This was such a surprise to me. Given many options and limited time and energy, I usually do not opt to spend time in portrait galleries. I cannot forget the miles of dark and hideous ones I saw in Russian galleries. But, as has occasionally happened, I was wrong.
This gallery is so fantastic that I went to it four times, and made another brief trip just before I left for the airport to return home. A no admission (not even tipping is allowed at the coat check) policy is so convenient to breaking up visits.
It consists - a far as I could tell - of four buildings joined (recently) by this lovely covered courtyard designed by the famous architect, Norman Fosters (Beijing terminal, Gherkin London, HSBC H.K., Reichstag dome & proposed new tower at 1 Bloor West).
In terms of oils, their great treasure is Bierstadt's Among the Sierra Nevada . It has its own specially (low) lighted room. It is 6 feet by 10 feet and is spell binding. They have placed a comfortable sofa in front of it and most people to sit down as it takes quite some time to inhale this truly grand and massive work. I had never realized that he painted it in Rome, then toured it around Euro cities before it ever reached the U.S. Europeans did not know that it is an imaginary scene and it is written that it set off considerable emigration of people believing that the whole of the U.S. was so Edenic.
This is actually the work I wanted to view just one more time before I left for the airport.
That entire spectacular institution is overflowing with genuinely profound works of art and sculpture. The buildings and rooms are attractive and everything is displayed perfectly. I was especially impressed with the large number of almost unknown WPA artists, whose works are truly first class. I think the only well known big name among them was Edward Hopper.
There is a somewhat small section of folk art, but the quality is so high that we are forced to spend time with nearly every item. The portrait gallery is actually more art than portrait. The Presidents' gallery is large and of course, includes every president. They are a lot more interesting than you might think.
The treasure of all of them is the Gilbert Stuart full-length portrait of Geo. Washington. The info says that a family owned it for a long time and lent it to the Gallery. But at some point, the family wanted to take it back and sell it. The Gallery had to raise $20 million in 2001 to save it from being removed,
I wanted to see more of Stuart's versions of it, so I typed into google images Gilbert Stuart. In among the images were these mysterious paintings:
Some wag(s) have revised many famous paintings with Mr. Bean's seemingly elastic face.
Oddly, for being an "American" and "portrait" gallery, the top floor had an absolute knock-out show of great modern art. There were major works by Picasso, Calder,Lichtenstein, Miro, O'Keeffe, Hockney, etc. Two of my favourite works were by Botero.
The photo above is from the internet and is unkind to her - she looked a lot better where I saw her.
No comments:
Post a Comment