Published on Feb, 2025
You will either love it or hate it - a statement of the obvious. On the four or so times we have visited, we loved it. It would be no small undertaking to build a museum and then to populate it with artwork. Critics might reflect on that. The fact that this largely one man's vision and that he has built it and funded it himself, is extraordinary. I imagine the great artists of our time visiting and loving it. MONA is a challenge to navigate, to engage, to make sense of. But all great galleries are likewise.
We think MONA is David Walsh's great gift to the people of Hobart. To Tasmania. And to Australia.
We will let you discover the artworks, it's up to you. That's the whole point.
My only negative comment is that is some spaces, like that enclosing Sir Sidney Nolen's "Snake", commercial initiatives have impacted on the viewing of the artwork (arrays of musical instruments were being set up on the day we visited).