A Year in New England: Weekend Fourteen

Beauty Contest-To the Memory of PT Barnum by Florine Stettheimer 1924

Once again, the weekend started on Thursday with a FVB concert. This time in Collinsville, as the featured attraction for the opening of a new three-mile stretch on the Farmington Valley Trail. In addition to our performance on the shore of the Farmington River, there were eleven buskers playing along the bike path. We began with almost no audience, but as the bikers came by, many stopped to listen. Marie didn't take any pictures.

Friday we went to see Richard III at St. Joseph’s College in West Hartford. The performance was by Capitol Classics which is celebrating their 21st anniversary.

After setting up our chairs around the outdoor set, we went inside the arts center to look at the exhibition in the gallery. The permanent collection is rotated to show works by Thomas Hart Benton, Milton Avery, Childe Hassam, Georgia O’Keefe, and others. Almost everything we saw was donated by the late Reverend Andrew Kelly.

One artist in particular caught our eye, named Aurelia Calonesco (1886-1960) and her paintings of NYC. Unfortunately, I have not been able to find more about Aurelia, other than coming from Bucharest and her WPA connection.

9th Street EL by Aurelia Calonesco

Rector Street by Aurelia Calonesco

The performance of Richard III was preceded by The Elizabethan Consort. The quartet in period dress had been singing while we were in the gallery, but we returned for their final three songs: One from Monty Python, one by PDQ Bach and the other by Allen Sherman. I can only imagine what the rest of the show consisted of.

The Elizabethan Consort

Richard III, a tragedy, was very well done, from the older gentleman who played several roles including that of a soldier in combat to the very young boy playing a prince. Richard himself was so good I hated him.

Saturday began, as usual, with tag sales and bargains, then we went downtown Hartford. First stop was the Bushnell Carousel, built in 1914 by Solomon Stein and Harry Goldstein. It was originally in Canton, Ohio and moved to Hartford in 1974.

Sol and Harry left Russia to escape Antisemitism and found each other as they carved flowers for women’s haircombs in Brooklyn. They began carving horses for their first carousel in 1905, which burned in VA Beach, but persevered and created many more, the only three remaining are the one at Bushnell, one on Long Island, and the Central Park carousel.

Super Girl

Super Girl II

Then we headed north of town to see the West Indies Parade. It was supposed to start at noon, or one or even 10, but after waiting until around 2:30 and saw only politicians.

Waiting for the Parade

Still waiting

The Parade

We finally gave up and walked down Main Street to the Wadsworth Atheneum. I later read that many others were upset by the timing and quality of the parade, so I’m glad we didn’t wait any longer. There was to be a festival in Bushnell, the terminus of the parade, but we instead went to Royal Marsala for an Indian buffet before getting to the art museum after 3. This was our final use of the Art Pass.

The museum is under heavy renovation, but seemed to be on the outside, so most of the galleries were open. Beginning on the top floor we found galleries of late-18th and 19th century, and contemporary American art, featuring work by George Segal, Alexander Caldwell, Jackson Pollack, Milton Avery, Maxfield Parrish, Marsden Hartley, William Glackens, Georgia O’Keefe, Arthur Dove and Diego Rivera. Of course, Rivera wasn’t American. The list goes on to include Innes, Metcalf, Chase, Weir, Sargent, Whistler, and sculptors Daniel Chester French and Fred MacMonnies. There was even a Colt revolver.

Approaching Snowstorm by Arthur G. Dove, 1934

Military by Marsen Hartley, 1913

On the ground floor we found the Hudson River School and two more Contemporary galleries:

Wall Drawing #1131, Whirls and Twirls (Wadsworth) by Sol LeWitt, 2004

Also galleries of Impressionists and other Europeans: Vuillard, Bonnard, Gauguin, Redon, Renoir, Monet, Cezanne, Pissarro, Degas, LaTour, Millet, Balthus, Chagall, Matisse, Klee, Arp, Mondrian, Picasso, Magritte, Miro, Dali, Munch, and Van Gogh. Then some older European works by Corot, Delacroix, Courbet, Cranach, etc. And then we were out of time as the museum closed at 5.

Because there isn’t room for all the Art we saw, I’ve included just those with a common theme: Red Heads: