Northern Spain–From Bilbao to Santiago de Compostela...Physical, Mental, Spiritual, Emotional………Sublime!
Northern Spain–From Bilbao to Santiago de Compostela...Physical, Mental, Spiritual, Emotional………Sublime!
“We explore the art and artists of our time through groundbreaking exhibitions, performances, and a world-class collection.”
Georg Baselitz — German, 1938
Baselitz’s signature is his painting of subjects upside down. He, not unlike other Eastern European artists of this era, i.e Anselm Kiefer, reflect the dark time and place that they lived and the view can be haunting. He painted his subjects upside down as a gesture toward irritating thew viewer and sharing the pain.
Mark Bradford–California, 1961
Bradford’s signature is grid-like abstract paintings combining collage with paint.
Bradford combined the old with the new in his unique style, creating an outstanding installation experience. As you walk the amazing circle of the third floor of the museum, you are surrounded by floor to ceiling art in endless detail.
Bradford took colored paper and reproductions from French artist Paul Philippoteaux’s nineteenth-century cyclorama, currently on view in Gettysburg National Military Park, Pennsylvania and created 8 panels, each over 45 feet long, to totally surround the entire 3rd level of the museum.
The result is a installation piece blending the past with the present, and illusion with abstraction.
Ron Meuck–Melbourne, Australia working in the UK, 1958
Meuck’s parents were German born toy makers. Can you imagine being a child using your unlimited imagination playing with your parent’s workshop of a wealth of materials and techniques that they used to make their puppets?
Welcome to Georgetown….The legend behind the Dumbarton Bridge….
Georgetown was formed in the mid 1700’s, way before Washington D.C, was the capitol. The Tudor House and the surrounding Georgetown Heights are famous for the view for Georgetown Residents, of the early activity coming up the Potomac toward Washington City.
The charming story of Georgetown’s merge with Washington and the construction of the Dumbarton Bridge is a great read:
https://the-interesting-story-of-the-dumbarton-bridge
The Buffalo are the largest cast single pieces of bronze!
The Landscape….A lovely look around…….
Because the first pair of snazzy sunglasses were made in Cleveland? ……Not quite.
In 1920 there were 80 millionaires in this country and 60 of them were in Cleveland (that’s why we have so many churches!) We were an industrial giant because of our location on the Erie Canal and the Great Lake’s Lake Erie. Cleveland was the Car Capital before Detroit.
Cleveland’s rich history is legendary. This portrait was painted by Jeptha Homer Wade. An aspiring young artist that needed a day job, he contracted the implementation of telegraph poles. Fascinated by the technology, he bought up the regional carriers to found Western Union.
In this portrait of Nathaniel Olds, these eye-catching green glasses are a gallery focal point. The first oil lamps invented were called Argand lamps burning whale oil. With the light they produced being 6 to 10 times brighter than candles, the concern was for potential damage to sight. (In 1929, they became Foster Grant’s and the rest is history….)
In the meantime, when the lamps were adapted to use kerosene, they became very affordable and popular…and who was in the fuel business? The Rockefellers…
The story of generations of Rockefellers and Wades, are only a few of many favorites of the founding fathers of Cleveland and the Cleveland Museum of Art.
The first Director of the Cleveland Museum or Art, Fred Whiting, needed to open the museum in 1916 with a collection. How would one begin to choose? With Cleveland being an industrial giant, he collaborated with the Metropolitan Museum of Art and decided on Arms and Armor, to be a source of insipiration and education with iron and steel being so near and dear to the hearts of this community. With all of the renovation, and the gallery itself being updated through the years, the arms and armor collection has always remained in the same spot in the museum, considered to be sacred space.
World renown art critic with a story of her own, Sr. Wendy, chose CMA as one of the 5 museums she visited on her trip to the US. She considered this painting to be our “most important and the most important of her trip”. There is so much to see in the symbolism as well as color and design of this piece. It also has a very interesting story behind it’s Provenence……
CMA has an internationally reknown Asian collection due to the dilligence of long time legendary Director Sherman Lee.
This object receives international attention because it is the most complete of its kind from the Middle Ages. When the conservation lab demonstrated how it would work using alcohol, the results were described as magical. It was used to circulate rose scented water for the amusement of the ultra wealthy Royals as they entertained in the early 1300’s!
These stunningly beautiful alabaster carvings have the most minute of fine detail in thier faces, expressions, clothing and posture. each is so totally unique and such a fine piece all by itself. together they inspire awe, mystery, curiosity and admiration. You can see them here or all of the rest of the 41 can be viewed at the tomb of Phillip the Bold in Lyon, Fance.
Visitors stop me in the museum to ask if we have a John Singer Sargent? Here it is, a gift by JSS to his cousin Ralph Curtis, of the East Coast Curtis family and foundation, on the occasion of his marriage to Lisa Colt Curtis of Colt firearms fame. The setting is the Palazzo Barbaro in Venice, owned by the Curtis family and enjoyed by such famous guests as Isabella Stewart Gardner, Henry James, Vernon Lee and Monet.
Do we have a Turner? We have THE Turner…..JMW Turner was watching the Burning of the House of Lords and Commons from one of the boats in the bottom right hand corner of this picture!
Museums have copies of Rodin’s Thinker, with the stipulation that they be displayed high above the heads of the viewer suggesting Dante looking down on the chaos of his ‘Inferno’. Ironically CMA’s Thinker became part of the chaos when it was bombed in 1970 by an anti war demonstator. After much consideration and debate, Conservation decided to keep our Thinker as it is.
We have some great Claus Oldenburg stories in Cleveland, not the least of which is about the symbolism behind this piece. Our program with Case Western Reserve university allows us tour the museum with them regularly. I love to visit this piece with dental students. How could a tube of toothpaste have meaning? How about as a symbol of transition? Think about it!
Don’t miss a visit to GalleyOne while you are in the new atrium. It includes an interactive, state of the art, 40 foot wall, with every object in the museum on a loop that allows you to select the objects of your choice, plug in your iPad or iPhone and download your personal custom tour…..or choose from the many options…..https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bV5X_WlEQho
You will find CMA to be one of the most beautiful, inviting, impressive museums of your travels!
Home to the Cleveland Museum of Art is a charming area called University Circle. It includes, within sight and walking distance, the Cleveland Botanical Gardens, Cleveland Museum of Natural History, Case Western Reserve University, University Hospitals and Severance Center, the home of the Internationally renown Cleveland Orchestra.
The Cleveland Botanical Garden, located in the University Circle neighborhood of Cleveland, Ohio, in the United States, was founded in 1930 as the Garden Center of Greater Cleveland. It was the first such organization in an American city. ……..The centerpiece of the $50 million 2003 expansion is The Eleanor Armstrong Smith Glasshouse, an 18,000 square foot (1,700 m²) conservatory home to plant and animal life from two separate biomes, the spiny desert of Madagascar and the cloud forest of Costa Rica. http://www.cbgarden.org
Cleveland Museum of Natural History Collection features over four million specimens in the fields of anthropology, archeology, astronomy, botany, geology, paleontology, zoology, and wildlife biology …https://www.cmnh.org/
SEVERANCE HALL America’s Most Beautiful Concert Hall
Regarded by many music-lovers as one of the world’s most beautiful concert halls, Severance Hall opened in 1931 as the home of The Cleveland Orchestra…..A $36-million restoration and expansion of Severance Hall was completed in January 2000. The two-year Renovation Project was undertaken to restore the hall’s original detailing, http://www.clevelandorchestra.com/plan-your-visit/severance-hall/
Up (East) Euclid Avenue is MOCA, Museum of Contemporary Art.
MOCA
Through approximately eight exhibitions a year, all accompanied by public and education programs, http://www.mocacleveland.org/about
Because MOCA is a non-collecting institution – one of the relatively few such contemporary art museums in the country
Taking a right at MOCA onto Mayfield Road and going up the hill will take you into Murray Hill, Cleveland’s Little Italy, with lots of charming food and gallery choices
Up the hill from Little Italy is Lakeview Cemetery with the spirit of Cleveland Founders including the Rockefellers, Wades, Huntingtons, Mathers, Severances, Eliot Ness, as well as James A. Garfield, 20th President of the United States, in the James A. Garfield Monument.
Lakeview Cemetery
As a tourist destination, The Lake View Cemetery offers a variety of walking, bus, and self-guided tours. Among the tour topics are geology, architecture, horticulture, nature, animals, and history. In addition, there are picnic sites and hiking trails…...
Don’t miss the The Wade Chapel, designed by Louis Comfort Tiffany, commissioned by the Wade family in honor of Jeptha Homer Wade, founder of Western Union. http://www.lakeviewcemetery.com/pointsofinterest.php
North from the museum will take you to the Cleveland Cultural Gardens in Rockefeller Park, former backyard of the John D. Rockefeller family.
Hidden in Plain Sight is a short documentary about discovering the world
that’s right in front of you. It follows Luke Frazier as he reflects on the
Cleveland Cultural Gardens, the journey that led him there, and his discovery
of its beauty, history and wonder. http://www.hipsdoc.com
Within walking distance with a flavor for the neighborhood, check out