Clark Museum August 23

 

 

 

I expected to be disappointed in the renovation because I am generally disappointed in "improvements" and change.  However, I was delighted.  We were so taken by the newly designed grounds and the museum itself that we upgraded our daily fee of $20 each to a $50 each fee for a membership.
And why not?  12 years and 145 million dollars ought to amount to something fine.
So we will be back to be strengthened and ennobled.
We arrived early so we had time to walk a bit around the outside. 







There is a fine reflective pool that has three levels.  In the clear water are stones that reflect shape and color.  I liked it although I am more drawn to water with fish and frogs and this was sterile.

We also managed a very good parking spot because we arrived before the volunteers began to usher folks into spots.

I used Elizabeth's camera to capture a few pieces of interest.  Most of them I remember seeing before.  She went on to see other exhibits, but I stayed for the most part in the permanent collection, meeting again old friends.
Homer always captures me.  The Undertow seems a bit overdramatic, but still grabs attention and reflects the power of the sea.
Homer is right in the door



This painting may be a bit overdramatic, but it remains one of my favorite paintings of all times.



This painting of a young bride caught my attention this trip.  I have seen it many times, but not reacted to it quite as deeply as I did on this visit.





I like this one. Saco Bay.   There is some controversy about the strawberry colored sky, but Homer liked this painting just the same. Check out the discussion here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IVswL-Io6FM



In the room with the Homer is this fine sculpture.  It caused quite a disturbance when it was first displayed in Boston.  Too much of woman revealed, it seems.
http://www.americanart.si.edu/collections/search/artwork/?id=15475









There is a replica in Boston now
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frederick_William_MacMonnies


This painting below , called The Card Players was painted in 1646, three hundred years before I was born.

There seem to be other paintings, all by David Teniers on this subject.  I am trying to find how this one is related

 

 

 

Here is a great guide to this particular painting.  The artist is from Belgium.  In my uneducated mind, this is very much like what Goya painted.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eAy-8B6i83g

Here is the one Goya I saw at the Clark.  It is a tiny one and not nearly as rich and dramatic as those in the Prado.  However, it delighted me to see it.
http://www.pubhist.com/w12998

I loved this painting.  She is so attractive.  It is eirie how we look like this and then we don't.  However, this woman may have died looking much like this, birthing her second child.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EteiWnOrSKQ

 

This particular painting always has been one of my favorites.  I have it on a postcard at home.  However, here I can catch all the beautiful rich marble that is part of the way they choose to display it.

 

This is Perseus rescuing Andromeda by Cavaliered Aspiro

  

I have always liked this one.  Again we have a dragon.  Dragons are so prolific in the mythology of so many cultures, I always wonder if there is any basis to them or if they are simply imagination.
This blog takes an interesting look at dragons in three Parts
http://writersthoughts-brianna.blogspot.com/2010/03/did-dragons-really-exist-part-1.html
http://writersthoughts-brianna.blogspot.com/2010/04/did-dragons-really-exist-part-2.html
http://writersthoughts-brianna.blogspot.com/2010/04/did-dragons-really-exist-part-3.html

In addition, here is a site that collected ancient art on dinosaurs.
http://www.genesispark.org/exhibits/evidence/historical/ancient/dinosaur/

There is an extensive china collection in one room and it looked delightful.  Here is one I liked, probably for the birds.




It seems I have seen all of these once before somewhere but the place slips my mind.  I like it as well,  So narrative.

 

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The link below shows a painting that I've always loved.  Women of Amphisa.  Who cannot love a painting full of wonderful women, especially when it is part of an antiwar statements.   Here is the painting and a discussion of the story behind it.

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iYyk7WQePsk

 

Here are details on the painter http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lawrence_Alma-Tadema

 

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I was surprised that I could rise to the impressionists Like Monet and I did.  I liked Tulip Fields and The Geese.  Usually, I need things to be more realistic.

I liked the idea that Renoir and Money were painters who often painted each other's families.  So this caught me

 

http://www.wikiart.org/en/pierre-auguste-renoir/madame-monet-reading



 

 Elizabeth showed me the abstracts.  One was this piece, sewed together in an unusual shape.  I thought the stitching seen in the second photo was much like what I do when I repair my pants, so I think they too are art.

 

 

 

 

In the hall I saw one that Billy Neuman would like.  I intend to send it to Bill with a note to save all his mathematical scribbles as one day they may too be art.