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Apologies and an art review
Nov. 22nd, 2009 08:24 amFirst of all, I have to apologize. I've been very off-line. Part of it has to do with the fact that Mason is off school right now. We've been spending our days enjoying his vacation by doing nothing together. Plus, the big computer has been occupied, as we're trying to beat the "insane" level of Luxor 3. Important stuff, don't ya know?
A lot has happened since last we talked.
First of all, my folks came to town and we checked out the Minneapolis Institute of Art's "Louvre" traveling exhibit. My short review: save your money, and start budgeting for a trip to France.
The long review goes like this: we went on a Saturday, which was insanely busy, and the show was sold out to non-members, which meant that if we wanted to go to the special exhibit, we had to fork over the $50 for a membership. My folks paid for me (they got a discount ticket for their membership), but even at $2.00, I'm not sure it was worth it. Have you been to MIA? The traveling show room is really only about three rooms big. You COULD pack a lot into those rooms, they certainly did when they brought the "Myth and the Magic of Star Wars" there. But, as I've been describing this, it was like they took all the weird stuff they keep in the basement of the Louvre and brought it to Minneapolis. There were two "oh wow!" names there: Da Vinci and Michaelangelo. But in both cases, what they showed us were studies/sketches of nothing special, which is to say it wasn't even the practice piece for something famous... it was, in the Da Vinci case, a sketch of sunlight over a drape of cloth in pencil. It was clearly GOOD, but nothing that made me catch my breath.
I'm not an art historian or even necessarily a good judge of fine art, but I have had the experience of walking through a museum and having my breath taken away by something that just HIT, you know? At the Louvre the first time, it was seeing Nike/winged victory on the stairs (it's since moved). The second time, it was David's "Oath of the Horatii." (sp.) At the Chicago Institute I have "Aries Chastising Cupid" stop me dead and an El Greco rock my world. At the MIA there's a bust of a woman behind a gauze veil done in marble that is stunning as well as a smaller painting by a lesser known artist of a rug merchant bazaar that also gave me that "oh!" moment.
At this little exhibit, there wasn't anything like that for me. Some people seemed stopped by some of the bigger paintings, but, well, in the parlance of writers, "they didn't quite grab me, alas." And art *is* subjective, so perhaps, if you go, you can tell me about the amazing stuff I missed, but I'd recommend to most people to save their money and go "masterpiece" hunting through the main museum. The Minneapolis Institute of Art is full of some really crazy cool stuff.
And it's free.
And I think that's what it comes down to. For fifty bucks, or even whatever the regular cost is to get into the special exhibit hall, you kind of expect.... well, something. If not something that knocks your socks off, at least a sense that you've seen something "important." Maybe that's not a fair expectation, but it's there all the same.
And, for those of you locally, be warned: the art the MIA is using in its advertising is NOT in the show. (It's a Renaissance looking-painting, though I think it's more in the style of Waterhouse, of an alchemist/astronomer gazing at a globe. Not there.)
Anyway, I'm being bugged to read from the KING'S QUEST COMPANION... so I'll leave things here for now.
A lot has happened since last we talked.
First of all, my folks came to town and we checked out the Minneapolis Institute of Art's "Louvre" traveling exhibit. My short review: save your money, and start budgeting for a trip to France.
The long review goes like this: we went on a Saturday, which was insanely busy, and the show was sold out to non-members, which meant that if we wanted to go to the special exhibit, we had to fork over the $50 for a membership. My folks paid for me (they got a discount ticket for their membership), but even at $2.00, I'm not sure it was worth it. Have you been to MIA? The traveling show room is really only about three rooms big. You COULD pack a lot into those rooms, they certainly did when they brought the "Myth and the Magic of Star Wars" there. But, as I've been describing this, it was like they took all the weird stuff they keep in the basement of the Louvre and brought it to Minneapolis. There were two "oh wow!" names there: Da Vinci and Michaelangelo. But in both cases, what they showed us were studies/sketches of nothing special, which is to say it wasn't even the practice piece for something famous... it was, in the Da Vinci case, a sketch of sunlight over a drape of cloth in pencil. It was clearly GOOD, but nothing that made me catch my breath.
I'm not an art historian or even necessarily a good judge of fine art, but I have had the experience of walking through a museum and having my breath taken away by something that just HIT, you know? At the Louvre the first time, it was seeing Nike/winged victory on the stairs (it's since moved). The second time, it was David's "Oath of the Horatii." (sp.) At the Chicago Institute I have "Aries Chastising Cupid" stop me dead and an El Greco rock my world. At the MIA there's a bust of a woman behind a gauze veil done in marble that is stunning as well as a smaller painting by a lesser known artist of a rug merchant bazaar that also gave me that "oh!" moment.
At this little exhibit, there wasn't anything like that for me. Some people seemed stopped by some of the bigger paintings, but, well, in the parlance of writers, "they didn't quite grab me, alas." And art *is* subjective, so perhaps, if you go, you can tell me about the amazing stuff I missed, but I'd recommend to most people to save their money and go "masterpiece" hunting through the main museum. The Minneapolis Institute of Art is full of some really crazy cool stuff.
And it's free.
And I think that's what it comes down to. For fifty bucks, or even whatever the regular cost is to get into the special exhibit hall, you kind of expect.... well, something. If not something that knocks your socks off, at least a sense that you've seen something "important." Maybe that's not a fair expectation, but it's there all the same.
And, for those of you locally, be warned: the art the MIA is using in its advertising is NOT in the show. (It's a Renaissance looking-painting, though I think it's more in the style of Waterhouse, of an alchemist/astronomer gazing at a globe. Not there.)
Anyway, I'm being bugged to read from the KING'S QUEST COMPANION... so I'll leave things here for now.