Wadsworth Antheneum Museum of Art June 13, 2010

The visit to Wadsworth Antheneum on Sunday June 13, 2010.

It was surprising that the museum did not have a lot of visitors. We arrived at about 12:45pm and stayed to almost 4:30. I took a tour, with my wife, of the museum with approximately 8 other visitors.
I recommend taking a tour, because it is great to hear other persons perceptions of the paintings. Interacting with the people helps understand that there are many different ways to look at the art works.

Pablo Picasso
Spanish, 1881 - 1973

Still Life with Fish, 1923
Oil on canvas

The Philip L. Goodwin collection, 1958.220







Pablo Picasso
Spanish, 1881 - 1973

Woman of Algeries (after Delacroix), 1954
Oil on canvas

Gift of the Carey Walker Foundation, 1994,2.2






Picasso is a great artist, but his paintings are not my favorite. What is interesting about his artworks is that you need to take time and read into them in order to understand them. I was able to appreciate them more with while looking at them with the tour group. It is nice to have other people prospective on the art works. The art works are what is called cubism, which for me is hard to understand what the artist is trying to tell me.




Salvador Dali
Spanish, 1904-1989

Apparition of Face and Fruit-Dish on a Beach
1938
Oil on canvas

The Ella Gallup Summer and Mary-Catlin Summer Collection Fund, 1939.269






This painting I enjoyed do to it has many different images inside the painting. When you look at the painting you can see a dog, a face, the dogs collar is a bridge, a vase on a table, the table could be a beach, and I am sure their are more images in the painting.


Willem Claesz Heda
Dutch, 1594 - 1680

Still Life with Goblet, 1631
Oil on panel


You can tell from this painting that this table setting is of a wealthy family, because of the plates and the goblet.










Nicolaes Berchern
Dutch, 1620-1683

A Moer Offering a Parrot to a Lady, c 1660-70
Oil on canvas








Benjamin West
American, 1738-1820

Saul and the Witch of Endor, 1777

Oil on canvas









John Trumbull
American, 1756-1843

The Death of General Mercer at the Battle of Princeton, January 3, 1777, 1831

Oil on canvas

John Trumbull is going to be the artist that I will write my second paper on. I enjoyed his artworks on the battles of the United States fighting for independence. He also has a painting of the signing the Declaration of Independence.

Jeth and I visited the Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art on June 13, 2010. This was a Sunday afternoon and we found free parking on the streets of Hartford. The museum is located on 600 Main Street in Hartford. The museum is very easy to find by using either I-84 or I-91.

The Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art is America’s oldest public art museum. The museum opened in 1842. Daniel Wadsworth founded the Wadsworth Atheneum to share the excitement of art with the public. The fine arts were only available to the wealthy at this time and the acquired the arts for their one enjoyment. Daniel Wadsworth founded the museum so the public also could enjoy the fine arts (paintings, sculptures and antiques…).

Daniel Wadsworth (1771-1848) was an amateur painter, architect and scenic traveler. His father earned a fortune in trade, banking, and insurance and introduced Daniel to the arts and architecture of the royal courts of Europe. Daniel later married Faith Trumbull in 1794. Faith was the daughter of Jonathan Trumbull, the celebrated historical painter.

The Wadsworth museum was the first to lead the way in art collecting new art movements. It was the American museum to acquire works by Caravaggio, Frederic Church, Salvador Dali, Joan Miro, Piet Mondrian, Balthus, Joseph Cornell and many more. Today the museum holds Hudson River School landscapes, Old Master paintings, modernist masterpieces, Meissen and Severs porcelains, early American furniture and the MATRIX contemporary art.

I was surprised, again, this is a famous museum in downtown Hartford and the museum was relatively empty with patrons. Maybe a lot of people are like my wife and me and do not think about traveling to a museum in their free time to take in the history and appreciate the fine arts.

When we entered the museum a tour was just starting, so we decided to join the tour. I highly recommend taking these tours, because they give great insight about the artist and what is happing during the period the artist is making the art works. The tour guide also invites communication among the people taken the tour to give their opinions of the art works. It is fascinating to hear the different views of the art works and what people like and dislike about the art works. The tour is very in lightening and lasted about an hour and we viewed about 10 different artist.

When entering the museum the first area that you enter is the Renaissance to Romantic, which featured El Greco from The Prado. This gallery has European works from the mid-15^th to the mid-19^th centuries.Avery Court, which is to the left of Renaissance to Romantic, holds European Art of the 20^th Century and has three smaller galleries surrounding one corner of European Art of the late 19^th Century. This collection is from Western Europe.

The next gallery is Hudson River School Collection, which is to the right and behind Renaissance to Romantic gallery. This is my favorite collection of paintings. The paintings are all of fabulous landscapes. I was so fascinated with the paintings that I bought a book called “Hudson River School – Masterworks from the Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art”. One of the paintings that caught my eye was Coast Scene, Mount Desert, 1863 by F.E. Church. I thought about writing about him but decided on someone different. Now, when I enter a museum, I look to see if they have a Hudson River School Collection. I was surprised that Yale did not have a gallery set up. They told us that those paintings were in storage.

Another gallery we went into was a gallery of Contemporary Art. This is a collection of Mid-Century Abstraction, Pop Art, Contemporary Art and video. This section was helpful with the tour, because with these works of art it was nice hearing different prospective.

Three special galleries that were going on during our visit were Sol Lewitt, Matrix and High Water Marks: Art & Renewal After Katrina. Sol Lewitt is a Hartford-born artist (1928-2007). Sol Lewitt was a leader in art movements of Conceptualism and Minimalism. Justin Lowe/Matrix 159. There are four interconnected rooms with different environments to engage the individual, quite unique. High Water Marks: Art & Renewal After Katrina is a collection of black artist on how they documented the destruction of New Orleans from Katrina and how they are committed to its recovery. These paintings and art works of High Water Marks really do depict what those people went through.

The Artist that I chose to write about is John Trumbull. I enjoyed his paintings of the revolutionary war. John Trumbull (1756-1843) was born in Lebanon, Connecticut. He was the son of Governor Jonathon Trumbull. He served in the Continental Army early in the Revolutionary War as an aide to Washington. He resigned his commission in 1777 and devoted his time to painting. He went to London and studied under Benjamin West in 1780. He was imprisoned and finally deported on suspicion of treason. John went back to London in 1784 and with the suggestion of Benjamin West and the encouragement of Thomas Jefferson; he started painting scenes of national history. In 1784, in West studio, he painted Battle of Bunker Hill and Death of General Montgomery at Quebec which are at the Wadsworth. These two paintings are what gave me the idea to write about him. In his lifetime, he produced about 250 small paintings of the War of Independence and miniature portraits.

Trumbull sold a series of 28 paintings and 60 miniature portraits to Yale for annuity of $1000 in 1831. These paintings were originally kept at classical art gallery, designed by Trumbull on Yale’s old campus. I assume that these paintings are in storage, because they were not available for viewing at Yale Art gallery.

The John Trumbull birthplace in Lebanon Connecticut was declared a national Historic Landmark in 1965.

I would recommend on a museum visit to ask if any of John Trumbull’s painting are available for viewing. It is always nice to take in a part of American History, especially from someone who actually lived it.

www.WadsworthAtheneum.org

http://www.answers.com/topic/john-trumbull

Tod's Visit to New Britain Museum of American Art

My wife and I went to the New Britain Museum of American Art on Saturday June 5th.

This is not something that we ever think about doing, we have taken friend's children to science museums, but I cannot remember when was the last time that I have been to an art museum.

I did enjoy the experience and looking forward to to the next museum.




This is a picture of my wife Jeth and I in front of a wall surrounded with painted plastic cups. It's amazing how the colors light up the whole stair case. The title is The Gravity of Color by Lisa Hoke



























This is a stunning painting of the collapse of the Twin Towers in New York City.

The title of the painting is The Circle of Terror and Tragedy by Graydon Parrish.












Artist: Thomas Hart Benton will be the the artist that I will write about first. I enjoy his paintings of American History. The paintings seem to be of the time of the mid 1800s to early to mid 1900s.

The paintings are called The Arts of Life in America.



Other exhibits that might be of interest to the ladies is an exhibit of shoes. Another good exhibit of watercolor paintings.





I will leave you with the most unique sculptures.

These sea creatures are made from pencils






I was planning on going to Wadsworth Antheneum on Sunday, but I had to go to work. I am planning on going this Sunday depending on my work schedule.


Thank you, Tod



The New Britain Museum of American Art

My wife Jeth and I visited The New Britain Museum of American Art on June 5, 2010. We went on a Saturday morning and I was surprise that it was so quiet and not too many people there. As we pulled in the parking lot I was impressed about the architecture of the building, the landscape and the adjacent Landers House. As we went to the lobby there was another surprise, there is no entrance fee because it’s a Saturday morning; its free admission between 10:00am through noon so I just give a donation.
The New Britain Museum of American Art is located next to historic Walnut Hill Park, designed by well known landscape architect Frederick Law Olmstead. This museum has a new state of the art building which is the Family Chase building and was opened on April of 2006. This building was design by Ann Beha architects of Boston. The Museum is a 43,000 square foot building which includes 10 galleries inside and it is a 2 storey building. This museum was founded in 1903 and became the first museum in the country that dedicated to American Art. In 1934, a wealthy widow name Grace Judd Landers donated her house as a museum which is now called the Landers House next to the new building.
This museum has collections of approximately 10,236 works of arts. It dated from 1739 to present. As a first timer visiting an art museum, I was happy to see paintings that I can only dream of or seen in text books. I was impressed of the whole collection. I enjoyed the Colonial and early republic, the earliest painting I’ve seen is a portrait of Benjamin Coleman, 1739. This is oil on canvas by John Smibert. He was responsible of bringing this type of merchant portrait in America.
The Hudson River School and The Met paintings gallery was next to the Colonial and Early Republic gallery. These paintings caught my attention due to fact they are landscape paintings. I have always enjoyed going on vacations and looking at the landscape that surrounds you. These are the type of paintings that you see in many of peoples homes. One such artist’s works that stuck into my mind is The Parthenon, painted in 1871, oil on canvas. The painting was done by Frederic Edwin Church (1826 – 1900). He was born in Hartford Connecticut. These collections were on loan, so we were unable to take pictures.
The next exhibit was Ruthie Davis Shoes. This exhibit is mainly for the ladies, due to the fact that they are all ladies shoes. Ruthie Davis is a designer and has her studio in New York City. The exhibit has many different styles pumps and pictures of movie starts and singing artist wearing them. One such artist wearing Ruthie Davis’s shoes was Beyonce. When you check Ruthie Davis’s web site, she does design men’s shoes as well, but the exhibit didn’t have any men’s footwear.
The illustration collection has a chandelier, which looks like it was made from blown glass. I did not get the artist name for this work of art. The other one was a work called The Gravity of Color by Lisa Hoke. This art work was on the walls as you climb the stairs to the second floor. You do not realize it until you get close to the art work that it is made from painted plastic cups.
The first exhibit that you come to when entering the second floor is The Great American Watercolor. This exhibit is open from April 24 – July 3, 2010. I learned to appreciate these works of art, because I painted with water color when I was a child. The paintings are vibrant, but I was told it is the most difficult because it is hard to hide mistakes. These paintings need to in dim light, because the light will cause them to fade.
One other fun exhibit to look at was at a distance it looks like sculptures of sea anatomies and other sea creatures that are so life like. When you approach these sculptures, you realize that they are made of sharpened pencils that are put together to form these animals. I need to take better notes, because I did not write down the artist name.
One painting that I did not fully understand was by Greydon Parrish, The Cycle of Terror and Tragedy: September 11, 2001, 2002-2006. The painting had three young boys, blind folded and two of them holding a plane. I believe that the two planes represent the ones that went into the Twin Towers. The three boys playing might mean the innocence that no one fore seen what was about to happen. Two young men were standing and screaming and both were blind folded. My thought was that were screaming in terror and anger. One young man and one old man was lying on the ground, this might represent death that occurred on that day. The three ladies in the picture were I was confused on what they could symbolize. They were partial nude and two of them were handcuffed. Hopefully someone can help me with this one.
The paintings or I should say mural by Thomas Hart Benton. Thomas Hart Benton has his own exhibit in the New Britain Museum of American Art. I enjoyed looking at his work. The first one that caught my eye was The Arts of Life in America, Indian Arts, 1932. As I looked over his morals they painted pictures of what American life was like in the 1920’s through the 1930’s.
Thomas Hart Benton was born in Neosho Missouri 1889. He studied in the Art Institute of Chicago in 1907. Thomas then spent five years in Paris was he formularized himself with new trends and especially with cubism. He returned to the United States in 1912, when he became an advocate of synchronism (nonobjective mode of painting, featuring intersecting planes, close to French orphism, which is a branch of cubism). In 1916 Benton submitted works that showed influences of synchronism to Forum Exhibition of American Painting. During this time Benton could not resolve his conflict felt between nonobjective and realism in his painting. Benton was in the Navy from 1918-1919, which he felt that set him on the course to devote art entirely American subjects in a realistic manor.
Benton made studies between the years of 1919 and 1924 for his projected series of mural decorations based on American history. From 1924 to around 1931 he traveled the mid-west and the south taking notes of the people he observed and incorporated that into his paintings. Benton has painted scenes of mining, farming and lumbering, also turbulent growth of a boomtown. He also made paintings that showed corruption and inequality that was going on at that time.
Benton continued painting well into his 80’s. He painted a portrait of Harry Truman and it was completed shortly before Truman’s death. Benton died in January, 1975, just as he finished the basic work of a mural illustrating the origins of country music, commissioned by the Country Music Foundation in Nashville.
Benton is truly a fan of American way of life and it is nice to look at his art work and appreciate the painting and murals of American history through his eyes.

References:
http://www.answers.com/topic/thomas-hart-benton-painter
http://www.nbmaa.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=22&Itemid=46