Visit the Cleveland Museum of Art more frequently

My parents have a membership, so when I’m home it’s something we do together. I went to the Tiffany & Co. and Lalique show, African power symbols, Lee Friedlander photography… it’s working out.

I’ve also been going to the Akron Art Museum more. The membership works for both (yay!). I fell in love with some of Edward Weston’s work. Pepper above.

the last time i was there was 2000, but i moved away..:(

I went to the Cleveland art museum today. They had a Monet show. It was wonderful. I got to see my beloved Water Lilies, and see many other works that I had not yet had the pleasure of viewing. If I feel like searching for photos later I might put some up of my favorites.

The beloved painting looks something like this… It makes me cringe how little justice this photo does the the actual work of art. Alas, we have been apart for far too long.

Casas is noted for his drawings and paintings of people. He has several drawings like this of different figures. They weren’t particularly breathtaking or outstanding because they were so outrageously unconventional. They were beautiful because they were simple and human, and because they placed an ordinary person in an every day scene, but detached it from the world around it, completely drawing the observer’s eye to the figure and the expression of the figure’s face and body. He caught someone in the moment, when they thought no one was watching. Sometimes that’s when you discover how beautiful someone can be, in any sense of the word.

This painting really fascinated me. I spent several minutes trying to figure out how the figures were related to hunting. And that’s the beauty of art: it’s completely the artist’s interpretation and his impression of the world.

I thought this was one of the most interesting paintings in the exhibition. Apparently x-rays show that the man was originally a self-portrait of Picasso, but he eventually changed it. Also, the woman crouching in the middle was originally a scene of a winged human flying over a crouched woman. It’s a little bit eerie thinking about the thought process that went into it, and the fact that there’s a different painting hiding under the surface layer.

I went to the Museum on Saturday. The bad news is they’re renovating the entire museum so they only had one show up, which means I didn’t get to see my favorite painting. The good news is that the only show they had was beyond amazing. It was entitled Barcelona! and it had Spanish and Catalyn artwork from the Modernisme, Avant-Garde, and Civil War time periods. They had work by Picasso, Gaudi, Miro, Salvador Dali, and a new-found favorite of mine, Ramon Casas. The work was breath-taking and thought-provoking. I only wish I could share the experience with you.

The above photograph depicts some of Gaudi’s architecture. The curves and the textures just look so natural and earthy. It’s simply… brillante.

Since 43 Things won’t let me put more than one picture in an entry… I’ll make a separate entry for each photo.

I shall be visiting the Cleveland Museum of Art this Saturday.

There’s a particular painting that I always stop to look at. It’s a Monet, a melange of purples and blues and greens, an impression of sky and water lilies spilled over an enormous canvas that covers an entire wall. I always stop and sit on the cushioned bench in front of this particular piece. I take in it’s beauty for several tens of minutes, and then I move on, letting my eyes and the creatively curious part of my mind wander. But I always feel like the trip wouldn’t be worth it without that single painting.

I look forward to our next meeting.