Weekend of Art

Since Art was to be the focus of our weekend, I thought we’d start the weekend on Thursday evening when we attending a couple of openings in West Hartford.

First there was Italia Bella at St. Joseph College Art Gallery. While there were still pieces from the permanent collection in some of the spaces, the special show included mostly etchings of scenes from Italy by a variety of artists. Here are a couple by James Abbott McNeill Whistler:

The Riva #1 by James Whistler

The Mast by James Whistler

The refreshments were outstanding, with a selection of Italian cheeses, olives, tapenades and Pino Grigio. Even cannolis.

Next stop was University of Hartford, which was having receptions for two galleries. In the Silpe Gallery we found items on display from faculty members’ collections. Here are a couple:

The Girls by John Waters

Le Piene Lune by Henri Riviere

We thought it was a wonderful opportunity to see what the professors collected.

In the Joseloff Gallery we saw the exhibition of work by Leslie Wayne. Her work seems to be centered around creating sheets and blobs of paint which are manipulated and mounted on panels to form some very intriguing artworks. We enjoyed the show very much.

new work

Heaven to Me by Leslie Wayne

the artist

On Friday, we visited the Farmington Valley Art Center in Avon which was supposed to be having three openings. We could only find two, and all the other studios and galleries were closed. One was for a sculpture competition called Grounds for Sculpture. An unfortunate title as this is the name of the outstanding sculpture park in Trenton, New Jersey. There was a variety of sculpture, all well done. The only work of interest was done by Andrea Morganstern:

Corn Bird by Andrea Morganstern

Saturday we drove to Worcester, MA. We were greeted there by a running race, so decided to park the car where we were and walk to the Worcester Art Museum. This gave us a chance to see a little more of Worcester:

Mechanics Hall where Gilmore's Band probably played in 1890

When we arrived at WAM, every aspect of the museum impressed us. The collections, the quality, the special exhibitions, the display, the labeling (informative, but not stuffy), the building, the guide was easy to use; even the security was unobtrusive and helpful.

There are galleries for everything you can imagine a complete Art museum would have: from Egyptian, Greek, and Roman – there was even a beautiful piece of Assyrian relief in the courtyard, which was centered on a Roman mosaic, to the edgiest contemporary Art. There were galleries for Indian/Buddhist/Hindu, Japanese, and Chinese Art, all on the first floor with a rebuilt arched-ceiling Chapter House. Each with outstanding examples of Art.

 Portrait of a Lady (daughter of Marcus Aurelius) AD 160-180

Frisky Greek Urn

Standing Vishnu, Central India, 10-11 century

The second floor had European Art in eleven rooms from 14th to 20th century.

A Game of Tric-Trac by Judith Leyster, 1609-1660

Saint Bartholemew by Rembrandt van Rijn

Detail from The Return of the Drove by Jean Honore Fragonard

Claudine Houdin by Jean-Antoine Houdin, about 1791

Study for The Card Players by Paul Cezanne, 1890-92

The Brooding Woman by Paul Gauguin, 1891

Petit Interieur a la Table de Marbre Ronde, 
Palmier et Personage by Henri Matisse, 1947

La Promenade by Henri Matisse

Opal by Anders Zorn, 1891

untitled by Vasily Kandinsky, 1936

The third and fourth floors were in the newer sections, much smaller, and dedicated to American Art. The third had American Art from early and decorative, sculpture, Impressionism and Art since the mid-20th century. We were told this last gallery had been closed for ten years and recently reopened. Up stairs had American Modernism and Pre-Columbian.

Sleep Lies Perfect Within Them by Arthur B Davies, 1908

The Life Line by Reginald Marsh, 1939

Black Garden Wall III by Louise Nevelson, 1971

The Breakfast Room, Winter Morning, New York
by Childe Hassam, 1911

The Gale by Winslow Homer, 1883-93

Coast in Winter by Winslow Homer, 1892

Sarah Wentworth Apthorp, Mrs Perez Morton
by Gilbert Stuart, about 1802

Corn Godess Vessel from Peru, 1000-1470 ad

urn with human figure from Mexico, 300 bc 200ad

There were three special shows nestled among the aforementioned galleries. Downstairs was the featured: Leisure, Pleasure, and the Debut of the Modern French Woman. Artists such as Mucha, Gauguin, Toulouse-Lautrec, Degas, Sargant, Cassatt, Morisot, even Ingres were featured. Here are a few examples:

 Afternoon Tea Party by Mary Cassatt, 1891

Portrait of Mademoiselle Manthey by Paul Gauguin, 1884

 Alphonse Mucha

Divan Japonais by Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, 1893

If you have a cough take Geraudel Cough Sweet
by Jules Cheret, 1891

An Early Morning Walk by Richard Ranfe around 1900

1. Study for a portrait of Madame Moitessier
2. by Jean Ingres, 1845-50

1. 
   
2. On the second floor were two galleries dedicated to The Strange Life of Objects: The Art of Annette Lemieux. A wide variety of installations were on display, and far better than almost anything I have recently seen on the ultra-contemporary scene. I got off one photo before being told that photos were not allowed:

 The Hard Go by Annette Lemieux, 1995

Other pieces included a variety of obstacles, sometimes on wheels, or a doorway filled with rows of books. There was a mass of Army helmets with wheels, and a number of disturbing realistic works, but then there were more whimsical pieces such as one with three white balls in descending size called Snowman Reclining and it’s companion piece called:

Potential Snowman

The last special exhibition was called More Than Face Value: Non-Traditional Subjects in American Miniature Painting. True to the title, it was a “miniature” exhibition with only eleven pieces of exquisite work. All but one were watercolor on ivory, the last being watercolor on porcelain. Each was reproduced for the beautiful free flyer. Don’t let these scans fool you. The largest piece was just over 5”x4”.

Female nude in the woods, about 1825-45

After Jacques Louis David's 'Madame Recamier, 1900

After viewing the first two floors we stopped for lunch in the Museum Café. Since it was such a beautiful day, we were able to sit outside in the courtyard. Besides our tables there were a couple of pieces of sculpture to see:

 Rotante Dal Foro Centrale by Arnaldi Pomodoro, 196

Equinox by Isaac Witkin.

The menu was entitled: The Art of Lunch and utilized George Auriol’s artwork for the 1890 Chat Noir menu, which was part of the French Women exhibition. And Lunch was fabulous and reasonably priced. We had difficult decisions to make as the entire, short menu, with dishes named after artists, looked great. I settled on the Redon combo, which was the soup and sandwich, and went with the Pear and Wild mushroom soup with Gorgonzola, and the Monet, chicken salad of the day, sandwich, which also featured Gorgonzola, on sourdough. Marie also had the combination but with the tomato soup with orzo and the Sarto, a roasted eggplant with grilled peppers, Asiago cheese, tomato and lettuce with basil pesto sandwich on rye. Both came with an outstanding orzo salad, filled with halved olives, artichoke hearts, tomatoes, and more. If we weren’t so satisfied, I might have been tempted by one of the great-sounding desserts. Service was excellent.

Marie reminded me that even the elevator buttons were marked with what was on each floor, front and rear. And in preparing this post, I found the WAM website also is very easy and informative. All right, I’ll stop now.

On the way out we passed by a wedding being set up in the courtyard in front a beautiful mosaic:

We walked back through the center of town in search of ArtWorcester’s Aurora Gallery. On the way we found a piece from a project called Worcester Windows:

And Who Was With You When the Bird Died by Lindsay Howland

And this frieze from the Worcester Market:

Worcester Market

Upstairs at Aurora Gallery was a show by Deanna Leamon called Expressing Faces. She used oil stick over insulating board, hence the metallic undercoat:

Pink Lady #2 by Deanna Leamon

Horse Girl by Deanna Leamon

After a very nice Sunday morning drive on the small roads and through the smaller towns of Western Massachusetts, we got to North Adams a little before Mass MOCA opened, so we took a walk around town. What we found was a whole world of Art just waiting for us to walk through the door.

We began at the North Adams Artists’ Co-op Gallery where we saw lots of nice things, but only bought a card:

stoneware by Jessica Phillips

Hibernation by Anna Rowinski

Then we spotted the signs for DownStreet Art with green footprints and stencils on the sidewalk directing us to see more Art further up the street. We saw or visited almost twenty galleries with a wide variety of shows. There was When I Was Young by Cynthia Consentino:

And Claire Fox’s the little people from here installation in the Grass Gallery, where we bought three white rocks which Claire drew upon:

We enjoyed very much Molly Davies’ installations at Sheer Madness Gallery, but didn’t take any pictures because you just can’t capture everything in a photo.

There was Jarvis Rockwell’s Maya IV and the Press Gallery, and many more, before we ended our tour at Katie Baker’s Lose It, where she transformed a former barroom space into a black & white artwork, including the empty bathrooms:

And Xmalia’s exhibit of works showing her deep feelings for the animals of the world and how they are being treated by humanity. She is also a performance artist, but there was no show that day.

DownStreet Art actually encompasses thirty-five spaces displaying Art from June 23 to October 16 throughout downtown North Adams, ending with an Open Studios tour. They have a little “passport” in which you can collect stars at each gallery and after six, receive free treats and discounts at downtown retail establishments. Even the crosswalks are part of the Art:

It is an exciting project and we wish North Adams future success with Art being the major attraction of the city.

But now it was time to see Mass MoCA. Since opening in 1999, this museum has become one of the world's premier centers for making and showing contemporary art. With annual attendance of 120,000, it ranks among the most visited institutions in the United States dedicated to new art. The revival began in 1986, however, for the former textile mill-turned electronics plant. Whole floors were taken out to make vast spaces for some mammoth creations.

After being greeted by Jeremijenka’s Tree Logic:

And Geometric Death Frequency-141 by Federico Diaz:

We began with The Workers exhibit which consisted of lots of photos, videos, and (to us) uninteresting pieces. So we quickly moved on to see Katarina Grosse’s one floor up more highly. Not sure how the title relates to what we saw, but we liked it very much. See for yourself:

While looking at this wonderful work, occasionally we could see the exhibit in the adjacent building. It was Sol Lewitt’s A Wall Drawing Retrospective. We began, inadvertently, in the middle of this exhibit, as it was laid out with the first level having his early drawings, the second with the mid-career stuff and the top floor housing the later LeWitt, who died in 2007.

At first we were confused how this enormous show was mounted, a security man and a video explained that the work was executed by a number of students from Yale, Williams, and the Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts in North Adams, according to LeWitt’s instructions. Amazingly fastidious work, the walls filled the rooms and each was covered with different patterns and designs and colors. Here are a few pictures of the early period:

The middle period:

And the later period:

The exhibition opened in 2008 and will run for 25 years, according to the agreement with the participating agencies. There are 105 drawings spanning the period from 1969 to 2007.

Nari Ward had a couple of installations which included lots of wood and foam. It was called Sub Mirage Lignum.

Actually there were other pieces of MoCA outside of the building that we didn’t see, but we saw a lot.

It was time to head north for Bennington, Vermont. Along the way we grabbed lunch at the Chef’s Hat in Pownal. While it was easy to resist the many signs suggesting we have a turnip muffin, we ate turkey and broccoli melts instead.

Besides being the home of Bennington College, there was also the Bennington Museum, which was having a special Grandma Moses and the Primitive Tradition show. Anna Mary Robertson “Grandma” Moses lived in Bennington for just two years, but the museum contains the largest public collection of Moses' paintings in the country, as well as "yarn paintings", art supplies, and the 18th century tilt-top table Moses painted with rustic scenes and used as her easel.

The special show had work by some of her relatives as well as other primitives.  These are all by Grandma:

Bennington, 1945

The Salmon Place, 1947

The Great Fire (The Burning of Troy in 1862) 1959

Over the River to Grandmother's House, 1944

We actually began in a room that was filled with Bennington artifacts such as musical and medical instruments, and a host of other items of local interest. However, we also found a few examples of outstanding Art for us to share:

 May Suydam Palmer by Frederick William MacMonnies, 1901

Nirvana by Clyde Du Vernet Hunt, circa 1920

There was also rooms containing Bennington pottery and glass, an old school house, a military room, and even the Martin Wasp automobile, designed and built in Bennington in the early 1920s.

And as a bonus, there were free ice cream sundaes being offered for Grandparents Day. And though not grandparents, we had some too.

Bennington itself is something of an Art town, with several galleries and Art centers. The was one special project based on Grimms' Fairy Tale The Twelve Dancing Princesses. Each Princess starts with an old bicycle frame and then is adorned with whatever Paula Foster and Arla LePorte decided to add. We found a few:

Princess Valentine

Princess Melody

After finding a couple of covered bridges:

Paper Mill Bridge

Silk Road Bridge

We drove west on Route 9 (also known as the Molly Stark Trail) to I91 south. Here we saw some of the destruction caused by Irene in Wilmington and other places along the road. We didn’t stop to take pictures.