HALLIE EPHRON: Right now I am reading a memoir, ALL THE BEAUTY IN THE WORLD: THE METROPOLITAN MUSEUM OF ART AND ME. Author Patrick Bringley writes about finding solace in art, leaving a job at The New Yorker to become museum guard at the Met after his brother’s death.
Of course it’s about grief. Also about great art and its power to sustain us. I'm enjoying it immensely.
Reading it takes me back to the art history classes I took at Barnard College in New York and the many trips I took to the Met. I think it was the #5 bus which you could pick up near Barnard and it would go across town and down Fifth Avenue and drop you right at the front steps of the Met.
For me it was a revelation.
Having grown up in Los Angeles the only “art” I’d seen in a museum were what hung in the Huntington Museum. Gainsboro’s saccharine Pinkie and a companion work Blue Boy weren’t exactly my cup of tea.
The paintings at the Met (and in those days it was free) were transporting.
Room after room of paintings from the Middle Ages, loaded with cardboard cutout figure and symbols with Biblical meaning, to the life-like, harmonic, contained paintings of the Renaissance, to (my favorite) dissonant Mannerist works, and on the dramatic Baroque paintings that practically reached out of the canvas to grab you, and on to puffy, flamboyant Rococco. And that was before you got to Rembrandt.
I grew up in a family steeped in popular cinema and jazz, so this was a story I’d never experienced.
I never left the Met without a visit to the hall of armor. And I loved getting lost in the reconstructed period rooms.
Now one of my favorite way to spend a day is wandering about at Boston’s Museum of Fine Arts, especially the third floor of the American Wing. And when I’m visiting my kids, it’s the Brooklyn Museum’s reconstructed Frank Lloyd Wright house and the museum’s collection of stained glass.
What are your favorite museum exhibitions to get lost in, and how did you find them?
When I was in college, it was a short train ride into the city that left me free to wander in one of the museums. I loved the Guggenheim, enjoyed the Old Masters paintings, the Renaissance, and found the period rooms at the Met delightful. I enjoyed wandering in the American Museum of Natural History where I would always visit the Hayden Planetarium. The Morgan Library and Museum is a another favorite . . . how do you top Michelangelo and the Gutenberg Bible?
ReplyDeleteBut my favorite is the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum, first discovered on a trip to Washington, D.C. with the Girl Scouts. Newly-discovered: The Intrepid Sea, Air, and Space Museum . . . .
So interesting! I remember going to that Smithsonian for the first time... isn't that where there's a space capsule?
DeleteMy favourite museum exhibition to get lost in is the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam! It is inspiring!
ReplyDeleteAgreed. Even if you think you *know* Van Gogh.
DeleteSixtyfour and still remember...stop the taxi let me out.Van Gogh at the Metropolitan . Wonderful never forget Art. I was in my 20 's
DeleteTom Larson
DeleteGrowing up in Toronto, we went on school field trips to both the Art Gallery of Ontario (AGO) and the McMichael Gallery in nearby Kleinburg, Ontario. I remember the latter visit where I was first exposed to the famous Canadian Group of Seven artists.
ReplyDeletehttps://mcmichael.com/collection/group-of-seven/
But my most favourite visit was to the Musee d'Orsay in Paris with my mom. She was a huge fan of all Impressionist art, especially Renoir.
Despite living only 1.5 blocks from the National Gallery of Canada in Ottawa, I actually don't visit it too often. Last year, I enjoyed recent visits to see iconic Canadian artists Maud Lewis at the Art Gallery of Nova Scotia in Halifax, a new Emily Carr exhibit at the Vancouver Art Gallery and sculptures at the Bill Reid Gallery of Northwest Coastal Art in Vancouver BC.
DeleteAlas, the last time I was briefly in Paris (twenty years ago), it was the one day the D'Orsay was closed. I also love Impressionist art. Must go back!
DeleteQuelle dommage, EDITH! Yes, you must go back to visit!!
DeleteLove this museum Grace!
DeleteWhile visiting Minneapolis for Bouchercon in 2022, I also did stop by the Minneapolis Institute of Art and the outdoor Minneapolis Sculpture Gallery. Both were free admission.
Deletehttps://walkerart.org/visit/garden
Love the Musee Dorsay. Also the Pompidou -- modern art, amazing architecture, and when I was there bawdy Nicki de St. Phalle scuptures "cavorting" in the fountain outside.
DeleteGrace, I remember visiting the Musee d'Orsay and seeing beautiful art there. I also remember the big clock window.
DeleteDiana
DIANA: Yes, the Musee d'Orsay building is beautiful, a former train station, I think.
DeleteYes, you're right, Grace. I've read occasional novels mentioning Gare d'Orsay and winced. Not a museum yet! Once I get to Paris, I will have to go to the island of La Grande Jatte or lose my metaphorical "Chicago art lover" card -- but a very close second on the list is spending at least a whole day in the Musee d'Orsay. My French will be fine there, but I'll be tempted to ask for help "en anglais" to see whether there's a version of me in the Art Institute days, when I helped tourist/es in French.
DeleteThinking back, I'm not sure I ever went to an art museum before I moved to Boston (at age 31). But then I discovered the Gardner, the MFA, and the Peabody-Essex, and I was hooked. I used to take my sons to the MFA and let them lead the way to the exhibits they found interesting. Museum of Science is also fabulous.
ReplyDeleteI also love the Portrait Gallery in DC, and the National Museum of American History. I think my favorites are historical museums and home museums where a famous person lived (Whittier, Alcott, Twain).
We spent a week last summer in Rockland, Maine, and saw a fabulous exhibit pairing paintings Andrew Wyeth and Hopper did of the same scene. Also visited a poorly curated lighthouse museum and a fabulous Transportation Museum in Owl's Head.
That would be fascinating, Edith. Wyeth and Hopper had such different styles.
DeleteThinking back more, I did learn a lot about fine art at college, especially through Art History classes (which started, interestingly, with cave paintings and children's art). For years I had a print on my wall of The Absinthe Drinker by Degas.
DeleteEdith, if you are back in Rockport, you should go out to the Olsen House which isa part of the museum. Wonderful experience.
DeleteI live in DC, so I get lots of museum opportunities all the time. Like Edith, I love the National Gallery, not just for the wonderful art, but it has open spaces with plants that are very relaxing to just sit in. I love the medieval art and the sculptures by Degas.
ReplyDeleteThe American Art Museum also has a beautiful, restful main courtyard. There's a part we call "the Attic" where lots of folk art and little bits and bobs are hidden in sliding cases and you can see them with a push of a button. Folk art's not my favorite but it's kind of neat to see it all organized casually. More like a fancy garage sale than a museum.
My children love Air and Space of course and the Natural History Museum.
The Phillips Collection is nice and it has the painting where my husband proposed (Luncheon Party at the Boating Party) but you have to pay and we're so spoiled by our free museums here, we rarely go!
You'd love the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum here in Boston - it's a a house with an amazing airy central atrium courtyard with gorgeous plantings that change with the seasons.
DeleteI only recently learned about this museum and the heist that took place there. Now I'm very curious about it!
DeleteI should add-- I learned about it from reading Otho Eskin's forthcoming thriller FIRETRAP, which has a subplot based on the heist.
DeleteThe big museums are fabulous but I also love some of the smaller ones. A favorite is the Decordova in Lincoln MA with its outdoor sculpture garden. You can wander around the lovely campus and be surprised by an unexpected bit of art.
ReplyDeleteWe did a family field trip to the Decordova during pandemic times - all fresh air. Perfect and the art is so well situated.
DeleteThe deCordova Museum is wonderful! The outdoor sculpture garden was especially wonderful during the summer of 2020 - art, fresh air, and not many people! Suzette Ciancio
DeleteWhenever I have down time in a city new to me, I look for their regional art museum/gallery. It's always a revelation.
DeleteHALLIE: I do the same thing when visiting a new city.
DeleteWhat a gift it would be, to live in a city with so many fine museums, and have the time to wander them. Wait, I do live in one. The Cincinnati Art Museum, the Taft Museum of Art, the Freedom Center, and our amazing Art Deco train station that houses the Museum of Natural History, the Children's Museum, and the Cincinnati Historical Society. You wouldn't think of a natural history museum as having art, but they have an Audubon Folio exhibit where you can see and examine under glass a new print each day.
ReplyDeleteThe Taft has Old Dutch Masters, porcelain miniatures, pastorals from the 18th century (and rotating exhibits of the likes of Tiffany's paintings and the costumes from Downton Abbey), all housed in a lovely mansion once owned by abolitionist Nicholas Longworth. Robert Duncansson painted murals in the generous entry foyer that were recently restored. Like the CAM, the Taft has a wonderful restaurant for delicious lunches, too.
My youngest lived in the DC area for several years and every time I visited I'd try to go into the city and visit one of the dozens of Smithsonian museums. The Postal Museum is amazing, just a little gem. We saw the PostSecret exhibit there, so moving. The Renwick Gallery was a lovely surprise, also housed in an old mansion. The Contemporary Art Museum's building itself is an object of beauty, even more true about the National Museum of the American Indian (and the cafeteria with native foods by region... chef's kiss).
Not in DC, but the Heard Museum is a fabulous collection of Native American Art. I was blown away by the mathematical precision of ancient and lovely bowls and baskets. The Eiteljorg Museum of American Indians and Western Art in Indianapolis is a must-see, and so is the Buffalo Bill Center of the West in Cody, WY, which is actually five museums in one massive building.
But my favorite art experience anywhere was the too-brief visit we made to the D'Orsay when Steve and I were in Paris. I could have moved in to that magnificent space and wallowed in the magnificent art.
YAY! Glad you and Steve were able to visit the Musee d'Orsay.
DeleteSadly, we waited until late afternoon of our last day in Paris. We both could have spent hours longer there.
DeleteAh, that's too bad. Going there was definitely a highlight, my mom was grinning ear-to-ear all afternoon.
DeleteLOVE the Heard in Phoenix That's one I go back to over and over again in a city that has one of the world's most fabulous mystery bookstore, The Poison Pen.
DeleteThe Poisoned Pen bookstore in Scottsdale is great. Visited once and now am enjoying watching all the live author book launches via Youtube/FB. And I have been to the Heard museum once.
DeleteI can imagine visiting the Musee d'Orsay. (It must be the help of the mouse pad beside me, with their non-dizzying version of "Starry Night Over the Rhone," bought on one of its two visits to Chicago.) What I can't imagine is ever really leaving it. I'd want to stay until it got the way the Art Institute is for me and a friend/former colleague, when we can get on the phone, mention one of "our" paintings or galleries, and just open it up in our minds.
DeleteMargaret, the light in the building is perfect, and even though the space is enormous it's been divided into smaller and more intimate spaces for the art. It's just so beautiful and well appointed. The art collection is just first-rate, too.
DeleteGrace Koshida maybe you and I should hit the National Gallery in Ottawa together. I haven’t been in a few years. I live just North of Ottawa in Wakefield, Quebec. Like some others I have been frequenting smaller venues and absolutely love galleries like the one at Les Fougeres, or the annual fall artist tour in Chelsea where you can visit artists in their homes. I still love the big galleries, don’t get me wrong, but meeting the artists and enjoying their art around the beautiful Gatineau River and park are an inspiration to me.
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
DeleteANON: Yes, that would be nice. Have you been to the Ottawa Art Gallery (OAG) on Daly Street? FYI, I am not dissing the National Gallery by my infrequent visits. Like you, I have enjoyed visiting smaller galleries. And frankly, I had to go to other provinces to see more extensive collections of those Canadian artists I mentioned in my original post.
DeleteSince I don't know who you are, maybe you can contact me on via the new Reds & Readers FB group. Either free Thursday night admission or I may be able to get a free general admission group pass from the Ottawa Public Library.
Oops don’t know why I am anonymous will try to fix that!
DeleteNo matter all the moving, my mother always managed to get us to a library and/or museum. Consequently I grew up loving both. I used to walk to the Met in NY, the De Young in San Francisco, and the main museum (name eludes me) in LA. Like Hallie, I also liked those reproduced rooms and loved to imagine the lives back in the day.. But I loved all the paintings, although the medieval ones not so much. I loved landscapes and portraits and still life from an early age: all those textures, all that light and shadow. It was a wonder to me how a painter could achieve it.
ReplyDeleteMy husband loves art as much as I do, and in our two trips to Paris, we hung out at d'Orsay, because we are both nuts about the Impressionists. I would go back in a heartbeat. We also went to the Rodin museum the second trip. It was remarkable to see all those sculptures.
This conversation comes on the heels of a WhatsApp conversation I had with my Blues-singer niece a few days ago: No matter what the troubles of whatever troubled age one lives in, the art lasts.
I loved visiting the De Young museum. Been there multiple times.
DeleteHow is it possible taht I haven't been to the De Young? Will have to remedy that... because that's ANOTHER place with a world class bookstore, BOOK PASSAGE just north of SF in Marin.
DeleteHallie, De Young remodelled, and,sadly, all the reconstructed rooms are gone. (Great painting exhibits, though. And in Sacramento, lots of Californian and American impressionist paintings )
DeleteOh, that's too bad about De Young. Can you still go up the observation tower? Great views of the city. I liked going to De Young & the close-by California Academy of Sciences while visiting GG Park.
DeleteToo many to list, but one place we love here in Key West is the Custom House museum. Lots of island history, and works by folk artist Mario Sanchez. And several rooms about famous hurricanes and the Flagler railroad. If you come, don't miss it!
ReplyDeleteI was there last time I was in Key West - Sanchez's work is wonderful.
DeleteThe time I spent in Paris after high school and before university gave me hours and hours to explore museums and galleries. My favourite was the Jeu de Paume, where the Impressionists were then housed. Loved their style! That same year, I visited friends in Florence and was awe struck by the Uffizzi where I saw Botticelli's Venus: wow.
ReplyDeleteBotticelli... in person!
DeleteMy mother introduced my sister and me to art museums, and both of us still visit them whenever we can, wherever we are. I have been to many of the museums that have already been mentioned. I love the National Gallery in London and the Metropolitan in New York, but I think if I have to name favorites, they'd probably be the Frick Collection in New York and the Isabella Stewart Gardner in Boston because they are relatively small and accessible collections in beautiful mansions and have indoor patios with flowers!
ReplyDeleteSo interesting! The Frick was one of the first museums I ever went to when I came to NYC. And it IS so much like the Gardner here in Boston. Going through it's like visiting old friends.
DeleteLocally, the Carnegie Museum of Art has a wonderful permanent collection and hosts many marvelous traveling collections. We did a "field trip" with our SinC chapter a couple of years ago where a docent brought out a couple of paintings, talked, and then we wrote.
ReplyDeleteThere are a couple of smaller galleries that are lovely as well, like the Westmoreland County art museum.
Oh, and I forgot to add that when I was growing up, there was the Albright-Knox gallery in Buffalo. Some of the pieces made me scratch my head (a yellow square, red triangle, and blue circle on a white background is art?), but I always loved the Impressionists.
DeleteWe also have the Warhol here in Pittsburgh and a lot of his stuff is pretty zany.
Adding to my list...
DeleteI don't know much about art, but I've enjoyed museums when I travel--the Tate in London, Uffizi in Florence, Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam come to mind. Since my son lives in Chicago, I've visited the Art Institute there a couple of times and really enjoyed it. I love a small museum in Cuernavaca, Mexico called the Robert Brady House. Brady was a very flamboyant art collector who was from the US, but lived in Cuernavaca. He was friends with Peggy Guggenheim and Josephine Baker and other celebrities from the early 20th century. When he died, he left his home and collection to the city of Cuernavaca and it's now a fascinating museum.
ReplyDeleteCurrently for Spanish class, we are reading a biography of Leonora Carrington, surrealist artist and lover of Max Ernst. It's a fascinating history. Peggy Guggenheim plays a part in her story too. Leonora was one rebellious woman!
Which reminds me of the Peggy Guggenheim collection in Venice - a house very much in the spirit of the Gardner and the Frick but obviously more contemporary.
DeleteI have only been to the Art Institute in Chicago once, but oh my! Grew up going to the Met, still a favorite. Last summer, I visited the Fine Arts museum in Lyon, France, and what a treat! I almost had the galleries to myself, and I could go again and again! It also had a beautiful open air terrace restaurant that I enjoyed so much.
ReplyDeleteI think you could spend a WEEK in the Art Institute and not see it all. The botanic garden outside the city is AMAZING and worth a day-long visit.
DeleteI remember my astonishment and delight when I walked into the Gardner Museum in Boston for the first time. The Renwick Gallery in DC, which is part of the Smithsonian, Chihuly glass the most memorable special exhibition. Whistler's Peacock Room in the Freer Gallery, also part of the Smithsonian. The Courtauld Gallery in London is a new favorite, as is the remodeled Cluny Museum in Paris.
ReplyDeleteInteresting how Chihuly has taken a lot of flak for being TOO accessible. I think his work is amazing... there's a huge work of his in Boston's Museum of Fine Arts new wing.
DeleteThe museums in Paris are truly amazing. The d'Orsay, Louvre, and the Pompidou Modern to name a few.
ReplyDeleteI live in San Diego and have a few art museums - but unfortunately nothing really great. I wish art museums were free to the public. That would get visitors in and then rely on sales from gift shops, maybe a book store and coffee shop inside.
I love African art but there are very few great African Art museums. Unfortunately.
But great African Art collections. Boston's MFA has a few great rooms of it. And of course NYC's Met.
DeleteOh, just last week we went to the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, to see the MFA's exhibit of John Singer Sargent portraits. It was incredible--and all the more fascinating because the exhibition also included some of the real dresses his subjects wore! The clothes were astonishing in their craft: the tiniest of buttons and laces, and then lace and satin and tulle and , oh, the stitching. (And no one these days has waists that small, I have to say.) And then the magic of Sargent--how did he paint, for instance, black satin--and make it shimmer and shine and fold and drape? How do you paint fabric? That's another gift from museums--you never look at the art the same way after you see it in real life.
ReplyDeleteIntereseting how clothing/costumes have risen to the status of art, and deservedly so.
DeleteHank, I remember seeing the Mary Cassett paintings at a museum in Boston. I visited years ago and I remember walking through the Public Gardens and saw their Swan Boats. I cannot recall the name of the museum.
DeleteDiana
Hank, I so agree. It's what entranced me early on: velvet, satin, lace ... How do painters do such a marvelous job of capturing the texture so that you can almost touch it!
DeleteTwo amazing clothing displays I've seen: the Mary Quant/Twiggy era at the Victoria & Albert in London. And a fabulous retrospective at Musée des Arts Décoratifs in Paris, with well-preserved clothing going back to the 1500's. Some of the heavily hand-embroidered pieces, both from that time and in present day, are most deservedly considered art.
DeleteNot much opportunity to visit any museums around here, but I do remember 2 times, both in Ottawa. One was an exhibit of Karsch – it may have been in a hotel corridor, as I can’t remember, and the other was war art in the new War Museum, which really made you think. For some weird Facebook reason, there was a clip of Mary Pratt’s picture of fruit on tinfoil. Stunning.
ReplyDeleteKarsch: going to look that up.
DeleteHe is famous for the picture of Churchill without the cigar in his mouth. Sorry spelled wrong, Yousef Karsh.
DeleteMARGO: Your memory of seeing Karsh's exhibit might have been at the Fairmont Chateau Laurier hotel in downtown Ottawa. Karsh & his wife lived in the hotel for many years.
DeleteI forgot to add that my husband and I visited the Chihuly Museum in Seattle last summer. It was amazing! — Pat S (again)
ReplyDeletePAT S: Thanks for that tip about Chihuly, will be going to Seattle this April. I saw a smaller exhibit while in St. Petersburg FL a few years ago.
DeleteGrace, make time for CoCA Seattle, if you enjoy contemporary art.
DeleteKAREN: Thanks. I looked up CoCA's opening hours which are Thursday - Saturday, 11am - 4pm. Left Coast Crime is taking place in Bellevue, not downtown Seattle, on those days, so I'll see if I can sneak away to get to Pioneer Square.
DeleteAnd while you’re in the neighborhood drop down to Tacoma and the Museum of Glass on Dock Street. Elisabeth
DeleteAnd, Grace, (I only checked my memory, not the websites) but the glass museum is closer to Seattle Center than Pioneer Square. But haven’t lived in Seattle area since 1992. And there was good public transport … bus…then. Elisabeth
DeleteELISABETH: I will have time on Tuesday, Wednesday before LCC to travel further, so thanks for that suggestion. Downtown Seattle has probably changed a lot since the last time I visited in 2011.
DeleteAnd even more since I lived there! Elisabeth
DeleteGRACE, when I went to CoCA it was with a friend who lived in Bellevue. We were "playing tourist" that day, so we took a bus from Bellevue. In case you are able to go that route. It was a long time ago, maybe 15 years, and things change.
DeleteWish I could go, too. I love the Seattle area, and my daughter just lives a couple hours south in Portland.
Elisabeth and Grace, yes the Chihuly Garden and Glass Museum is in Seattle Center (aka by the Space Needle), not near Pioneer Square. So worth the trip! — Pat S
DeletePAT S: OK, it should be easier to visit Chihuly & Glass Museum since they're both at Seattle Center. Thanks for the clarification! And these to my list for Seattle.
DeleteKAREN: Yeah, I hear you about Seattle. It was a last minute decision, I only registered to LCC and booked my plane ticket last week. Finally figured out the best dates for my Singapore/Malaysia trip was just after LCC. So I arrive home to Ottawa on April 17, and depart again on April 22.
DeleteI think you can take some credit, Pat! WELL DONE
ReplyDeleteDuring my travels, I visited many wonderful museums. I loved the Children's Museum in Scotland. There was also the Portrait Gallery in Scotland.
ReplyDeleteThe V&A museum in London was wonderful too. I remember the wonderful paintings. I got to see some of Rodin's art at the Musee d'Orsay. the Van Gogh museum was closed the day I was in town so that is on my bucket list for the next time I travel to Europe. The living museums are also wonderful because I get to see how people lived many years ago.
The Frick museum and the Morgan Library in New York are beautiful.
In Washington, DC, I loved the American History museum, especially with the Palm Court and their old fashioned sold fountain restaurant. The restaurant is not there anymore, though the History museum has changed over the years. Still fun to see the exhibits. Another wonderful museum is the Air and Space Museum. One of these days I want to see the International Spy Museum.
Diana
Diana, I was hoping to visit the International Spy Museum on my last long trip the area, but it was closed for renovation for a long time. It sounds like a lot of fun.
DeleteWe did visit the Spy Museum. It’s interesting, but definitely not a Smithsonian level of quality. But it is right across the street from the Portrait Gallery! — Pat S
DeletePat S, perhaps the Spy Museum was geared more for young children than adults?
DeleteKaren in Ohio, thanks! I had a similar experience in Europe with closed museums while I was there.
Diana
My mother was an art teacher, so we went to museums like other kids went to amusement parks. Our primary museum was the Nelson-Atkins Gallery of Art in Kansas City, where we would go every summer when we were in KC to visit our grandparents.
ReplyDeleteBut New York has such a wealth of museums! Oh, my! The Met was undergoing a lot of renovation when I went to New York back in college, but the Frick was wonderful, and MoMA? Wow! I didn't really know what was in their collection so I just decided to go up to the top floor and work my way down. As I reached the top of the stairs and turned toward that first gallery? BAM! Van Gogh's Starry Night. Picasso's Guernica was still in town then, too, and that was another stunner.
These days, if NYC is a travel stretch, I'll continue to recommend the Nelson, and Bentonville, Arkansas' Crystal Bridges is simply mind-blowing. Alice Walton took her Wal-Mart millions and amassed the most amazing collection of American art, with a heavy emphasis on portraits of strong women. Norman Rockwell's Rosie the Riveter is there, as is Andy Warhol's Dolly Parton, plus so many more it should be savored over several days. Wherever you have access to an interesting collection, just go!
By the way, Hallie, if you're still into jigsaw puzzles, and have really good reading glasses, the Met publishes a puzzle that is a map of the museum, covering all the galleries and many of the landmark pieces. Great fun!
DeleteGigi, Wow!
DeleteThanks, Gigi!
DeleteI was fortunate enough to grow up in a museum loving family. So I have always visited museums wherever I was. As a student in Paris, I spent hours in the Louvre, in the Jeu de Paume , and all ov the other smaller one also. My husband is like minded so we always spend our days in museums when traveling and our nights at the theatre. After retirement I became a Docent at the High Museum her in Atlanta and get to learn about art and artists. The Docents also have travel program and we have traveled all over the US visiting other museums. Several years ago we had an three year arrangement with the Louvre called Louvre-Atlanta and we even go to go spend a week in Paris with special visits and behind the scenes mornings.
ReplyDeleteHallie, I loved that book and have given it to many of my friends. Atlanta
I love museums. When the Hooligans were youngsters, we went to ALL the museums. Their fave being the Natural History Museum in Mesa (hard to compete with dinosaurs and panning for gold), but they also loved the Heard Museum (Native American art and civilization) in Phoenix, the Scottsdale Museum of Contemporary Art (in our neighborhood), and my favorite the Phoenix Art Museum, where they were introduced to Andy Warhol, and I always appreciate their fashion collection (which is saying something since I'm not a fashionista). It covers four centuries of fashion and I discovered it while writing the hat shop mysteries. It's a must see if ever you're in Phoenix.
ReplyDeleteWhen we visited museums when the Hoolies were young, I would tell them to pick one painting that resonated with them, take a picture of it, then share it with the fam and tell us what it made them feel and why. It made for some fabulous conversations. :)
I head for the art museums in every city I visit. I’m a member of the art museums in San Francisco and never tire of the Impressionist wing at the Palace of the Legion of Honor. But my favorite would be the Orsay in Paris. Monet still takes my breath away
ReplyDeleteI love the Met - it was still free when I worked in NYC and I would often spend my lunch hour wandering the floors. Even in the worst of weather, the pointillists brought a breath of fresh springtime. Don't remember if they were part of the permanent exhibit or not. Things get foggy after 50 years!
ReplyDeleteMy favorite special exhibition was the Hermitage exhibit at the National Gallery of Art. I returned several times to surround myself with the paintings, always grateful they had survived the revolution.
I love museums and have lots of favorites. We have a very good museum here in Dallas and Fort Worth, the DMA (Dallas Museum of Fine Art) and the Kimbell in Fort Worth. In London I always try to visit the V&A--so fabulous--and I love the National Gallery and the National Portrait Gallery. However, I am embarrassed to admit that I have somehow never made it to the Tate Modern!
ReplyDeleteBut my most memorable museum experience was my first visit to the Jeu de Paume, which housed the Impressionists then, before they were moved to the D'Orsay. I'd grown up with Impressionist prints and had some wonderful art books, but nothing prepares you for the power of those paintings in the flesh, so to speak. They were literally breathtaking.
Debs, have you ever gone to the Dali Museum, next to the London Eye? It's very extensive (albeit weird as heck), which is even more amazing, since there are no fewer than six museums solely dedicated to his work. And there are still other museums, and private collections, that also own his work. He must have been incredibly prolific.
DeleteI didn't realize there was such a thing, Karen, thanks! I'll add that to my London list!
DeleteI’ve been to some wonderful museums over the years, many world renowned but others that I discovered without knowing about them.
ReplyDeleteOne of those is the McNay museum in San Antonio TX. It was created by Marion Koogler McNay who amassed an outstanding collection of sculptures, artwork and other media during her lifetime and donated both the collection and her home and grounds to the city. It includes artists such as Rodin, Matisse, Picasso.
There is the State Museum in Juneau Alaska which has wonderful dioramas and displays of the history of the state.
The Kunstmuseum in Basel Switzerland, I saw one of the early Picasso clown paintings when I looked at the sign listing the artist and was surprised to see who it was since I was only familiar with his later abstract and cubist work.
The Portland Art Museum in Portland ME. Another smaller museum with works by many important well known artists such as Mary Cassett, Winslow Homer, even Renoir is represented.
A counselor once advised me to visit the art museum and see the many portrayals of women's beauty by artists through the ages, in glorious variety. <3 I especially love the Impressionists at the St. Louis Art Museum (https://www.slam.org) and the littles love the mummy room.
ReplyDelete-- Storyteller Mary
I love the Pre-Raphaelite vision of idealized women... there are several wonderful portraits at the Boston MFA.
DeleteAdding to the above, there is a one room museum at Carnegie Hall (free admission). It has all sorts of memorabilia documenting the history of the hall including one of Benny Goodman’s clarinets.
ReplyDeleteThere are many other musicians represented showing musical manuscripts and concert programs.
Posters advertising various lectures and other events are also on display.
Don’t forget the British Museum. One of the lesser known areas is the room that holds all sorts of time related objects such as a ship delineating a breakdown of a clock into different phases of time.
You can take a virtual tour of the museum
Oh, the British Museum is so fabulous! But you need to devote DAYS there, not hours!
DeleteFrom Celia: I'm a little late to the party, and party it is. Thanks Hallie. In fact I was so enchanted by everyones stories that I went and ordered your book too. But thinking back, way back I remember watching Civilization, a wonderful TV show by Lord Kenneth Clark (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kenneth_Clark). This was being shown in Manhattan possibly at NYU, it wasn't on TV per se. I was enthralled. I have never considered that I was a visual person but watching the show made me realize that I did love to look at painting, sculpture etc. and of course I started with the Frick, the Met, the Cloisters to name a few. Museurms had not been on my to do list when I lived in London though I did make a special trip to the National Portrait Gallery to see the portrait of Richard lll having read The Daughter of Time. Looking back, way back I realize that I have been blessed in visiting many museums and art sites around the world and with the internet I can still revisit memories like Sigiriya in Sri Lanka where I saw the wall frescoes. I was 11.
ReplyDeleteCelia, I think that Kenneth Clark series was shown on PBS? Does anyone else remember watching it?
DeleteI ordered it, too, Hallie.
DeleteWall frescoes in Sri Lanka... going to google that now. Thanks, Celia.
DeleteI love the Ware collection of Glass Flowers and Plants at Harvard’s Natural History Museum.
ReplyDeleteThe Gardner Museum has always been my favorite, and as such, I mourn the lost of the treasures stolen back in the March 1990. Just days before I had been standing in front of Rembrandt’s “Christ in the Storm on the Sea of Galilee”, admiring its power.
Don’t ask me to choose one favorite work of art, or even 10…. There is so much beauty and exhilaration to be savored in so many diverse works, spread across the globe! So many stories…
The Cloisters is my number two favorite museum…
OK, stopping here, because I could go on and on…
I've always loved the Cloisters, too - I went there often when I was in college in NY.
DeleteA vote for Crystal Bridges in Bentonville AR. All American art in a stunning building in a beautiful location with outdoor sculpture walks and a Frank Lloyd Wright home. It was my mom’s favorite and I went many times with her when visiting. I can neither confirm nor deny if some of her ashes are scattered on the grounds.
ReplyDeleteWay to go, Lisa!
DeleteHallie, I came across this book in my search for books on grief. I've had some rather helpful ones I've come across since Kevin died, and I plan on reading The Met. I can completely understand why someone in deep grief would walk away from a job at The New Yorker and become a guard at a museum.
ReplyDeleteWhen Philip was stationed at the Pentagon, my favorite place to go was The National Gallery of Art. I think the guards got suspicious
of me I spent so much time drooling over Leonardo di Vinci's Ginevra de' Benci painting. It's encased in glass so you can see the painting on the back of it, too. And, I loved to look closely at Vincent van Gogh's paintings, looking at his deep brush marks and imagining him doing them. Then, there was my great love for the paintings of Johannes Vermeer. So many favorites--Mary Cassatt, John Singer Sargent, Claude Monet (whose gardens I will see in May), Paul Cezanne, Edgar Degas (paintings and sculptures). I saw a Romare Bearden exhibit there that was wonderful. I've left out many that I loved to view. In D.C., there was also the Corcoran Museum, but it closed in 2014 and The National Gallery acquired its works of art. The painting Niagara by Frederic Edwin Church was featured at the top of the steps as you ascended to the second floor of the Corcoran. It is a huge painting and makes quite an impression. I'm glad its still in D.C. I've been to the Dali Museum in Florida, the old one and the new one, and I loved both of them.
This spring, in a few months, I'll be going to Paris, so I expect to add the Louvre and the Musee d'Orsay. I imagine there will be some less well-known ones I'd like to fit in. This will be a river cruise with three additional days in Paris, so I won't have a lot of time. Monmarte area is on my list because of its artistic connections. And, we're stopping at Monet's house and gardens on the cruise.
Oh, and I'm probably the only person I know who has been to the Kit Carson Museum on a lonely stretch of highway in Kansas
During my senior year at Wheaton College in Norton, MA after I had completed my degree requirements, I took art history and one studio art class. During our Covid incarceration, a cousin introduced me to Dr. Rocky Ruggerio's free weekly zoom meetings which focused on art and architecture in Italy. Having already toured extensively in Italy previously, my husband and I have really developed a deeper appreciation for not only art, but also the religion, politics, commerce and lifestyles of those times! Rocky gives many small group tours all over the USA including many of the BIG museums in NYC and DC.
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