Victoria and Albert Rant

I blogged the other day about the wonderful Velasquez exhibit and the more I thought about it the more I realised that I hate the V&A.

Two weeks ago I went to see the Leonardo Da Vinci exhibit at the V&A. There are so many problems with the layout of the exhibit that I hardly know where to begin! How can a museum presenting objects that were so beautifully crafted and designed get the design of an exhibit so wrong?

The works were presented at belly level. Everyone had to crowd in to see the drawing. Only two – max three – people could look at any drawing at a time.

The words were crowded together so we had to queue for ages to see each image.

There were images and quotes projected on the wall above the display cases. The quotes faded out from bottom to top. Twice I was half way through reading a quote when it faded out. The top half, which I’d already read was still visible, whilst the second half of the quote had faded out.

There were too many people. The exhibit was crowded into one small room – why not spread it out over two rooms and make a bit more room for people. It can’t come as a surprise that lots of people were interested in Da Vinci sketches.

London is always crowded, but with the low hung images, the lack of room between each item and the mass of people – this was really over the top.

On a separate but related note – I made a complete ass of myself… I told a friend of mine that I was going to see the Da Vinci Code Exhibit at the V&A.