Weekend Thirty-Six: Searching for Winter

The forecast was for up to 3 inches of snow, but when I got up on Saturday and looked at the live highway cameras in Vermont, there was not even a dusting, so we hit the road early, and drove up to Hanover, New Hampshire, home of Dartmouth College.

It was Winter Carnival at Dartmouth, but you couldn't tell, as there was no snow and only one “ice” sculpture was made:

We were told that there were also activities at Occam Pond, but it didn’t look like much:

So we went to visit Dartmouth’s Hood Museum. In addition to some interesting pieces in their permanent collection which dates to 1772, just three years after the school was founded. We were greeted by a Joel Shapiro in the not-so-very attractive entry, and a big, colorful Sol LeWitt on the inside. There were some of the strongest panels we have seen from Austen Henry Layard’s Assyrian excavations at Nimrud:

Untitled by Joel Shapiro, 1989-90

 Colored India ink wash by Sol LeWitt, 1990

The King and Genie from the Palace of Ashurnasirpal II 883-859 BCE

As well as lots of interesting paintings and sculptures:

Medusa by Harriet Hosmer, ce 1854

 Enchanted by Winslow Hover, 1874

Weir's Garden by Childe Hassam, 1903

 McSorley's Back Room by John Sloan, 1912

A New England Landscape by Rockwell Kent, 1903

Mother and Child by Bessie Potter Vonnoh, 1902

Gamin by Augusta Savage, 1929 (first African American to portray AA features)

 The Jolly Washerwoman by Lilly Spencer, 1851 (One of the few woman of her era to earn her livelihood and achieve national recognition as a painter

A Roof in Chelsea, New York by John Sloan, 1941

Woman Reading by Jacques Lipchitz, 1919

The Sculpture Gallery by Sir Lawrence Alma-Tadma, 1874-75

 Diana by Fred MacMonnies, 189

Upstairs was an exhibition of Native American art which featured several pieces that were not the usual decorative items:

Dancers and Dog by Fritz Scholder, Luiseno, 1937

Taza by Allan Houser, Chiracahua Apache, 1991

Teepee liner

Coyote Woman in the City by Harry Fonseca, Southern Maidu, 1979

by Rick Bartow

Mask by unknown Alaskan artist ca 1930

Night by Mateo Romero, 2009

And a small display called Constructing Gender which made an interesting statement:

There were not too many sculptures on campus, but we did manage to find these:

 Thel by Beverly Pepper, 1977

unknown

X-Delta by Mark diSuvero, 1969

And the most interesting building we saw was The Sphynx; home of one of Dartmouth’s secret societies:

Sphinx, 1903

We grabbed a sandwich in the cafeteria downstairs – a Mona Lisa, with hummus, feta, black olives, artichoke hearts, etc. - and ate lunch on the bank of the Connecticut River.

Bridge over CT River

It was another hour and a half to our next destination: Loon Mountain in Lincoln. First we had to go further north on I-91 before heading southeast on Route 112, along the Ammonoosuc and Lost Rivers. We had the road to ourselves as we drove through part of the White Mountains National Park.

All good things come to an end as we entered Lincoln which is the epitome of ski/tourist. And eventually, we found the tubing slopes of Loon Mountain. All the slopes were busy and it was cold, but we got a few runs in before giving it up:

Then we drove south to Bedford, just outside Manchester, to the Hill-Brook Motel on Route 101. Adequate and cheap. We got supper at Shorty’s Mexican Roadhouse, just down the street. While the people were waiting up to 50 minutes for a table, we got our fish tacos and pulled pork burrito to-go, and ate in our room while watching cable tv.

It was even colder the next day, but still no snow. Looks like the weathermen were wrong. Again. We drove into Manchester and had breakfast at the Red Arrow Diner – voted one of America’s Ten Best Diners. The list of celebrity visitors was pretty impressive, including Bill & Hillary Clinton and Paul Newman. We waited a short while for a booth that was previously occupied by Adam Sandler, Diane Sawyer, and Al Gore. Not to mention Mama Kicks (a local band). The atmosphere was terrific and the food pretty darn good. Marie got the maple sausage patty eggs Benedict, while I had the pork pie with eggs and grits.

We found a couple of pieces of sculpture on Granite Street and by the arena:

Crosswalk by Ernest Montenegro, 2011

 Vivace by Jonathan & Evelyn Clowes, 2009

but had to wait until we got to the Currier Museum of Art to find some more:

Origins by Mark DiSuvero, 2001-04

Fusion II by George Sherwood, 2010

Inside we found a lovely museum, with interesting collections. Here are a few pieces we liked:

Petit Disque Jaune by Alexander Calder, 1967

Dream Houses XXXIII by Louise Nevelson, 1972

 Snow and Water by Arthur Dove, 1928

Sempre by Kay Sage, 1938

 A Knock at the Door by Laura Alma-Tadema

 (Laura was the second wife of Sir Lawrence, see Hood Museum)

The Black Hat by Lilla Cabot Perry, 1914

Poinsettia shade by Louis Comfort Tiffany

 Women at Dombuhl by Louis Comfort Tiffany

Click here to see more.

There was also a large exhibition of modernist photography, including work by Man Ray, Ansel Adams, Paul Strand, and Ed Weston. We also, inexplicably, found paintings by Marsden Hartley, Pablo Picasso, Childe Hassan, and Georgia O’Keefe.

Head of a Dancer by Lotte Jacob, c 1929

Tide Pool and Kelp by Brett Weston

It appears the museum has made collecting photography a major focus. We also noticed a high percentage of women artists in the general collection. This may have been coincidental, we were not able to find out why, but it was refreshing.

In the Winter Garden we found a ukulele orchestra entertaining the brunch crowd. The old entry, with mosaics by Salvatore Lescari, was there, as were two large pieces by Sol LeWitt which were commissioned just before he died.

mosaic by Salvatore Lescari

 Wall Drawing #1255 Whirls and twirls (Currier) by Sol LeWitt, 2008

I even liked the faux flagstones they painted on the bathroom floor:

We asked at the desk about more sculpture in Manchester and were directed to drive north to the campus of Southern New Hampshire University, which is actually in Hooksett. Here is what we found:

Sunrise of Everywhere by John Weidman, 2006

 Pilgrim by Murray Dewart, 2002

 Wedding Dance by Eric Lintala, 2010

Foxface by Joseph Wheelwright, 2002

X's 10 by Rob Lorenson

Tapered Scorpion by Rob Lorenson, 2011

Tree House by Jim Coates, 2011

Backbending by John Weidman, 1979

And then we drove home without really finding much more winter than we had in West Hartford.