A Year in New England: Weekend Thirty-Nine

(from reign of Amenhoptep I from temple at Karnak)

Well, it looks like we'll be going over 39 Weekends, but I hope you don't mind. It was a rainy Saturday morning when we drove to Providence, RI for an Art tour. We arrived early enough to find a parking space close to the Museum of Art at the Rhode Island School of Design (RISD), our first stop. But first we saw a couple of sculptures on the RISD campus:

Orpheus Ascending by Gilbert Franklin, 1963

Daybreak by Gilbert Franklin, 1968

Mirth by Jonathan Bonner, 2007

And this student:

Even before the Civil War, the idea of an Art school and museum in Providence was being planned. RISD was founded in 1877 while the museum opened its doors in 1893. There have been several additions since then, with galleries dedicated to all periods of Art on six floors.

The Egyptian display had several outstanding pieces:

Temple god, 712-343 bc

predynastic, ce 3500 bc

The Babylonian:

The Greek:

Aphrodite 2nd century

And the Asian:

wood Buddha

Siva Nataraja, 16th century South Indian

Etcetera. Here are a few of the highlights in the European and American galleries:

La Savoisienne by Edgar Degas, ca 1860

Child in a Red Apron by Berthe Morisot, 1886 (Julie Manet in Berthe's bedroom)

Chestnut Trees and Farm at Jas de Bouffan by Paul Cezanne, ca 1886 (Cezanne family home)

View of Auvers-sur-Oise by Vincent Van Gogh, 1890

The Diners by Pablo Picasso, 1901

Arabs Traveling by Eugene Delacroix, 1855

Face Reflected in a Mirror by J Alden Weir, 1896

A Boating Party by John Singer Sargent, ca 1889

(sister Violet with Paul and Alice Helleu)

Fishin' by Winslow Homer, 1879

And there was a Grand Gallery:

Since photos of artworks from after 1900 are not permitted, I couldn’t shoot the piece by Alexander Calder, which is required. We also saw works by: Fernand Leger, Elsworth Kelly, Jackson Pollack, Mark Di Suvero, Henri Matisse, Georgia O’Keefe, Jasper Johns, Jean Arp, Andy Warhol, Paul Manship, Frank Lloyd Wright and James Whistler, among others. But I did sneak this one of Dale Chihuly:

Gilded Frost and Jet by Dale Chihuly, 2003

There was a special exhibition by Spencer Finch called Painting Air, which was inspired by a quote from Monet: “I want to paint the air…and that is nothing short of impossible.” He began by displaying several pieces of Art from the RISD collection that inspired him:

Moonlight by Howard Hodgkin, 1972

Mooring by Joan Mitchell, 1971

Rosy Light by Oscar Bluemner, 1927

The Basin at Argenteuil by Claude Monet, 1874

And then his attempts to paint air. Here are a couple:

8456 Shades of Blue (After Hume) by Spencer Finch, 2008

detail

Painting Air by Spencer Finch

It was actually raining a little harder when we left the museum, but we began walking around the Brown University campus looking for sculptures anyway. Brown began in 1764 as the College of Rhode Island in Warren and moved to it’s current location, overlooking Providence, in 1770. It was renamed in 1804 in recognition of a $5,000 gift from alum Nicholas Brown.

There were lots of sculptures, though we couldn’t find them all. Here are some of what we did find:

Little Bear Fountain

Bear by Nicholas Swearer

untitled by Grant Miller

America One by Dusan Dzamonja, 1978

1 1/2 by Carla Lavatelli, 1985

Shearer Memorial Fountain by Howard Be Tre, 2003

Brown Bear by Eli Harvey, 1923

Bridge Prop by Henry Moore, 1963

untitled by Arthur Carter, 1931

Group of Three by Hugh Townley, 1969

It’s always interesting to discover a campus this way. After grabbing a protein bar on Thayer Street, we continued the sculpture search and stopped in at the David Winton Bell Gallery, which did not open until 1:00. Unfortunately, the person responsible to monitor the gallery had not shown up, so the security guard would not let us in. We looked at these, unidentified pieces while we waited:

Then one of the artists in the student exhibition arrived and agreed to sit as monitor, so we (and several other couples) went in. The work was not terribly exciting, but it’s the best Brown has to offer.

High Tension by Anne Oram, 2011.

Mind Flock by Lamia Veersamy, 2012

We drove north on Hope Street in search of Ivy’s Grill which featured an interesting sounding sandwich called “The Accidental Purist.’ It is a vegiburger with gilled apples, tomato marmalade, brie and caramelized onions. Unfortunately, it is only open for dinner. In the meantime, we enjoyed sculpture by Donald Gerola and had a nice Indian lunch at Not Just Snacks. Marie had a vegetable curry and I had the mutton vindaloo. Across the street was “Not Just Spice.”

mural at "Not Just Snacks"

The sun was now shining, so we drove back through downtown Providence to have a look around and shoot a few more pictures, before returning home.

unidentified in Gardner-Jackson Park

Welded Iron Sculpture by Charters de Almeida, 1985

also in Gardner-Jackson Park

Old Stone Bank

Donald Gerola

State Capitol Building

unidentified off Exchange Street

By the time we got home on Saturday night, most of the snow had melted. Not so everywhere, we discovered as we headed north on Sunday for Amherst, MA:

Our first stop was the Eric Carle Museum of Picture Book Art on the campus of Hampshire College, founded by Carle in 2002. He has lived in Northampton for the last twenty years and is well-known for his many children's books. Hampshire College is also home to the National Yiddish Book Center.

The Red Elephant by Mo Willems, 2011

Murals for Central Hall by Eric Carle, 2002

Imaginary Garden by Leo Lionni, 1978

There are three galleries. The first two showed the art of Kadir Nelson. First, from his book We Are the Ship - the story of Negro League baseball, and the second, from a book called Testing the Ice. The paintings in the first gallery shot better than the glass covered illustrations in the second:

Jackie Robinson by Kadir Nelson, 2006

Josh Gibson by Kadir Nelson, 2006

Safe At Home by Kadir Nelson, 2005

In the last gallery were pieces by Carle, highlighting a few of his books and other projects. There was The Artist Who Painted a Blue Horse:

Based on this picture:

Blue Horse I by Franz Marc, 1911

Then I was told I couldn't take pictures. There were, however, costumes and drawings from his work on a production of The Magic Flute.

In the cafe, I found this interesting screen:

TOME by Tom Patti, 2006

After lunch at Atkins Farm Market (where we enjoyed the people watching as much as our salads), we went across the Hampshire Campus to see their gallery, located in the library building. Hampshire College originated in 1958, when the presidents of UMass, Amherst College, Smith College and Mount Holyoke College, decided an alternative form of liberal arts higher education was needed. The first students were admitted in 1970.

While I understand they do a lot with sculpture there, we could only find this piece on campus:

And inside the library, I found this piece:

There were works by two artists in the gallery. Sally Curcio, and her beaded environments:

Metropolis by Sally Curcio, 2008

Atlantis by Sally Curcio, 2008

And Bruce Akerson, and his wild imagination:

Backyard Productions by Bruce Ackerson, 2007

Grand Finale by Bruce Ackerson, 2004

Surf Running by Bruce Ackerson, 2005

Tube Racing by Bruce Ackerson, 2011

Too Many Hummingbirds by Bruce Ackerson, 2011

Party Games by Bruce Ackerson, 2011

Partying 'till Dawn by Bruce Ackerson, 2011

Beach Birds by Bruce Ackerson, 2012

Then we headed north to the University of Massachusetts. On the way through Amherst Center, we found this piece of sculpture:

by Matt Evald Johnson

And then Quinnipiac, which has been in place, in front of the Fine Arts Center, since I was on the school Arts Council in the 1970's.

Quinnipiac by Robert Murray, 1974-76

There was a video installation in one half of the University Museum, as it is now called: The Annunciation by Eija-Liisa Ahtila. We stayed for part of the show:

And, in the other half, a show by David Teeple: Thinking Water. Besides his own work:

Mississippi-Louisiana Border 2 by David Teeple, 2010

There were pieces by Richard Serra:

Du Common by Richard Serra, 1972

And, of course, Sol LeWitt:

Composite Series, 1-5 by Sol Lewitt, 1970

We took a nostalgic walk around campus:

Campus Pond

in front of Bartlett Hall

And found a show of Art in the Student Union: The Art of Resistance, Memory and Testimony in Political Arpillera (textiles). While not the cheeriest of shows, here are a couple of pieces we liked: