The Museum Show, parts 1466 - 1469

1466. She filled out the paper work application, paid the fee and went home.  After that she looked everyday in the mail for the reply to come, the reply would be a little pink post card she had filled out at the time she submitted her painting. On the postcard were little boxes to indicate acceptance or rejection. Years later she would discover that the prizewinners would receive a signed letter from the judges, but everyone else got the postcard.

 1467. A week later she received her postcard; her picture was accepted. You can be quite sure that the next question that flashed into her mind, a question every artist in a big group show is obsessed with, where will they hang my picture. 

1468. Even though I was telling my story of Mrs. Festini's first experience submitting a painting to a show, and even though I was being quite complete in remembering all the details of Agnes' story, still Buboni was so interested that he felt he had to interrupt me and expound on this exact point. Where in a show are works hung, and what does it signify to the artist?

1469. "Picture," he began, "that you are entering an exhibit hall to see a big group show in which you are one of the exhibitors. You have no idea how the people in charge of the exhibit have handled the painting you submitted. You enter a large room and in the distance on the far wall you see your painting all by itself, nothing to the left or right, nothing above or below it.  This is what every artist, especially those consumed by vanity, wish to see."