The New Britain Museum of American Art was founded in 1903 and was the first museum recognized as dedicated to American Art. It overlooks Walnut Hill Park and was created by landscape architect Frederick Law Olmsted. The 43,000 sq. ft. Chase Building opened in 2006 and was designed by Ann Beha, an architect from Boston. The Chase Building displays approximately 5,000 collections dated from 1739 to present. It includes historic and contemporary works of art comprised of oil paintings, drawings, prints, sculptures, photographs and illustrations. They have many programs including lectures, films, demonstrations, and studio classes. (New Britain Museum of American Art pamphlet)
The exhibit that really caught my eye was Lisa Hoke's "The Gravity of Color", pictured below:
The exhibit that really caught my eye was Lisa Hoke's "The Gravity of Color", pictured below:
Can you believe this is designed from plastic paper cups, paint, and hardware. I think is is truly amazing!!!
I have to say that this is my favorite painting in the whole museum:
This painting is called Mountain Laurel and was painted by Willard LeRoy Metcalf in Old Lyme, Connecticut along the Lietenant River. Incidentally it is the site of the flourishing artists colony.Metcalf was an American Impressionist painter and well known for his New England lanscape paintings. This painting is so inspiring. I would love to be at this place at this time.
Here is another beautiful impressionist landscape created by Ernest Lawson in 1930. It is called "Spring Tapestry". He has also painted urban scenes in contrast. This painting just draws me in.
Now here is a very interesting painting called Boulders of Avila, painted by Peter Blume. I guess you would say that he was inspired by his trip to Avila Spain. The texture of the boulders is what really caught my eye. To get the unusual texture, Blume mixed marble dust with the paint. If you look very closely, there is a picnic on the right under the big boulder and a man sitting on the rocks sketching to the left.One of the Special Exhibits on display was the Art of Judith Leiber displayed below:
The Cornucopia purse was designed with precious stones such as onyx, garnets, and amethysts. Next to the Cornucopia purse is the Chinese Foo Dragon. Lieber was always influenced by Chinese art. It is a Chinese tradition to create dragon figures. It means "many possibilities". On the other hand, foo means lions which are not native in China. Therefore it means dog. Lieber is therefore combining both American and Chinese culture. The Chinese Foo Dragon is very complex as you can see. It is made up of different color crystals.
To the right is a bronze statue designed by Danielle Langford called, "The Eve Series #5
This is a bronze statue called "Sioux Indian Buffalo Dance, created by Solon H. Burglum.
To end my visit I would like you to see another one of my favorite artist's work. Guess who?
Yes, you guessed right,Norman Rockwell. This is called, "Weighing In". It was on the cover of the Saturday Evening Post June 28, 1958.
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3 comments:
KJ - very nice. I especially loved the purses (what woman wouldn't?). Thanks so much for including the Metcalf painting. When you get to the Florence Griswold House, make sure you talk to the docents. They were so knowledgeable and friendly about many of the artists that came to Old Lyme to paint and who stayed with Miss Florence.
Lisa Hoke's "The Gravity of Color", is remarketable. Just the use of plastic cups and some hardware to create such a masterpiece I have to agree with you KJ is amazing. I look forward to seeing this piece in person when I visit this museum the week after next.
Good, KJ... as you know, I have six total assignments for this class... I used to ask that students write six papers and then I lightened the load and asked students to write four good papers and two annotated photographic tours. Your entries from the New Britain Museum of Art fall more on the side of a photo tour as you haven't taken one particular piece and written in any depth on it. One of the goals of this class is to get the students in the class to learn about art history and what's involved with understanding art from a deeper perspective.
Part of the art of picking a suitable piece to write about is to choose one that he'll be able to find some background information on....
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