The Magazine Antiques writer Laura Beach fell hard for Crystal Bridges, with high (and beautifully expressed) praise for the collection — calling it “perhaps the finest single collection of American art in the world” and the architecture of Moshe Safdie. She concludes that the “Walton family is animated by a vital mix of national patriotism and local pride” and that Bentonville “is about to assume a cultural consequence, throughout the United States and beyond, that no one — or perhaps only one person — could have imagined as recently as seven years ago.
By the way, if you’re headed to Crystal Bridges for the opening on Nov. 11 (have to have a reserved ticket; all opening day slots reserved), note the resemblance of the Ozarks in fall to “Hall of the Mountain King” by Marsden Hartley. It’s beautiful up here.