Art Visit

OK! Well if you couldn't tell by the picture...I did my art visit at the Crocker Art Museum in beautiful Sacramento, CA. I went on Saturday October 13th. The Grandma Moses exhibition was on display at the time. If you have no idea who she is, then here is a brief explanation I found in the Columbian Dictionary: "Grandma Moses (Anna Mary Robertson) (1860–1961) U.S. primitive painter. Grandma Moses only began painting when she was in her late 70s. Her scenes of country life, based on recollections from her youth, became world-famous through prints and greeting cards.

I found the Grandma Moses exhibition pretty interesting, but the art did look very much like a greeting card. In addition to her art, she is well-known because she is a female artist that started at such a ripe, old age. Most of the stuff that we saw on display were a lot of country scenes painted on relatively small canvas and a lot of art that was put on china plates (very grandma-ish).

That was interesting, but I found my next stop (the California room) to be much more appealing.

The California room is the big room upstairs with wall to wall paintings and there is a hallway that wraps all the way around it. I really liked a lot of the paintings, but there were two in particular that really caught my eye. The first was a very large painting in an amazingly ornate frame. This beauty was painted by Charles Christian Nahl. He was an American, but he was born in Germany. He lived from 1818-1878. It painting is entitled "Love Chase" and it was created in 1869. Nahl used oil on canvas to create this very life-like representational masterpiece. I really liked it because it was realistic, fun, flirty, and in your face.

The second painting that I liked was a beautiful landscape. There were a lot of landscapes and some of them were "ginormous," but surprisingly the one that I liked the best was one that was a little more inconspicuous. As you can see, it is a pretty simple and serene scene, but really beautiful. I think I liked it mainly because I really like tropical landscapes better than mountain and valley lanscapes. The painting is untitled and it was created in 1866. The artist is Arriola Fortunato of Mexico who lived from 1827-1872.

After viewing the California room, we walked around a lot more and checked out everything, but nothing really intrigued me until I went into the room filled with modern art. There was all kinds of cool stuff to look at. It was perfect for anybody that may have A.D.D. However, you can't touch anything. I didn't like the creepy, digital, kinetic art that was basically a pair of eyes that looked back and forth. I really liked this work that was all of these tiles that had random images carved in them. From close up it didn't look like much more than that, but from far away you could see the face of our president George Bush Jr. It was pretty neat. Even after reading the description, I still don't really get how they did it.

That was very note-worthy, but my favorite work out of the whole museum was this one by Stephen Kaltenbach. He lives right here in Davis and he was born in 1940. This fascinating piece was made over the course of seven years from 1972-1979. The medium Kaltenbach used was acrylic on canvas. I found this painting to be grand in literal size, but also in meaning. I think it is of great value to include the description of the painting that was on the wall next to it:

"Portrait of my Father is the artist's major achievement in painting. In a barn near Winters, California, Kaltenbach labored for seven years creating this testament to the spiritual grappling with life, love, and loss that confronts us all. Inspired by a photograph of his father, who endured a long illness, Kaltenbach conceptualizes the fleeting moment of his father's last breath and ultimate acceptance of death. The haunting realism of this portrait is both masterful, offering homage, and poignant, celebrating the universal experience of the human bond.

At every intersection in the intertwining of abstract arabesques with details of whisker and pore is the presence of color and light. This shimmering ornament infinitely expands off the canvas, speaking to the presence of holiness in light and inspiring our own reflections upon spirituality."

I just loved reading that. This is just such a cool story and the background and analysis that you get from the description is awesome. I have a new appreciation for viewing art in person. This painting is a perfect example of how viewing art in person is better in so many ways. It was just so much more impressive viewing it in person compared to viewing it here in this blog. The painting is showcased on a huge wall and you can see so much detail and the beautiful arabesques add the perfect creative touch. You can't get the same feel from looking at a picture in a book or on a computer screen. Art can change so much depending on where it is presented, the scale at which it is presented, the time of day at which you are viewing it, the intensity of the lighting, etc.

I found my trip to the Crocker Art Museum to be really enjoyable. I went with my brother, sister-in-law, and my wonderful girlfriend Katherine. We all had fun viewing and commenting on all of the different works that were on display. I thought the trip was very possibly going to be kind of boring and somewhat of an inconvenience given my busy schedule, but it turned out to be really fun. It probably would have been boring if I went by myself, but we made a field trip out of it. We even capitalized on our opportunity to go to Sacramento by going to Chevy's on the river. I think it would be fun to go back sometime especially if they have an exhibit that sounds interesting.

Yay for the Crocker Art Museum! : )