Mattatuck Museum

Sunday, May 6th, I went over to Waterbury to visit the Mattatuck Museum. It was quite interesting! My first experience was that the woman who helped me was sort of unfriendly. When I asked about the photography policy, she interrogated me at length about why I had to have pictures, the nature of the class and the assignment, where the pictures would be published, what school I went to, who the professor was, etc. Then, she could not find the photo release forms (she said "well, there is a form you have to fill out and sign," as if that would deter me from taking photos! I told her, "fine, this isn't the only museum with that requirement - where is the form? I'll sign."), so she made me follow her to the curator's office, where she still could not locate the forms. Finally, she made me put all my information on a research permission form and basically swear on my life that I would not take a picture of the large Calder statue in the courtyard - or publish it. (Strangely, the side gate to the courtyard was open - I bet people were stepping in and snapping illegal Calder photos all day!) So once she was sure that I understood the importance of not photographing the big, red, three-legged cat (or whatever it was) in the courtyard, she released me to roam the museum on my own. I thought the museum was small, a little strange, and the lighting was very poor. I had to take the stairs up and down because the janitor comandeered the elevator to move chairs while setting up an event on the third floor. I did find a few treasures though. When I arrived, they were giving a lecture (though I did not get a chance to listen) on Kay Sage. She was an artist and more importantly, the wife of Yves Tanguy. They were discussing her collection, which the museum is exhibiting. She is a Surrealist and lived in France with her husband. They had interesting pieces on display, from childrens' artwork to sculptures and letters. If you get a chance, it is well worth the $4 admission price (if the people working remember to ask you for it - I had to ask them if they wanted me to pay them!). I did see some more Calder inside, including a sculpture (I think there was a similar Calder sculpture at the Met?). The museum also houses a very large collection of buttons, many made by the brass mills in the city. The older man working at the museum (he was nice and struck up a conversation with me) told me that during the Civil War, the people who made the buttons sold buttons to both the North and the South. Very interesting! Well, here is my final blog entry for this class (and my final assignment for my Bachelor's degree!) Enjoy the photos:

Here is the Calder "corner"

This one is neat - the artist is Rebecca Miller, playwright Arthur Miller's only child:

A child's bat, ball, and sled...

Thank you for stopping by!

Beth

Yale University Art Gallery

April 20th, I went back down to New Haven to see the art on exhibit at the Yale University Art Gallery. I realize I didn't take pictures of the entrance, but I did get a couple of pictures of the outside of the building the day before when I was visiting the Yale Center for British Art.

The Art Gallery is a beautiful building. It was the first major commission by Louis Kahn, who also built the Center for British Art across the street. The University Art Gallery, finished in 1953, has recently undergone a three-year, $44 million renovation. Yale's collection for the Gallery rotates with over 185,000 pieces of art. WebsiteAccessed



Here is the interior stairwell - a beautiful accomplishment of architecture by Kahn. I had an easier time photographing "up" than "down," as looking over the railing gave me vertigo. I thought I was going to drop my camera.


This is the piece that I chose to discuss:

Anselm Kiefer "Die Ungeborenen"
2001
Oil, acrylic, and plaster on lead and canvas

You should click on each photo to view in more detail. The first is a photo of the whole painting, but the consecutive photos show detailed close-ups of parts of the painting/sculpture.



From the audio tour:
"Anselm Kiefer was born in Germany in 1945. He combines powerful abstraction, complex narrative, and epic scale, to present Germany's difficult 20th century history. On a sheet of heavy, gray lead, Kiefer has dripped acid, paint, and plaster to achieve a lavishly textured surface.

The vast, dotted ground represents the cosmos, and alludes to the Old Testament passage in which God promises Abraham that his descendants will be as numerous as the stars, but look closely and you'll also see numbered stars. The numbers recall tattoos given to Jews entering the concentration camps in World War II. The painting's title, "Die Ungeborenen," or "The Unborn," partly refers to the children never born to the victims of the holocaust. Its imagery suggests both hope and loss. In the center of the image, a fragile branching tree represents the tree of life. The tiny garments attached to the surface are Kiefer's symbol of Lillith, a figure from Jewish folklore, and her many children. As a self-reliant woman, Lillith was traditionally perceived as an outcast, but Kiefer sees her as a positive force for change and growth. She works to help fulfill God's promise to Abraham and to all of humanity through both her independence and fertility.

Among museum conservators, Kiefers paintings are famed for their fragility."

If you listen further, there is a commentary by Jennifer Gross (of The Yale University Art Gallery) explaining that in choosing to acquire the piece, they had to consider its fragility and whether they would be able to preserve it properly. She explained how it is easy to damage the surface, especially those that are three-dimensional when being moved and stored. She goes on to explain that they were certain they could preserve it in the necessary manner.

She also mentions that the "acid" splashed on the surface (you can tell that one of the dresses is stained with it) is actually Kiefer's urine. (That alone might cause me to reconsider acquiring it, if it wasn't so moving and beautiful!)

I actually passed by this piece to begin with. It's kind of on a back wall when you are walking through - between two corridors - and there was a discussion going on adjacent to this piece, so I just walked past it and went down the hall. I'm glad I spotted it on my way back though! When I first saw it from a distance, I didn't think it looked like anything special. It looked like a big, gray mess. It looked drab and uninteresting and because of the small crowd around it, I almost did pass it by again. I realized that there must be something special about it to have a crowd gathered - so when they left, I stepped closer.

Before reading the plaque or listening to the audio information about the painting, I thought it was some sort of cosmic thing (good thinking, kind of) and the white part was a silver cord (it looked like it was coming up from somewhere. After reading/listening, I was profoundly moved. It was absolutely heartbreaking.

At first, I just read the plaque, which had only the title and gave no additional information (always go for the audio tour -imagine what I would have missed!! And, it was free!), I contemplated the title and thought that maybe it had something to do with abortion or maybe infertility. I recalled my own recent pregnancy and my life-long desire to have a child. I cannot imagine how sad, desperate, and unfulfilled I personally would feel with no child. I don't know about other women, but I often think about the very moment my child was created and all the other moments that have been missed (when the possibility of the creation of a child existed, but did not happen). I imagine whom those children would have been, what they might have looked like, and how I would have loved them. They say you won't know what you're missing if you never meet them, but this painting proves that untrue. The possibility of a child leaves a gaping hole in the soul of every prospective parent, the same way people think of others who have died childless and imagine what their children might have been like.

So, after thinking that and then listening to the audio portion, I really felt profoundly sad and moved. I imagined everything I have ever seen, heard, or read about the holocaust in one thought. Images of Schindler's List and The Pianist flashed through my mind. I thought of a childless Anne Frank (and her own enduring "tree of life," which sadly, is being cut down because it is rotten). I imagined old women who would never see their grandchildren grow up and young children who would never even know where babies come from, let alone hold their own. I thought of fathers and mothers watching their own children die, babies dying in their mothers arms, and teenage girls who were just at the cusp of womanhood, marriage, and motherhood dying and the possibility for so many others slipping away. With every person, a baby or two or three or even more is gone. For many who were able to escape early, the possibility of all those children lost is deafening. For the pregnant mothers who died, the cruelest hand was dealt.

(Okay, I am feeling quite melancholy after writing this...and John Lennon's "Imagine" is floating through my head...hmmm.)

Of the painting itself, I must say that it is not boring at all. It is tedious if anything. Kiefer did an excellent job fashioning the tiny clothing and assigning numbers. He was very patient in his creation of the cosmos. He was explicit in delivering both the "what's there" and the "what's not there?" I even think that if you look at the center of the tree of life, you can see formations that have a skeletal resemblance. Kiefer has done an incredible job of using an interesting combination of mediums to create an emotional (and partly political?) work of art.

Deep breath.

Now for something lighter...the rest of the museum:

Antoine Francoise-Gerard

"The Hoop"

1785-1800

Wax

Incredible! I have never seen anything like this before! This alone was worth the trip! Such a small piece in such a big museum. It is just stunning.

Unknown Artist

"The Lamentation"

1496

Wood

Another masterpiece. I can't imagine how long this took to carve, but it's exquisite (and huge!).

The Magdalene Master

"Virgin and Child Enthroned with Saints Peter and Leonard"

1280

Tempera and Gold on Panel

The audio for this one was very interesting as well. This was my alternate (one of two alternates...). You should hear this audio, but it explains that it is worn away because of people touching it for years because of the symbolisms it depicts. For instance, if you look closely, the middle left panel, people have scratched out the devil's eyes. In the center, the whole bottom is missing because of people kissing the Saints' feet!

Haarlem School

"Virgin and Child with Saint Anne"

1495-1500

Oil on panel

(I saw this one and thought...okay, some of my art could DEFINITELY be in a museum!!)

Remember Alberto Giacometti from the Wadsworth Atheneum? Yale has one of his bronze figures as well. This one is titled "Femme debout" (Standing Woman) and is from 1956.

No museum would be complete without a few colorful Andy Warhols:

Robert Rauschenberg

"Interior 2"

1958

Oil, pencil, paper, fabric, printed reproduction, and metal on canvas

This was my second alternate. I originally took 9 photos that show more detail, but these two are my favorites. I love this. I like it and would absolutely hang this in my home! I like it because of the variety of medims Rauschenberg used. The paper on the top left actually has what appears to be math problems on it! The squares look like they might be tin or copper ceiling. The extreme top right has a metal plate with the number "56" stamped in it and below it are green and yellow paint squiggles that dried mid-drip. The color scheme and textures appealed to me and the whole piece is just very interesting.

Auguste Rodin

"The Thinker"

1906

Bronze

If you asked me where this statue was, I would probably guess Paris. I also thought it was much older - maybe the mid 1400s? What do I know?!! It's in New Haven - wow!

Edward Hopper

"Rooms by the Sea"

1951

Oil on canvas

"Sunlight in a Cafeteria"

1958

Oil on canvas

Okay, Edward Hopper is my all-time favorite. I have a signed, framed lithograph of "Rooms by the Sea" hanging over my bed. I actually won it in a national display contest in 1991 or 1992 when Bruce Hornsby's "Harbor Lights" cd (which has the painting on the cover) came out. I used the painting as my inspiration for the display and won first in the country and the above-mentioned lithograph! I love it - it's one of my most prized possessions! Furthermore, I also have a book of poetry by a variety of writers that features the painting on the cover.

Albert Bierstadt

"Yosemite Valley, Glacier Point Trail"

1873

Oil on canvas

Remember him from my trip to The Met? I knew at first glance, before reading the plaque that it was Bierstadt (well, I couldn't exactly remember his name, but I remembered his painting at the Met and knew it was the same artist!). It's nice to recognize an artist's work by the work alone!

These were pretty neat. The first two are "friendship books/memory albums." I have to transcribe the plaque!:

In an era before photography, friendship tokens, books, and albums served as repositories for memories and were treated as previous family treasures. They were especially popular among women, who often made them to commemorate friendships they forged in school and in the years before marriage. Friends and relatives signed pages in each others' albums, often adding drawings, poetry, and hairwork. Because hair does not disintigrate, it was a popular choice in albums designed to serve as everlasting reminders of friends and family."

A child's high-chair and table:

Well, that's about it. I hope you have enjoyed my final paper! I will be back soon with one more entry of photos and brief comments of my last museum trip for the class - please join me!

Beth

Yale Center for British Art

I visited the Yale Center for British Art Friday, April 18th, 2007. I actually couldn't see it until I was standing in front of it. I knew it was supposed to be there, but from the outside, it looked less like a museum and more like an office building! The people were lovely, as was the museum. I was really surprised that the architecture outside betrays the architectural gem that exists within. The staircase, the cement columns, the open galleries, the natural light, were all beautiful and really works-of-art in their own right. The architect, Kahn, was the foremost architect of the time. You MUST read this biography on Kahn (he died in a strange place...) http://www.designmuseum.org/design/louis-kahn.

Paul Mellon is the philanthropist who granted his massive collection of British art to the museum, which he had built, to Yale University. His works of art include sculpture, paintings, books, maps, etc.

The unimposing facade of the museum:



A few photos of the incredible architecture of the building. Do remember to double click to see a close-up of the detail.

Some of the beautiful art:

George Stubbs "Zebra"

Oil on canvas

1763

Walter Sickert "The Camden Town Murder"

Oil on Canvas

1908

I thought this was sad. The murdered woman is a prostitute, named Emily Dimmock. But who is the man? A lover? The landlord? The murderer? Her friend? Who knows...

Double click to read the plaque...

LOOK! It's Lawrence of Arabia!

Robert Polhill Bevan "The Caller at the Mill"

Oil on canvas

1918-1919

This painting depicted a scene during the time of the Spanish Influenza. This is the piece that I would have chosen to write about this week...

Atkinson Grimshaw "Evening Glow"

Oil on canvas

1884

Look closely at the trees. I swear they look like a photo!

Sir Lawrence Alma-Tadema "Entrance to a Roman Theater"

Oil on canvas

1866

This was also very stunning. The details were exquisite, the colors vivid, and the scene interesting. Even the frame was unique, with it's hand-carved comedy/tragedy theatrical masques.

George Romney "Ann Wilson with her Daughter, Sybil"

Oil on canvas

1776-1777

This one also made me feel very sad. Ann lost her daughter Sybil when the girl was six. Her head is "bowed in grief" with "her daughter like a memory or apparition at her side."

As a mother, I can connect with her tremendous love for her child. How tragic, her loss.

Sir Thomas Lawrence "Lord Granville Leveson-Gower, Later 1st Earl Granville"

Oil on canvas

1804-1806

Robert Burnard "John Gubbins Newton, and His Sister, Mary Newton"

Oil on canvas

1833

John Martin "Belshazzar's Feast"

Oil on canvas

1820

After the feast, Daniel interprets the super-natural writing on the wall to prophecy the fall of Babylon...

I like the portraits above all else, especially ones with children, but the museum had few.

Edward Alcock "Portia and Shylock from Shakespeare's The Merchant of Venice"

Oil on canvas

1778

I hope you enjoyed my photos. Let me know if you have questions about any of the photos. I generally photograph most of the plaques as well, so I'd be glad to answer questions if I can.

Beth

Dada Movement/Jean Tinguely

Dada (or Dadaism) was a cultural movement in the arts (visual art, literature, theater, etc.) that began during World War I. It began in Zurich, Switzerland, which was a neutral country, and was most active between 1916 and 1920. Dadaism was a rejection of the standards in art at the time. They used their art for politics by creating "anti-war" art. According to Wikipedia, Dada was (I really can't explain it as well as it is explained here):

• 
  "...a protest against the barbarism of World War I,
• the bourgeois interests that Dada adherents believed inspired the war, and
• what they believed was an oppressive intellectual rigidity in both art and everyday society.

Dada was an international movement, and it is difficult to classify artists as being from any one particular country, as they were constantly moving from one place to another.
Dada thought that reason and logic had led people into the horrors of war, so the only route to salvation was to reject logic and embrace anarchy and irrationality. However, this could also be thought of as the logical side of anarchy and rejection of values and order; it is not irrational to embrace the systematic destruction of values, if one thinks them to be flawed.

According to its proponents, Dada was not art — it was "anti-art". It was anti-art in the sense that Dadaists protested against the contemporary academic and cultured values of art. For everything that art stood for, Dada was to represent the opposite. Where art was concerned with aesthetics, Dada ignored aesthetics. If art were to have at least an implicit or latent message, Dada strove to have no meaning — interpretation of Dada is dependent entirely on the viewer. If art is to appeal to sensibilities, Dada is to offend.

Ironically, Dada became an influential movement in modern art, a commentary on order and the carnage Dadaists believed it wreaked. Through their rejection of traditional culture and aesthetics they hoped to destroy traditional culture and aesthetics."

Jean Tinguely was a Swiss artist involved in the Dada movement. His philosophy was that, "though machines made of scrap metal have no purpose they can have a meaning." (http://www.swissworld.org/eng/swissworld.html?siteSect=605&sid=4046359&rubricId=14050)

It is also important to note that Dada was an influence in the emergence of Surrealism (Salvador Dali, Max Ernst, Alberto Giacometti) and Pop Art (Andy Warhol (see photos in blog), Jasper Johns (see photos in blog), Robert Rauschenberg, and Takashi Murakami - I know I saw something by each in my museum visits!).

Metropolitan Museum of Art

METROPOLITAN MUSEUM OF ART

NEW YORK, NEW YORK

APRIL 13, 2007

So I went to NYC on Friday, the 13th! It was a good day, but a long day. My feet were killing me! I left the house at about 6:30 am and did not return until 8:15 pm. My niece and I navigated the subway well.

Our route? Grand Central to 86th street on the subway, walked to the Met, walked to 77th to take the subway back to Grand Central. (We then took a side trip and took the express shuttle (S train) to Times Square, ate lunch at the Hard Rock Cafe, visited Madam Tussaud's Wax Museum, then took the shuttle back to Grand Central in time for rush hour!)

The Metro North was so packed on the way back, we had to stand from Grand Central to South Norwalk! My feet were burning and my legs felt like Jell-o! I had a fantastic day though!

Here we go - a ride on the illustrious Metro North. Two hours to NYC!



Grand Central Station, New York City





Subway to 86th Street...


Here it is!!! The Metropolitan Museum of Art (it's MASSIVE, about 8 or so city blocks and is bordered in back by Central Park). There were school children everywhere. I remembered how boring I thought museums were when I was that age, but how nice it was to be on a field trip! The number of museum visitors swelled as the day progressed. Later in the day, it actually became difficult to navigate many of the main halls.

Upon entering, there is an information desk with pamphlets, maps, and exhibit information. Of to the sides are cashiers where you pay your fee to enter. (I believe I payed $10 for the student rate, although I don't exactly recall.) They then give you a little metallic purple clip to clip onto your shirt. It has to remain visible at all times. (You can leave it in a container at the door when you leave and they will recycle them.)

The flash photography police were out en force in the museum. I was not addressed, but I saw dozens of others who were...don't forget to turn off your flash! I found the lighting in much of the interior portions of the museum to be much too inadequate for clear photos. Many of them came out too blurry to use, unfortunately. It may just be my camera. I have an Olympus, but my niece's Sony took much clearer photos in the darker rooms. A few of mine came out yellow, but since they were taken in the Egypt exhibit, it actually adds to the photo!

I thought the museum was very much like a maze and had a somewhat difficult time navigating. I also found myself trapped in a dead-end in the Egypt exhibit (which was phenomenal!). The jewelry exhibit went around the corner, but you had to double-back to get out. We were stuck behind a group of children - very scary to imagine the possibility of escaping in case of fire.

Here are some of my miscellaneous photos inside the museum:

The Temple of Dendur - a gift to the United States from Egypt (double-click on the plaque)

Museum photos:

Look at 5th Avenue from inside the Met...)

Photos from the Louis Comfort Tiffany exhibit:


"Peaceable Kingdom" by Edward Hicks

Oil on Canvas

1830-32

"The Rocky Mountains, Lander's Peak" by Albert Bierstadt

Oil on Canvas

1863

"Approaching Thunderstorm" by Martin Johnson Heade

Oil on Canvas

1859

Inside one of the halls:

My featured artist is Jean Tinguely, a Swiss sculptor who began as a decorator of shop windows at a department store in 1940. He studied at the Kunstgewerbeschule in Basel (where there is now a museum in his honor http://www.tinguely.ch/) from 1941 to 1945 and later experimented with space and movement by creating his machine-like sculptures that had motors and moving parts. He moved to Paris in 1951 and began exhibiting his works. He made machines with "pre-programmed" elements of chance, fantasy machines called "Metamatics." They were capable of producing drawings or self-destruction. In 1966 and 1968, his "Machine" was on exhibit at the Museum of Modern Art in New York. He died in 1991 and worked/exhibited up until that time.

The plaque reads: steel bars, metal wheel, tubes, cast iron, wire, aluminum, string, 220-volt electric motor.

The description of his works on his website reads: "The machine sculptures engage in a loud and multi-coloured conversation with the onlooker: through his works, Jean Tinguely communicates and interacts with the spectator – the machine works and it becomes art. Tinguely’s works sparkle with wit, vitality, irony and poetry. But seen against a deeper background they reveal also a feeling for tragicomedy, for the enigmatic and inscrutable. "

I found this piece to be quite interesting and I was compelled to look at it for a long while. I saw what looked mostly like car parts (but with a white rubber tire and a saw attached!), but it was also adorned with quizzical wire and shocks of color. It is curious-looking to say the least. I imagined it's creator to be a lonely tinkerer who, obviously, saved everything! I loved the composition of all the parts to make an aesthetically pleasing sculpture. I have done a few sculptures, so I know this took quite a lot of work. I am glad the Met has given it a fantastic spot with lots of room, height, and light. I only wish I had seen it in action!

More of the Met:

Hey - I can do this!....

(The one on the right, at a glance, looks like the cover of Les Miserables!)

Andy Warhol (Self portrait, Mao)

"Tantric Detail I" by Jasper Johns
Oil on Canvas

1960

"Lola de Valence" by Amadeo Modigliani

Oil on paper, mounted on wood

1915

"Vampire" by Edvard Munch

Oil on Canvas

1894

YOU ARE NOW EXITING MY MET PHOTOS!

We had lunch at the Hard Rock Cafe...remember these Beatles outfits?

Times Square

A man with a deer head coming out of his chest (I couldn't make that up)

I saw this famous photographer, Annie Liebowitz at Madam Tussaud's!

Look who else I saw..Jimi!

I saw Andy Warhol and asked him about his self-portrait...he didn't really have a response.

Back out to Times Square...

Finally headed home...subway station band..

That's all! Hope you enjoyed my trip to the Met and NYC!

New Britain Museum of American Art

New Britain Museum of American Art

New Britain, Connecticut

April 4, 2007

Today was a rainy day - perfect for a museum! I took the fifteen-twenty minute ride up to New Britain to finally visit this little museum I have heard so much about. I was absolutely surprised at the size, the beauty, the wonderful artwork, and the park-like setting.

I did use the auto-tour handset at this museum. There are various pieces throughout the building that will give you further history of the artist and their art. I received only a map and no literature from the receptionist and was surprised that she did not ask if I was a student (don't I look like one?). I asked for the student rate and she had to check my ID. HA! No problem. I dug it out and saved 2 bucks! I did not have a chance to visit the gift shop, unfortunately, as I stayed until closing and missed it. I will go back another time though and definitely check it out.

This is the entrance to the museum from the Lobby. I love the glass doors - nice touch. It gives me a little glimpse of what is to come and I can't wait to meander around that distant corner...

The museum was full of sculptures of various mediums. I love sculpting very much and can appreciate the effort it takes to make such masterpieces. I enjoyed all the sculptures, classic and modern.

<~~~Maxfield Parrish (click on photo to enlarge)

<~~~Statue of Benjamin Franklin

The museum had a wide variety of mediums and they were all around eye-level for close inspection. I thought the museum was well laid out and had a natural flow. The natural light from the windows, the wall and floor colors, and the lighting above the art had a pleasing, feel that illuminated everything with a rich, golden hue. The space felt clean, warm, and welcoming. There was such a great array of artists and a large number of pieces in an uncluttered space. They have done an excellent job.

This is the rear of the building, another beautiful surprise!

now for the piece I've been waiting to show you....

The Cycle of Terror and Tragedy: September 11, 2001
2002-2006
by Graydon Parrish

I hope I can do this work of art justice. I have to tell you that I was struggling to decide which piece of art (there were so many) to concentrate on when I rounded the corner and this quite literally took my breath away (it is 8' x 18'). I did not realize the meaning/importance of it right away; but was struck first by the vivid color, depth, and obvious bizarre image. I looked longer, closer, and read the wall plaques and was so intrigued by this artist and this piece.




The artist is a man named Graydon Parrish (coincidentally, my maiden name). He is from Tyler, Texas and attended the Dallas Arts Magnet School. He studied art at the Richard Lack Atelier in Minneapolis as well as the New York Academy of Art and Amherst College.


This piece was commissioned by/for the New Britain Museum of American Art to commemorate the events of 9/11/01 and has become the "holy grail" of Classic Realism (some websites also describe Parrish's work as Modern Realism and Neo-Realism). You must see this painting in the museum when you go - it is fantastic! Sit on the bench and have a look from there, then stand and kneel up close and really check out the incredible detail.



Please follow these links to read some fascinating information on Mr. Parrish. I have detailed some of the information on him; however, these websites have photos of some of his other works and a few photos of this piece being painted. I encourage you to read them:

http://www.sandstead.com/images/artists/parrish/parrish.htm

NPR Story on Graydon: http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=6638786

He is speaking at 5pm on Saturday, April 14, 2007 at Amherst College! https://cms.amherst.edu/alumni/networks/affinity_groups/lgbtq_alumni
If I wasn't going to the MET in NYC the day before, I would definitely attend! I am going to have to do some research to find out where else I can hear him speak.

I also was a little dismayed to find this description on the net: The painting relies heavily on symbolism and comes with a four-page pamphlet describing the contents of the painting (e.g. a burning US Constitution, a faded Statue of Liberty). I need to contact the museum and ask why I didn't receive one! That surely would have been a tremendous help in explaining some of the symbolism of the painting for my blog!!

Here, I edited the color in Picasa for drama - double click and view the original size - pretty dramatic!


































PLEASE DOUBLE CLICK EACH TO READ DETAIL
(Don't skip this, it is very important to read these! I would have transcribed on the blog, but each is lengthy - easier to double-click!)


























So now we should start looking more closely at this painting. First, it is oil on canvas. Parrish is classically trained, so the detail on the figures is outstanding (look at the knees, the feet, the faces - excellent!). The papers have words and phrases from the Constitution. Notice the burning steel remains of the twin towers in the background.

The children in blindfolds represents blindness in the face of future tragedy (and perhaps innocence?). Why the blue blindfolds on the first two (a boy and a girl) and red on the third (a boy)?


This image is symbolic of the crucified martyr. I am curious if the burgundy/maroon color is symbolic in Islam or the Middle East. This could be a stretch, but I found on Wikipedia: The color green has a special place in Islam. It is used in the decoration of mosques, the bindings of Qur'ans, the silken covers for the graves of Sufi saints, and in the flags of various Muslim countries.
The color green has been associated with Islam for many centuries. It is not clear why this is so. Some say green was Muhammad’s favorite color and that he wore a green cloak and turban. Others believe that it symbolizes nature and life, hence the physical manifestation of God. In the Qur'an {Surah 18:31), it is said that the inhabitants of paradise will wear green garments of fine silk. While the reference to the Qur'an is verifiable, it is not clear if other explanations are reliable or mere folklore. Regardless of its origins, the color green has been considered especially Islamic for centuries. Crusaders avoided using any green in their coats of arms, so that they could not possibly be mistaken for their Muslim opponents in the heat of battle. (Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Islamic_symbols")
Hmmm, maybe they did not wear green the way the real terrorists did not wear their robes on the planes. They blended in by dressing like Westerners.












The women represent the three fates (I found this description on thanasis.com after researching also on Wikipedia: Atropos is said to be the eldest, the best and the shortest of the sisters. Clotho is the "spinner" and Lachesis the apportioner of lot. The thread of life is spun upon Clotho's spindle, measured by the rod of Lachesis and finally snipped by the shears of Atropos, the inevitable one.), essentially: birth, life, and death. They also represent mourners. Two are handcuffed together, symbolizing the tie to an unchosen cause.











Despair and regret? Note the bright torch on the Statue of Liberty behind the girl. What is she doing with her hands - was she reading something?

What is that bottle?


This old man makes me think of the priest who died.





"Twins," blinded by fate and screaming out. Hmmm, why aren't they dressed? Unprepared? Innocence?

Thank you for reading my blog. I really enjoyed the NBMAA and will definitely return (at least for that darn pamphlet!). Please do study the photos and leave your comments/interpretations. I would love to hear what you think!

Beth

Wadsworth Atheneum

On Thursday, March 22, 2007 I visited the Wadsworth Atheneum in Hartford.

Founded in 1842 by Daniel Wadsworth, the Wadsworth Atheneum is the oldest public art museum in the country. Their collection includes over 45,000 works of art, including works by some of the most important artists from around the world. The museum developed into a cultural center for history, literature, and art. The "Atheneum" part of the name is after Athena, the Greek goddess of wisdom since the museum was founded to educate the people about art and antiquities.










I was talking on the phone (yes, using my headset!) while driving to the museum and I got lost (a rare occurrence). The directions from their answering service (I am such a planner, but forgot to print directions before going!) said to bear right at the end of Exit 29A. They forget to tell you to take the left fork when the road splits before bearing right! Lucky for me, I took several left turns around the block and ended up right in front of the museum. I tried the parking around back, to no avail (I passed the entrance twice!), so I drove around the building and found a great spot right up front. Thank goodness I had a ton of quarters (seriously, about $5) to feed the meter for 2 hours. If you live in Hartford, the museum is right on the busline. Many buses stopped just in the time it took me to get out and feed the meter. There were also a couple of school buses, strangely full of elderly people though, who had come to spend their morning at the museum.

I did not take a tour of the museum as there are specific days and hours for the tours (Picasso to Pop is Thursdays in April and Saturdays in May @1:00 pm. Faith and Fortune is available Thursday - Sunday in March, Friday - Sunday in April, and Friday & Sunday in May). The Highlights of the Collections tour is only available Wednesday (1pm) and on the weekends (2:30pm). The talks and tours are free though. I did my own tour; however, and "ooh"ed and "awww"ed my way through all three floors before heading over to the Picasso to Pop Exhibition in the back of the building on the first floor.










<~~~Jackson Pollock!

<~~~Andy Warhol!











<~~~Picasso!

The Atheneum was the first in the country to acquire works by many foreign artists. One I saw while at the museum (and the artist of the piece I selected) is Salvador Dali. I have been to his museum in St. Petersburg, Florida and loved it, so I was surprised but delighted to also see some of his work on display in Hartford.

Salvador Dali was a very interesting and complex man whose interests outside art ranged from nuclear physics to writing. He met Pablo Picasso, Sigmund Freud, and worked on projects with Walt Disney and Alfred Hitchcock. He died in Figueres, Spain in 1989 at the age of 84.


Dali's works of art reflect his passion for complexity, diversity, architecture, metaphysics, surrealism, and the coastline of Cadaques, in Spain, where he spent the summers of his youth. The piece I chose, "Solitude," was actually the first of Dali's paintings to enter any museum in the world. I realize why it was behind glass (hard to avoid reflections of the numerous doorways though).

Here are some of the photos from my exhibit selection:











The plaque reads: Salvador Dali
Spanish 1904-1989
Solitude, 1931
Oil on Canvas
Purchased through the gift of Henry and Walter Keney 1932.218

Solitude was the first painting by Dali to enter a museum collection anwhere in the world, and it is typical of his earliest, often morose, surreal compositions. A solitary figure by the seashore, suspended between the animate and the inanimate, presses into, or emerges from, the surface of a rock. For Dali, hair was a mysterious and disturbing growth, and here he shows the figures curls metamorphosing into seashells.

"Solitude" is an oil on canvas. I was immediately struck by the rich contrasts in color as well as the hardscape/softscape of the boulders and the ocean and the light/dark. There is a lot of symbolism in the photo. The shadow of the head bothers me a bit. It seems to be going in the wrong direction based on the other shadows. The sun would need to be below him to cast a shadow upwards, but shadows reach up to his shoulders, so I don't know how that could be possible. I like the bold orange of the boulder on the left. I don't know if that is symbolic (rocks are light/warm, dark/cold).

Also, according to the wall plaque, another contrast is that the figure is "suspended between the animate and the inanimate." That is a better way to phrase the landscape mention above. He is animate, consoling himself in an inanimate place - but in close proximity to the living water. The rocks on the very bottom of the painting threw me off. I thought at first glance, that they were legs. Upon closer inspection, I realized they were just rocks.

Another thought, which I don't know if you will be able to clearly see in these photos, is that it looks like the dark rocks underneath the orange boulder may actually be partially submerged? They could be beneath the surface of the water and the boulder perched precariously. It also occurred to me that there is a mark on the orange rock (biblical reference?) that resembles a cross (see close-up below). It is a crude outline, but it does look like one. Also, the boulders' shape resembles that of gravestones.

Some more photos that show a more up-close shot (so you can see the metamorphosis...)

I don't actually think that it looks like a shell, but I read somewhere else that it was actually his mustache that had grown all around. Because of the way the arms appear, it actually just looks like the back of the head to me.

Other works in the exhibit by Salvador Dali:

I hope you enjoyed my visit to the Wadsworth Atheneum! See you after the next one!