The Museum Vaults: Excerpts from the Journal of an Expert [Paperback]

Marc-Antoine Mathieu (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 2008

The next volume in the striking collection in co-publication with the Louvre museum. An art assessor must evaluate the vast collections of the Louvre in an alternate Kafkaesque world where all is warehoused in an endless ever deepening succession of basement levels. Mathieu, an artist who marries Escher with Kafka, brings stinging irony to the pompousness of art history. After Glacial Period, another stunning volume. Fully the equal of the first book in the series, the extremely talented Nicolas De Crecy`s Glacial Period.

ONE OF 30 BEST ADULTS BOOKS FOR HIGH SCHOOL STUDENTS

`this story has visual puns as well as real insight on art-preservation efforts, resulting in an inspiring and inspired tale.` -School Library Journal

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

The second of a four-volume series copublished by NBM and the Louvre invites artists to create a story involving the museum. Mathieu's follows an expert hired to catalogue a vast, half-ruined museum; he encounters inhabitants living in the lower reaches who have no understanding of the location or its contents. A Kafkaesque catalogue of paradoxes ensues: paintings kept in the dark so the light will not damage the colors that no one will ever see; statues restored then broken then defaced to keep their states "authentic"; a frame maker who considers his contribution the true definition of painting. As years go by, the expert becomes old and unkempt as further and further levels of absurdist cataloguing are discovered. Eventually, he discovers the deepest layers and the secret behind the Mona Lisa, even as he passes his journal on to another "expert" for a continuation of these meaningless attempts to quantify art without perceiving its beauty. The story is rendered in grim, gray tones, which make the endless rounds of the museum workers look all the more fruitless. Like the expert, readers will be glad for the rays of real light and art at the end of this dark satire. (Feb.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From School Library Journal

Grade 10 Up–Mathieu, working in a Victorian array of sepias, creates a tale that takes readers into all those areas of a grand museum that are generally off-limits to visitors: the mechanical rooms, of course, but also the storage areas for statue molds, framing workshops, copyists' studios, guard-training facilities, and so on. But he has also provided a delightful and clever plot: readers are accompanying an expert who is investigating the subterranean levels of a building whose name has been forgotten. (It is called by various anagrams for Louvre.) Its depths are mythic–there is even a ferrywoman to help cross a flooded floor–and the time is, well, all the years that remain in the expert's life. Teens interested in art history will delight in the visual puns as well as the real insight the story offers on art-preservation efforts. Endnotes include references to works cited (usually visually) within the story and a brief history of the Louvre's passage from medieval castle to prestigious museum.–Francisca Goldsmith, Halifax Public Libraries, Nova Scotia
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 60 pages
• Publisher: ComicsLit (January 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1561635146
• ISBN-13: 978-1561635146
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 8.9 x 0.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 7.2 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,588,928 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5.0 out of 5 stars Entering the Vaults - Highly recommended!, March 27, 2011

By 

John Evans (Huntington, NY United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Museum Vaults: Excerpts from the Journal of an Expert (Paperback)

This is a story of an "expert" who explores the vaults of a famous museum. Perhaps it's an alternate history, or perhaps a dark future that the expert explores, cataloguing both the bizarre and the familiar. The story is told in a series of vignettes as the expert meets artisans devoting their lives to their individual pursuits. Each mini-story is flush with mesmerizing images and one or two startling ideas. The concept of a "museum" is stretched to its utmost, until...well, in the end you're going to have to decide on your own individual interpretation (fans of Jorge Luis Borges will find themselves right at home). The pace is slow, but steady; the artwork is clean and just a bit cartoony, though at times it delivers mind-bending detail. In summary, I love this book and I look forward to many rereadings. Highly recommended!

5.0 out of 5 stars Bought all the books of Mark, March 18, 2011

By 

Elar Alexander (Brittany, France) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: The Museum Vaults: Excerpts from the Journal of an Expert (Paperback)

this was teh first book i bought of Mark and after that, i just have to have all of them.

My only caveat is a lot of them is not yet in English so i have to get a foreighn version which i still don't understand but "read" it visually.

Mark I am your biggest fan............