here of the Metropolitan Museum, about what my next move might be. The move, in fact, back to an earlier life, one I'd begun at the British Museum, back to the world of three dimensions — of sculpture and of decorative arts — to take over the department of European sculpture and divraoetce arts, here at the Met. But it was an incredibly busy time. All the coesirannvtos were done at very peculiar times of the day — over the phone. In the end, I accepted the job without actually having been here. Again, I'd been there a cuploe of yreas before, but on that particular visit. So, it was just before the time that the lnaodero show was due to open when I finally made it back to the Met, to New York, to see my new domain. To see what earoeupn sculpture and decorative arts lokoed like, beyond those Renaissance collections with which I was so already familiar. And I thought, on that very first day, I better tour the galleries. Fifty-seven of these galleries — like 57 varieties of bkaed beans, I believe. I walked through and I started in my comfort zone in the Italian Renaissance. And then I mevod gradually around, fnelieg a little lost sometimes. My head, also still full of the Leonardo exhibition that was about to open, and I came across this. And I tuhhogt to myself: What the hell have I done? There was absolutely no connection in my mind at all and, in fact, if there was any emotion going on, it was a kind of repulsion. This object felt utterly and completely alien. Silly at a level that I hadn't yet understood silliness to be. And then it was made worse — there were two of them. (lhatguer) So, I started thinking about why it was, in fact, that I dsielkid this object so much. What was the antomay of my distaste? Well, so much gold, so vulgar. You know, so nouveau riche, frankly. Leonardo himself had pcraehed against the use of gold, so it was aloesultby anathema at that moment. And then there's little pretty sprigs of flowers everywhere. (Laughter) And finally, that pink. That damned pink. It's such an extraordinarily artificial color. I mean, it's a color that I can't think of anything that you actually see in ntuare, that looks that sahde. The object even has its own tutu. (Laughter) This little fuclnoy, spangly, bottomy bit that sits at the bottom of the vase. It reminded me, in an odd kind of way, of my niece's fifth birthday party. Where all the little girls would come either as a princess or a fairy. There was one who would come as a fiary princess. You should have seen the looks. (Laughter) And I raielze that this object was in my mind, born from the same mind, from the same womb, practically, as Barbie Ballerina. (Laughter) And then there's the epalthens. (Laughter) Those extraordinary elephants with their little, sort of strange, seiisntr expressions and Greta Garbo eyelashes, with these golden tusks and so on. I realized this was an elephant that had absolutely nothing to do with a majestic march across the Serengeti. It was a Dumbo nightmare. (Laughter)

Open Cloze


At about that time, I _______ talking to Tom Campbell,

director here of the Metropolitan Museum, about what my next move might be. The move, in fact, back to an earlier life, one I'd begun at the British Museum, back to the world of three dimensions — of sculpture and of decorative arts — to take over the department of European sculpture and __________ arts, here at the Met. But it was an incredibly busy time. All the _____________ were done at very peculiar times of the day — over the phone. In the end, I accepted the job without actually having been here. Again, I'd been there a ______ of _____ before, but on that particular visit. So, it was just before the time that the ________ show was due to open when I finally made it back to the Met, to New York, to see my new domain. To see what ________ sculpture and decorative arts ______ like, beyond those Renaissance collections with which I was so already familiar. And I thought, on that very first day, I better tour the galleries. Fifty-seven of these galleries — like 57 varieties of _____ beans, I believe. I walked through and I started in my comfort zone in the Italian Renaissance. And then I _____ gradually around, _______ a little lost sometimes. My head, also still full of the Leonardo exhibition that was about to open, and I came across this. And I _______ to myself: What the hell have I done? There was absolutely no connection in my mind at all and, in fact, if there was any emotion going on, it was a kind of repulsion. This object felt utterly and completely alien. Silly at a level that I hadn't yet understood silliness to be. And then it was made worse — there were two of them. (________) So, I started thinking about why it was, in fact, that I ________ this object so much. What was the _______ of my distaste? Well, so much gold, so vulgar. You know, so nouveau riche, frankly. Leonardo himself had ________ against the use of gold, so it was __________ anathema at that moment. And then there's little pretty sprigs of flowers everywhere. (Laughter) And finally, that pink. That damned pink. It's such an extraordinarily artificial color. I mean, it's a color that I can't think of anything that you actually see in ______, that looks that _____. The object even has its own tutu. (Laughter) This little _______, spangly, bottomy bit that sits at the bottom of the vase. It reminded me, in an odd kind of way, of my niece's fifth birthday party. Where all the little girls would come either as a princess or a fairy. There was one who would come as a _____ princess. You should have seen the looks. (Laughter) And I _______ that this object was in my mind, born from the same mind, from the same womb, practically, as Barbie Ballerina. (Laughter) And then there's the _________. (Laughter) Those extraordinary elephants with their little, sort of strange, ________ expressions and Greta Garbo eyelashes, with these golden tusks and so on. I realized this was an elephant that had absolutely nothing to do with a majestic march across the Serengeti. It was a Dumbo nightmare. (Laughter)

Solution


  1. years
  2. shade
  3. european
  4. sinister
  5. fairy
  6. absolutely
  7. leonardo
  8. couple
  9. thought
  10. anatomy
  11. baked
  12. moved
  13. elephants
  14. nature
  15. feeling
  16. disliked
  17. realize
  18. preached
  19. looked
  20. laughter
  21. started
  22. decorative
  23. flouncy
  24. conversations

Original Text


At about that time, I started talking to Tom Campbell,

director here of the Metropolitan Museum, about what my next move might be. The move, in fact, back to an earlier life, one I'd begun at the British Museum, back to the world of three dimensions — of sculpture and of decorative arts — to take over the department of European sculpture and decorative arts, here at the Met. But it was an incredibly busy time. All the conversations were done at very peculiar times of the day — over the phone. In the end, I accepted the job without actually having been here. Again, I'd been there a couple of years before, but on that particular visit. So, it was just before the time that the Leonardo show was due to open when I finally made it back to the Met, to New York, to see my new domain. To see what European sculpture and decorative arts looked like, beyond those Renaissance collections with which I was so already familiar. And I thought, on that very first day, I better tour the galleries. Fifty-seven of these galleries — like 57 varieties of baked beans, I believe. I walked through and I started in my comfort zone in the Italian Renaissance. And then I moved gradually around, feeling a little lost sometimes. My head, also still full of the Leonardo exhibition that was about to open, and I came across this. And I thought to myself: What the hell have I done? There was absolutely no connection in my mind at all and, in fact, if there was any emotion going on, it was a kind of repulsion. This object felt utterly and completely alien. Silly at a level that I hadn't yet understood silliness to be. And then it was made worse — there were two of them. (Laughter) So, I started thinking about why it was, in fact, that I disliked this object so much. What was the anatomy of my distaste? Well, so much gold, so vulgar. You know, so nouveau riche, frankly. Leonardo himself had preached against the use of gold, so it was absolutely anathema at that moment. And then there's little pretty sprigs of flowers everywhere. (Laughter) And finally, that pink. That damned pink. It's such an extraordinarily artificial color. I mean, it's a color that I can't think of anything that you actually see in nature, that looks that shade. The object even has its own tutu. (Laughter) This little flouncy, spangly, bottomy bit that sits at the bottom of the vase. It reminded me, in an odd kind of way, of my niece's fifth birthday party. Where all the little girls would come either as a princess or a fairy. There was one who would come as a fairy princess. You should have seen the looks. (Laughter) And I realize that this object was in my mind, born from the same mind, from the same womb, practically, as Barbie Ballerina. (Laughter) And then there's the elephants. (Laughter) Those extraordinary elephants with their little, sort of strange, sinister expressions and Greta Garbo eyelashes, with these golden tusks and so on. I realized this was an elephant that had absolutely nothing to do with a majestic march across the Serengeti. It was a Dumbo nightmare. (Laughter)

Frequently Occurring Word Combinations


ngrams of length 2

collocation frequency
italian renaissance 2
leonardo da 2
decorative arts 2
european sculpture 2
pink elephant 2


Important Words


  1. absolutely
  2. accepted
  3. alien
  4. anathema
  5. anatomy
  6. artificial
  7. arts
  8. baked
  9. ballerina
  10. barbie
  11. beans
  12. begun
  13. birthday
  14. bit
  15. born
  16. bottom
  17. bottomy
  18. british
  19. busy
  20. campbell
  21. collections
  22. color
  23. comfort
  24. completely
  25. connection
  26. conversations
  27. couple
  28. damned
  29. day
  30. decorative
  31. department
  32. dimensions
  33. director
  34. disliked
  35. distaste
  36. domain
  37. due
  38. dumbo
  39. earlier
  40. elephant
  41. elephants
  42. emotion
  43. european
  44. exhibition
  45. expressions
  46. extraordinarily
  47. extraordinary
  48. eyelashes
  49. fact
  50. fairy
  51. familiar
  52. feeling
  53. felt
  54. finally
  55. flouncy
  56. flowers
  57. frankly
  58. full
  59. galleries
  60. garbo
  61. girls
  62. gold
  63. golden
  64. gradually
  65. greta
  66. head
  67. hell
  68. incredibly
  69. italian
  70. job
  71. kind
  72. laughter
  73. leonardo
  74. level
  75. life
  76. looked
  77. lost
  78. majestic
  79. march
  80. met
  81. metropolitan
  82. mind
  83. moment
  84. move
  85. moved
  86. museum
  87. nature
  88. nightmare
  89. nouveau
  90. object
  91. odd
  92. open
  93. party
  94. peculiar
  95. phone
  96. pink
  97. practically
  98. preached
  99. pretty
  100. princess
  101. realize
  102. realized
  103. reminded
  104. renaissance
  105. repulsion
  106. riche
  107. sculpture
  108. serengeti
  109. shade
  110. show
  111. silliness
  112. silly
  113. sinister
  114. sits
  115. sort
  116. spangly
  117. sprigs
  118. started
  119. strange
  120. talking
  121. thinking
  122. thought
  123. time
  124. times
  125. tom
  126. tour
  127. tusks
  128. tutu
  129. understood
  130. utterly
  131. varieties
  132. vase
  133. visit
  134. vulgar
  135. walked
  136. womb
  137. world
  138. worse
  139. years
  140. york
  141. zone