James Mcneill Whistler

James McNeill Whistler's legendary "Harmony in Blue and Gold: The Peacock Room" (1876-77) is a strange anomaly in the body of the artist's work--indeed, perhaps in all of Western art since the Renaissance. Has anyone ever before conceived of an entire room, from floor to ceiling, walls to window shutters, as a kind of environmental picture-frame, designed to hold a single painting? Whistler did. Unsatisfied with the dining room scheme prepared by decorator Thomas Jeckyll for Frederick R.

THE director of the most famous museum in the world still hasn't read the famous novel du jour. Henri Loyrette has little interest in "The Da Vinci Code" even though some of the record 7.5 million visitors to the Louvre Museum last year came in no small part because of its role in the book. This week's opening of the movie based on Dan Brown's thriller should only increase the fervor to loiter in the Grand Gallery, where fictional curator Jacques Sauniere takes a bullet.

It was the best of times. It was the worst of times. That's what comes to mind when writing about R.B. Kitaj. The celebrated 61-year-old American artist, who has lived mostly in London since 1957, is being honored for his life's work in a retrospective organized by the Tate Gallery. After unusually high attendance--more than 40,000 visitors--during its summer debut in London, it comes to the L.A. County Museum of Art today as part of the wide-ranging UK/LA celebration.