Sunday, August 28, 2016

Crystal Bridges, Part II

This post continue my lengthy and drawn-out story-telling and many photos about a summer Arkansas adventure, which was first introduced in this post, and further explained in this post.

While neither L nor I knew what to expect from Crystal Bridges, it's safe to say that we were both pleasantly surprised. The museum was well worth the trip, and kept pleasing us at every turn -- even the salted caramel iced latte that I ordered from its coffee bar was a winner. (Seriously, can anyone tell me where I could find such a drink in the DC area?)

There was so much wonderful art to be seen, and I took about a trillion photos, more of which I share with you here. Paintings in particular are difficult to photograph, so these are not truly accurate representations of the colors and textures we saw.
"Hall of the Mountain King" (Marsden Hartley, ca. 1908-1909)
"It's Very Queer, Isn't It?" (James Henry Beard, 1885)
"Interior/Before The Picture" (William Rimmer, 1872)
As a complement to the colors of the fabrics in the above painting, I present for your viewing enjoyment two snapshots of Gabriel Dawe's work "Plexus No. 27." I was excited to spot this piece, as I had loved his gorgeous "Plexus A1 " at the Renwick Gallery late last year (about which I wrote in this post). Now I can confidently say that Dawe is my favorite living artist -- these works are just amazing.

To get very "meta" about all of this art, I will throw in a photo of another work on display at Crystal Bridges -- a work whose colors and linear shapes echos those in Dawe's piece.
"Innate Thought" (Julian Stanczak, 1965)
Two of my favorite pieces in the entire collection were both very bright and colorful.
"Au Cafe (Synchromy)" (Stanton MacDonald-Wright, 1918)
Detail of "Red Flower" (Joseph Stella, 1929)
The building itself was worth photographing!
More to follow! It may be 2017 by the time I wrap up telling you about this trip, but better late than never, right?