At the Museum Near Where You Live

[pjme]

I was at the Singer museum in Laren ( near Hilversum / the Netherlands) last saturday. It has a great collection of late 19th ,early 20th century art ( paintings, etchings, sculpture) - most of it by Dutch artists. Recently an exceptional landscape ( ca 1918) by Belgian Gustave Van de Woestyne was bought



From the museum's website :http://www.singerlaren.nl/en/index.html
From May 9 through August 31, 2008 Singer Laren presents an exhibition of works by mentally handicapped artists associated with health care organization Amerpoort. These artists are continually confronted with the challenge of overcoming objections that they are not 'real' artists and their art is not 'real' art. The works in this exhibition were inspired on Singer Laren's core collection, plus a number of works on loan, including two paintings by Vincent van Gogh.

The exhibition was truly exceptional and had an invigorating effect on me.

Laren is a ..bit "posh" , but looked quite lovely under the sun.



Recommended if you are in the Netherlands !

[Wanderer]

Here's the current big exhibit at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in NYC:

J. M. W. Turner
July 1, 2008–September 21, 2008
The Tisch Galleries, 2nd floor

The first retrospective of the work of J. M. W. Turner (1775–1851) presented in the United States in more than forty years, this international exhibition highlights approximately 140 paintings and watercolors—more than half of them from Tate Britain's Turner Bequest—along with works from other collections in Europe and North America.

If you can't get to UK, this is the best way to see these fantastic paintings!  Below is a sample -- Disaster at Sea (also known as The Wreck of the Amphitrite)

I would love to be able to visit this exhibition. I made sure to visit Tate Britain when I was in London; Turner was one of the main reasons.

[karlhenning]

Treasures of Assyria exhibit opens today at the MFA.  During the pre-opening Member Days, I heard a lot of people praising the exhibit, and its display.

[knight66]

Tasos, I am looking forward to the Byzantium exhibition; I intend to visit it.

Sarastro, A friend of mine is just back from Moscow. This time he made a point of getting to the The State Tretyakov Gallery. Looking through the booklet, it reminded me of how much I enjoyed seeing a Repin exhibition in Finland a couple of years ago.



This is an absolutely vast canvas and in life the picture is luminous. It was staggering to suddenly encounter it. It was on loan from St Petersburg.

[orbital]

Just started this weekend in Istanbul: Dali.

http://muze.sabanciuniv.edu/exhibition/exhibition.php?lngExhibitionID=85&bytLanguageID=2

Apparently it is the biggest Dali exhibition ever conceived outside Spain. I am not sure if I will go though. As much as I think Dali was a genius, he is one of those painters whose works look better in photographs than in real life 

[Taxes-]

I figure no one will object if I bring this thread back to life?

I'm not much of a museum goer usually, but I made an exception for this. Getting the chance to see those massive, larger than life paintings was a great experience, definitely recommended to anyone that will be around the Montréal area this summer.

Thomas Moran
Mountain of the Holy Cross
1875
Oil on canvas
208.6 x 163.2 cm (82 1/8 x 64 1/4 in)


As a plus, you also get to see a short exhibition on the works of Frédéric Back, the guy who animated "The Man Who Planted Trees". (and if you haven't seen this before, you really should. It's very, very well done)

[Valentino]

Oh well...

[karlhenning]

Tasos, I am looking forward to the Byzantium exhibition; I intend to visit it.

Sarastro, A friend of mine is just back from Moscow. This time he made a point of getting to the The State Tretyakov Gallery. Looking through the booklet, it reminded me of how much I enjoyed seeing a Repin exhibition in Finland a couple of years ago.



This is an absolutely vast canvas and in life the picture is luminous. It was staggering to suddenly encounter it. It was on loan from St Petersburg.

Beauty!

[Brünnhilde ewig]

During my 24 hour stay in Seattle for Die Walküre I have time to go to the Seattle Art Museum to view their special exhibit of an Andrew Wyeth collection.  0:)

[DavidRoss]

Thursday we caught SFMoMA's preview show of Richard Avedon photos 1946-2004, plus Robert Frank's "The Americans" and Georgia O'Keeffe & Ansel Adams: Natural Affinities.  

[knight66]

I very much enjoy Avedon. He manages that magic that great portrait painters produce; to get beneath the skin of, and tell us about, the sitter.

I have long admired Ansel Adams' work; but was very disappointed when I went to an exhibition. The photographs were very small. I had in my head, epic size pictures to meet the spectacular landscapes. The rooms were so crowded with people, the pictures hung at eye level with large groups clustered and craning necks, I gave up. Looking at them in books seemed a better experience altogether.

Mike

[karlhenning]

I have long admired Ansel Adams' work; but was very disappointed when I went to an exhibition. The photographs were very small. I had in my head, epic size pictures to meet the spectacular landscapes. The rooms were so crowded with people, the pictures hung at eye level with large groups clustered and craning necks, I gave up. Looking at them in books seemed a better experience altogether.

Yes, alas!

[matti]

Tasos, I am looking forward to the Byzantium exhibition; I intend to visit it.

Sarastro, A friend of mine is just back from Moscow. This time he made a point of getting to the The State Tretyakov Gallery. Looking through the booklet, it reminded me of how much I enjoyed seeing a Repin exhibition in Finland a couple of years ago.



This is an absolutely vast canvas and in life the picture is luminous. It was staggering to suddenly encounter it. It was on loan from St Petersburg.

Staggering indeed, because we encountered the exhibition more or less as a surprise. I also remember another encounter with a painter at the same area in the fortress of Lappeenranta, a lady who was hosting her own exhibition, a person whose talents were verbal rather than visual... Took some effort and social skills to get out of her ghastly exhibition in a polite manner.

[knight66]

Juha, That was because you have a talent for social connections and became her instant new best friend, while I looked at her puzzling work and waited...and waited. But usually your gift brings benefits, there will inevitably be the occasional bore.

I can easily recapture that moment of being confronted by the giant Repin. Shivers of amazement. I could imagine the deafening sound of the swirling water.

Mike

[matti]

Juha, That was because you have a talent for social connections and became her instant new best friend, while I looked at her puzzling work and waited...and waited. But usually your gift brings benefits, there will inevitably be the occasional bore.

Mike

It was also very hot, and no air-conditioning.

[SonicMan46]

During my 24 hour stay in Seattle for Die Walküre I have time to go to the Seattle Art Museum to view their special exhibit of an Andrew Wyeth collection.  0:)

Hi Lis - we are fans of Andrew Wyeth and have been to several exhibits - one a while back in West Palm Beach which was a more general one; and a more recent showing of the Helga Pictures at the Mint Museum in Charlotte - amazing 'how many' portraits he did of this lady (just one shown below) - even bought the exhibit book!  Dave 

[knight66]

It was also very hot, and no air-conditioning.

More of the same for next month please...any good exhibitions there or in Tampere???

Mike

[matti]

Well... I might paint some canvases, hang them up on sauna walls and give lenghty narratives on each one of them while throwing more water on the kiuas. Otherwise... nothing special as far as I know.

[knight66]

Well, there is always the spy museum again.

Mike

[Brünnhilde ewig]

Hi Lis - we are fans of Andrew Wyeth 

and a more recent showing of the Helga Pictures

Dave, then you probably have the marvelous book "The Helga Pictures which includes so many of his sketches, the groundwork for the finished masterpieces. Looking at those few basic lines I can not understand why there are still so many 'experts' classifying Wyeth as an illustrator. Norman Rockwell was an illustrator, Andrew Wyeth was an artist!