Ian Dunlop

"The Shock of the New"

"The author of the first Shock of the New is Ian Dunlop, an English writer who was once the art critic for The Evening Standard in London and is now on the staff of Sotheby's, the auction house in New York."

"In The Shock of the New Ian Dunlop quotes first-hand accounts of the irresistible laughter provoked by the exhibits. Word would get around that in this or that there was a funny picture, and, as Zola reported in his novel L'CEuvre, "people came stampeding from every other room in the exhibition and gangs of sightseers, afraid of missing something, came pushing their way in, shouting 'Where? — "Over there!" "Oh, I say! Did you ever?""