Museum musings

[Karl-G]

National Museum of Women the Arts in D.C has an excellent and interesting collection.  The quality is very high, and since most people know very little about the topic, it is very useful.  Very nice cafe.  One room has, among many others, the best Alma Thomas, best Joan Mitchel, and (one of the) best Helen Frankenthaler.  Glorious.  One day when I was there, I noticed Wilhelmina Holladay, the founder and funder of the museum, giving a tour to a group of museum directors.  I began following, and she invited me to join in.  She had wonderful stories to tell of each work: she had personally met all the living women artists whose works she had collected, and she had had long conversations with European dealers who sold her the earlier works.

East Wing of the National Gallery deserves separate mention from National Gallery.  The collection is outstanding; my favorites are in the basement rooms.  One day I met an elderly lady weeping in the room with the "Stations of the Cross" by Barnet Newman; I asked if she needed anything.  She said no; she was Mrs. Newman, and she was remembering.

The Albright-Knox in Buffalo is outstanding, especially for late 20th century art.  The family went to NYC once a year and bought new works for the museum from artists.  I was impressed by their taste, manner, and generosity.

The Nelson-Atkins in Kansas City has a fine Chinese collection, already mentioned.  But they are much more.  It is a large museum.  Their free audio guide was one of the best I have ever encountered.  Excellent 19th century American works, and of course new wing with 20th century art and outdoor sculpture.  Enjoy lunch in the beautiful Renaissance courtyard, which they imported in toto, while listening to a live concert of guitar music.

Minneapolis Institute of Arts has a major, excellent collection, including one of the best Asian art collections in the U.S.  Mr. and Mrs. Dayton specialized in collecting, with the specific purpose of donating to the museum and creating a comprehensive collection.  Their collection of Asian ceramics is the best I have seen on display anyplace.  Maybe the Freer has more in storage, but they only have a few on display.

San Francisco Museum of Modern Art is one of the best in the country, and with their new addition, they can display much more of it.

The Phillips Collection in D.C. has been mentioned and is certainly worth a visit.  Their 20th c. American collection, from beginning to now, is especially good.  Their addition helped greatly, and their small cafe is nice.

Crystal Bridges in Bentonville, AK has a special setting and very fine collection.

Smithsonian National Museum of American Art is best of its kind.  Choose whatever period or style in American art history you like, and they have excellent examples.  Stained glass by LaFarge and Tiffany, paintings by Adolph Gottlieb, furniture, 19th century paintings of all schools.  Lovely cafe in the "outdoor" courtyard of the building.   National Portrait Gallery is in same building.  This building is downtown, not on the mall.  You can walk from Women's Art to here to East Wing of National Gallery.  Across the street is the public library designed by Mies van der Rohe in the purest, sparest International Style.  It looks like it belongs with 860 Lake Shore Dr. Apartments in Chicago.

 

 

 

Edited June 12, 2021 by Karl-G
missing item

[Luv2play]

I imagine the bowling alley didn't have the high ceilings the Frick is noted for but some museums have used low ceilings space for more intimate works of art that need to be viewed up close. The ceiling actually enhances the intimacy of the experience.

[+ bigjoey]

6 hours ago, Luv2play said:

I imagine the bowling alley didn't have the high ceilings the Frick is noted for but some museums have used low ceilings space for more intimate works of art that need to be viewed up close. The ceiling actually enhances the intimacy of the experience.

In 1920 to 1924, the library was housed in the bowling alley:https://www.frick.org/research/library/history

[+ bigjoey]

8 hours ago, Karl-G said:

 

The Nelson-Atkins in Kansas City has a fine Chinese collection, already mentioned.  But they are much more.  It is a large museum.  Their free audio guide was one of the best I have ever encountered.  Excellent 19th century American works, and of course new wing with 20th century art and outdoor sculpture.  Enjoy lunch in the beautiful Renaissance courtyard, which they imported in toto, while listening to a live concert of guitar music.

 

 

 

 

 

While lunch in the courtyard of the Nelson-Atkins is a great experience, the courtyard was not imported in toto from Europe.  It was built with the building.  It was built to look old.  The center fountain is Roman.  The food is excellent.  Highly recommend.

https://pendergastkc.org/article/buildings-orgs/nelson-atkins-museum-art
 

Originally open air, the Hall family (Hallmark Cards) paid for the enclosure.  The outside sculpture garden is worth the walk: many Henry Moore pieces given by the Halls and I believe the largest grouping of his works outside of Britain.  Also, the Halls donated one of the largest and most comprehensive photography collections in the country and it has rotating displays.

Another major collection is of English slipware and pottery: the Burnap Collection.

https://www.nelson-atkins.org/?utm_source=gmb&utm_medium=organic&utm_campaign=gmb-listing
 

 

Edited June 12, 2021 by bigjoey

[BigK]

On 6/11/2021 at 5:45 PM, Luv2play said:

You’re lucky you had the opportunity to see the collection in its new temporary setting. Not everything but the best representative pieces of the Frick collection, a lot of which was acquired from J. P. Morgan’s estate.

I have been watching Cocktails with a Curator on Friday’s at 5 all this last year, which gives highlights of the collection, focussing on one piece in each episode. They have three curators who split the shows, two guys and a lady. Very entertaining and informative. About 20 to 25 minutes.
 

Where do you watch Cocktails with a Curator?  I've searched for it on Comcast, Amazon Prime and Netflix.

[Luv2play]

19 hours ago, BigK said:

Where do you watch Cocktails with a Curator?  I've searched for it on Comcast, Amazon Prime and Netflix.

I watch it on the Frick Museum site. I forget how I first learned about it but have been watching it since last summer, almost a year. 

One can tune in on the hour, 5pm Fridays and watch it live or catch it later. When you watch it live, you get to make comments as the show unfolds. Mostly people saying Hi. I try to comment on the substance of what is being presented.

After I signed up I get an e-mail from the Frick every Friday with a link to tune in.

I even donated $100 last summer since I was enjoying the shows. I studied some art history at university so can relate to the approach they use, which is like an mini art class each session.

[cany10011]

20 hours ago, BigK said:

Where do you watch Cocktails with a Curator?  I've searched for it on Comcast, Amazon Prime and Netflix.

You can watch it on their youtube channel. Highly recommended and fun. 

 

[+ nycman]

2 hours ago, cany10011 said:

You can watch it on their youtube channel. Highly recommended and fun. 

 

Thank you so much for sharing this. 
The Met attempted a similar program with its curators but it was painfully boring. 
The Frick’s is so much more entertaining and educational. 

[samhexum]

Bored Russian museum guard drew eyes onto $1.4M painting on first day

https://nypost.com/2022/02/10/museum-guard-doodled-eyes-on-1-4m-anna-leporskaya-painting/

 

A bored security guard in Russia damaged a prized $1.4 million painting of blank faces by doodling eyes onto them at a museum, according to reps from the art house.

The 60-year-old guard allegedly drew the peepers on Anna Leporskaya’s avant-garde artwork, “Three Figures” with a pen during his first day of work at the Yeltsin Centre gallery in Yekaterinburg, a museum spokeswoman told The Guardian Wednesday.

“His motives are still unknown but the administration believes it was some kind of a lapse in sanity,” said the exhibit’s curator Anna Reshetkina, adding that he used a ballpoint “Yeltsin Center-branded pen.”

The security guard, who was not identified, was fired and charged with vandalism last week, The Age newspaper reported.

It’s now expected to cost $4,600 to restore the 1930s painting, which had been on loan from the State Tretyakov Gallery in Moscow.

 

“The ink has slightly penetrated into the paint layer, since the titanium white used to paint the faces is not covered with author’s varnish, as is often the case in abstract painting of that time,” Ivan Petrov wrote in Russia’s Art Newspaper, which was first to report the story.

“Fortunately, the vandal drew with a pen without strong pressure, and therefore the relief of the strokes as a whole was not disturbed. The left figure also had a small crumble of the paint layer up to the underlying layer on the face.”

Gallery-goers first noticed the faceless defacing in December but the city’s ministry of internal affairs initially deemed the damage “insignificant” and declined to press charges, according to The Guardian.

But the country’s ministry of culture later complained to the prosecutor general’s office, and cops last week announced they’d launched an investigation.

If found guilty, the guard could be sentenced to up to three months in jail.

[+ WilliamM]

Unluckily to happen at the Russian Museum in St. Petersburg or the Hermitage in St. Petersburg.

Major tourists destinations.

[Guest]

2 hours ago, WilliamM said:

Unluckily to happen at the Russian Museum in St. Petersburg or the Hermitage in St. Petersburg.

Major tourists destinations.

Best to lay off the sauce before posting. The article clearly said this happened in Yekaterinburg, thousands of km from St. Petersburg. The paintings were on loan from a gallery in Moscow. 

[samhexum]

1 hour ago, Unicorn said:

Best to lay off the sauce before posting. The article clearly said this happened in Yekaterinburg, thousands of km from St. Petersburg. The paintings were on loan from a gallery in Moscow. 

I thought @WilliamM meant to write Unlikely to happen...  because the museums he mentioned are so full of people that the incident wouldn't have happened there.

[+ WilliamM]

26 minutes ago, samhexum said:

I thought @WilliamM meant to write Unlikely to happen...  because the museums he mentioned are so full of people that the incident wouldn't have happened there.

Thank you, @samhexum 

[+ WilliamM]

2 hours ago, Unicorn said:

Best to lay off the sauce before posting. The article clearly said this happened in Yekaterinburg, thousands of km from St. Petersburg. The paintings were on loan from a gallery in Moscow. 

I certainly know the difference between the two cities 😉

[TonyDown]

 

I visited MOCA on Grand in LA yesterday, their exhibition "Henry Taylor: B Side" 

I was moved. 

So glad I got to see it.

From their Website:

Surveying thirty years of Henry Taylor’s work in painting, drawing, sculpture, and installation, this retrospective celebrates a Los Angeles artist widely appreciated for his unique aesthetic, social vision, and freewheeling experimentation. 

 

Just down the street,

"Jean-Michel Basquiat: King Pleasure" exhibition is open. 

 Rarely shown works presented by the family of Jean-Michel Basquiat

 Planning to get tickets!

Edited April 8, 2023 by TonyDown

[TectonicThrust]

On 2/2/2016 at 3:44 AM, Unicorn said:

I find museums to be great places to stare at gorgeous men. They're often too engrossed by the work of art to notice that I'm staring. Do you guys love staring at men as much as the works of art?

So funny. I find myself doing this too. Can’t help admiring a thing of beauty whether it’s a painting or the guy blocking my view of the painting. As long as they’re well hung, I can look at them for hours. 
 

True story. I was at a gallery opening in LA and a woman wearing a big hat and sunglasses (mind you this was at night) was blocking any view of a painting. I waited patiently until she moved on for my turn. When I mentioned it to my friend later, he told me it was Beyoncé. 

[samhexum]

this guy is ARUGULA riot!

On 4/30/2023 at 8:39 AM, TectonicThrust said:

True story. I was at a gallery opening in LA and a woman wearing a big hat and sunglasses (mind you this was at night) was blocking any view of a painting. I waited patiently until she moved on for my turn. When I mentioned it to my friend later, he told me it was Beyoncé. 

 

• BITCH!