Weekend Thirty-Five

(Trees by Robert Venturi, 2002-03)

I began with a ride over to the Cedar Hill Cemetery in Hartford.  Founded in 1864 is final resting place to many distinguished individuals including Katherine Hepburn, J.P. Morgan, Samuel Colt, and William Glackens.

J.P. Morgan resting place

While I’m sure it is much prettier in other seasons, it was a great bicycling destination for a mild February day. I pretty much had the place to myself while across the street at the golf course and driving range, the parking lot was jammed.

While the statuary is not very spectacular, there were a couple of interesting memorials. I managed to locate the Morgan plot – the only one in pink granite sitting high on a ridge, but none of the others, by sight. After picking up a brochure at the office, I’ll have to go back to find the others. I was especially curious why Glackens, a native of Philadelphia and resident of New York, was buried there. I discovered at the New Britain Museum, that his wife was from Hartford. But more on that later.

We began Marie’s birthday weekend on Friday eve with Hotel Casablanca at the University of Hartford. Though a comic opera, I didn’t get most of the humor. The sets were good and the performers excellent, but the opera was not. At least in my opinion.

On Saturday we took went to the New Britain Museum of American Art to see one of their new shows and look around for a second look at their collections. The Barbara Belgrade Spargo Collection: Facets of Modernity (1900–1950) was fun, because it’s always interesting to see what people collect. In this case there were around thirty-five pieces by John French Sloan, William Glackens, Robert, Henri, and Everett Shinn (all influential founders of the Ashcan School movement), among others. Ms Spargo, a Central CT native, has collected over three hundred pieces of Art and has worked with many CT museums.  Here are a few pieces:

Mother and Child by William Zorach, 1950

The Bather by Warren B. Davis

 Dusk by Maxfield Parrish, 1942

There were also shows about the American West, and Currier and Ives. And an exhibit of work by The Eight that I didn’t remember seeing previously. See The Eight & The Ashcan School by clicking here.

An Imaginative Boy by Robert Henri, 1915

French Vaudville by Everett Shinn, 1937

Here are a couple of other pieces we found:

Wall Drawing #1196, Scribbles by Sol LeWitt, 2005

Child's Supper by Milton Avery, 1945

 

Since Marie began taking a class in abstract Art, she has had to do “homework,” so while she worked in her studio, I prepared her birthday dinner of shrimp curry. On Friday I made her favorite ginger cookies, in lieu of a cake, and there are daffodils all around.

Saturday night we drove to Newtown to see/hear Deborah Henson-Conant and her harp. The Edmonds Town Hall was packed for the show, which was actually called the Flagpole Café Radio Show. The entertainment began with a few tunes from the house band which featured terrific musicians. There were also a few very clever radio skits before Deborah came on.

This will be difficult to put into words because it was a singular event. Deborah displayed an extraordinary combination of musicianship, stage presence, and humor. Her energy and enthusiasm were spectacular. The songs were wonderful, though we heard just a handful. I especially liked Belinda a song about a tree, while Marie’s favorite was Watermelon Boogie. It was a rare occasion as I delighted in singing along, at Deborah’s request. This is what the words “Awesome” and “Amazing” were meant for. See www.hipharp.com for more.

This was the first performance of her new tour (with her new hairdo, as she cut off her signature dreadlocks) and I cannot encourage anyone reading this enough, to go see her perform.

Sunday morning we returned to New Haven and Yale University to track down a long list of sculptures I was able to find online. While the city of New Haven listed around 375 pieces of public Art, many were old portraits, old memorials and monuments, and not accessible as they were inside a school, library, or office building. Here are a few what we found, see the rest by clicking here:

 Hero by David Boyajin, 2003

Tree of Life by Douglas Kornfeld, 2004

On High by Alexander Liberman, 1979

Lunch was a welcome respite, as it was a sunny, but cold day for our hunt. On Julie’s recommendation, we tried the vegetarian restaurant, Claire’s Corner Copia on Chapel Street. Marie had the minestrone soup and a giant house salad filled with mixed greens, while I had the Fire Island, which featured Buffalo chicken soy and cheese on a big whole-wheat baguette.

Yale’s list included around 35 pieces. Again, some were inside residence courtyards (which we often were able to gain entry, but others were inside buildings that no one was going in or coming out while we were there. Here are some of the sculptures, as well buildings and architectural details we found interesting, the rest can be found by clicking here:

 Gallows and Lollipops by Alexander Calder, 1960

 Modern Head by Roy Lichtenstein, 1874-1989

from Education by Louis Comfort Tiffany, 1889-90

 Lipstick (Ascending) with Caterpillar Tracks by Claes Oldenburg, 1969-74

In the Sterling Library we found an exhibit of cuneiform writing with letters from Hammurabi and Rameses, among others:

Hammurabi letter.JPG

from Rameses II

We got home in plenty of time for Sunday night’s Super Bowl game. Since CT is split between Patriot fans and Giant fans, the game was eagerly anticipated. Fortunately, we were able to watch the game on the computer with a live feed not usually offered. Unfortunately, the Patriots lost.