My review of the Portland Museum of Art
I enjoyed the trip to the Portland Museum of Art. It was very uneven, though, more so than normal. I got the sense that one gallery of post modern work was from large donors who insisted their own uninspired works be hung.
There was an exhibit of a photographer's work photographing migrant blueberry pickers that was just boring. I failed to understand what anyone saw in the work-a-day shots ("here's Bill carrying a laundry basket on laundry day " as if people who go to laundromats are freaks.) Note to Mybonnykate; your works show luminous heart, beauty and love and capture a moment in time that deserves capturing. Keep building your portfolio, because you are a far better photographer than the bozo with a show at the Portland Museum of Art.
But the sculpture was breathtaking, including several works in marble by Akers, and a great piece called" Rising Cairn" that I adored. There were some de riguer Winslow Homer seascapes, but I preferred the Web camera that showed the current view at his studio. In a room filled with seascapes it occurred to me that the art I bought this winter for my business (and feature on my website) is REALLY good. I picked them out in the artist's studio from a lifetime of effort. Familiarity breeds a smattering of contempt, and it wasn't until I was in a room with Homer and Wyeth paintings that I got that tingle of realizing that Robert F. Grant is a great artist. The seascapes I have are better than the ones the museum has.
There was a really pro forma impressionist gallery. All solid pieces, all pleasant and all boring as hell. I have to admit, I understand why Picasso appealed. He is the rebellion necessary after the pablum of Cassett. But, oh my God, he is just so awful. B. and I sat in front of a cubist nightmare trying to understand the gestalt of anyone who would want that painting in their lives. Uggh.
My favorite painter is probably Chagall and they had none. But they had a Kandisky that was quiet and beautiful and I appreciated.
Small Boy enjoyed the art glass and American arts and crafts room. He had hilarious comments about a Joan Mero hanging near the unanimously disdained Picasso. He said it looked like a toddler with a sharpy spilled some splotches of watercolors drips onto the canvas. And he was right!
I think the Simmons and Akers sculpture were some of the best I have ever seen, including art I have seen in Paris and Boston and at the Getty. (Daphne, you are probably the only one reading this who will get how high a standard I am holding here.)
When I think about it, it occurs to me that I go to a lot of art museums. I go to pedantic galleries at colleges ("these columns are representative of... ") and great tourist museums (the Smithsonian, the Loevre) and little regional ones (the Clark, that one I visited in Baltimore when I had a few hours to kill in November). I love that curators do this. I love the idea of it, and feel happy to have a chance to see talent like this served up to me so beautifully.
I am glad I went.
I have to admit when I review museums that I adore quirk. My favorite museum is the Isabella Stewart Gardener Museum in Boston.
There was an exhibit of a photographer's work photographing migrant blueberry pickers that was just boring. I failed to understand what anyone saw in the work-a-day shots ("here's Bill carrying a laundry basket on laundry day " as if people who go to laundromats are freaks.) Note to Mybonnykate; your works show luminous heart, beauty and love and capture a moment in time that deserves capturing. Keep building your portfolio, because you are a far better photographer than the bozo with a show at the Portland Museum of Art.
But the sculpture was breathtaking, including several works in marble by Akers, and a great piece called" Rising Cairn" that I adored. There were some de riguer Winslow Homer seascapes, but I preferred the Web camera that showed the current view at his studio. In a room filled with seascapes it occurred to me that the art I bought this winter for my business (and feature on my website) is REALLY good. I picked them out in the artist's studio from a lifetime of effort. Familiarity breeds a smattering of contempt, and it wasn't until I was in a room with Homer and Wyeth paintings that I got that tingle of realizing that Robert F. Grant is a great artist. The seascapes I have are better than the ones the museum has.
There was a really pro forma impressionist gallery. All solid pieces, all pleasant and all boring as hell. I have to admit, I understand why Picasso appealed. He is the rebellion necessary after the pablum of Cassett. But, oh my God, he is just so awful. B. and I sat in front of a cubist nightmare trying to understand the gestalt of anyone who would want that painting in their lives. Uggh.
My favorite painter is probably Chagall and they had none. But they had a Kandisky that was quiet and beautiful and I appreciated.
Small Boy enjoyed the art glass and American arts and crafts room. He had hilarious comments about a Joan Mero hanging near the unanimously disdained Picasso. He said it looked like a toddler with a sharpy spilled some splotches of watercolors drips onto the canvas. And he was right!
I think the Simmons and Akers sculpture were some of the best I have ever seen, including art I have seen in Paris and Boston and at the Getty. (Daphne, you are probably the only one reading this who will get how high a standard I am holding here.)
When I think about it, it occurs to me that I go to a lot of art museums. I go to pedantic galleries at colleges ("these columns are representative of... ") and great tourist museums (the Smithsonian, the Loevre) and little regional ones (the Clark, that one I visited in Baltimore when I had a few hours to kill in November). I love that curators do this. I love the idea of it, and feel happy to have a chance to see talent like this served up to me so beautifully.
I am glad I went.
I have to admit when I review museums that I adore quirk. My favorite museum is the Isabella Stewart Gardener Museum in Boston.