Thursday, March 30, 2006
Culture vulture: Doing museums
Thank you to everyone who e-mailed submissions for my upcoming columns on art teachers' and children's art. It's been so enjoyable to find your gems waiting in my inbox! Stay tuned ...
Museums: Doing, well-done, done in
Recently, I had the chance to go to Washington, D.C., for two short visits, two weekends in a row. Washington is probably my favorite major American city. I don't imagine I will be able to exhaust its artistic offerings in my lifetime, but it's my goal to make a decent attempt. I've been fortunate to have visited many museums around the world, including the Hermitage in St. Petersburg, Russia, but this recent trip reminded me that museum-hopping is not for the weak or inflexible. Following are some lessons I had to re-learn from my recent forays in the capital.
Doing
When deciding which museum or exhibit to visit, be both realistic and flexible with time and expectations. Doing a museum is a kind of sport ... you have to identify your tasks and goals and be willing to learn from what the pursuit brings to you.
The Renwick Gallery of the Smithsonian Institute (americanart.si.edu/collections/index.cfm) suddenly appeared in my path when I accompanied my daughter and her friend around the White House. Grant Wood, artist of that ubiquitous American icon, "American Gothic," was the featured artist at the museum. "Eh," I said to my daughter. "It's Grant Wood, ... but it's free, so let's go in."
Dumb bird!
Turns out Grant Wood's body of work encompassed so many different styles, and had such charm and humor, that it was an eye-opening delight to see it. Additionally, there was a huge parlor gallery filled to the ceiling, hundreds of paintings five-high, with George Catlin's portraits of American Indian men and women, and outdoor scenes from lifetimes ago. A terrific collection of modern artisans in glass, wood and mixed media rounded out a wonderful, doable gem of a museum. So, abandon preconceptions, all ye who enter a new place of art, and don't over-research your targets, or you might miss out on a lovely, unforgettable surprise.
Well-done
"Dada," an exhibit of avant-garde art born in Europe during World War I, continues through May 14 at the National Gallery of Art. Pictured: "L.H.O.O.Q." by Marcel Duchamp, 1919. Pencil on reproduction of Leonardo da Vinci's "Mona Lisa."
Your time is limited. You've got five floors and several far-flung wings of quarry to pursue. What's your strategy? Here are some of my favorites.
Take the elevator to the highest exhibit floor, and make your way down by stairs after finishing each floor. Due to the labyrinthine nature of many museums, it's better to do a complete room before entering another, as opposed to doing one side of a room and expecting you will loop back to see the other side. Not all rooms connect the way you might expect. Check your time as you make your way through. If a room is packed, look to see if heading in an opposing direction around the room will afford you a better look than your natural proclivity to turn the same way.
Another strategy: Know thyself. I love fossils and minerals, but unless I'm in a museum renowned for its offerings, I'll skip those rooms or wings and concentrate on the areas that offer something a little more unique. A trilobite in the Hermitag looks remarkably like a trilobite in another museum. I'm not choosing art over history here, because I love a good history museum, but if I'm in the Hermitage, do I really need to allocate time to look at things that are more universal, such as Stone Age tools? Even though you can't necessarily do every room, at some point, you need to declare you are done, because museums don't allow sleepovers (if only!). You'll want to feel that you saw enough of the museum's strengths and still enjoyed the opportunity to marvel at things found along the way.
Done in
The National Gallery of Art (www.nga.gov) deceived me. With only two floors, I felt confident that I could breeze through "Cezanne in Provence," see an exhibit of Frans van Mieris (an exquisite jewel!), hit "Audubon's Birds of America" and catch the much-heralded "Dada" exhibit.
But it was the wings that did me in.
West Wing. East Wing. I was winged and dazed by too many periods of art before I ever set foot among my beloved Moderns. I missed Audubon completely, decided I had seen enough of Cezanne in museums across the globe to avoid the line for that show, and by the time I walked into the first of numerous Dada rooms, I was crying for my mommy.
The museum was too good, and too much for my little time and my little mind. I call this phenomenon "vaticanosis," after my mother's expectorant reaction to viewing the far too numerous treasures of the Vatican. I wasn't nauseous, but I was feeling disconnected from reality. Overdoing had done me in.
Art and museums are not for the weak. Even an experienced art lover can get too much of a good thing, but I've never seen that stop one of us from coming back for more later. When you hunger for art, and love it passionately, can you ever really be done?
Miriam Young is a creative director living in color in Roanoke.
Note: Some Web links provided by the Culture Vulture may contain art featuring nudity, strong political content and bizarre visions. Parental guidance is suggested. Please respect the copyrights of the owners when visiting online galleries, and obtain artists' permission before downloading any images.
