The Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum

My last museum experience was The Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum. Again, I wasn’t expecting much. After all, it was in Ridgefield! The museum was set back from the street, and we actually passed the museum twice before we realized where it was. Immediately, I noticed the architecture, and could appreciate the clean lines of the building. The front lawn highlighted sculptures that were made of what looked like rusted iron. There were no plaques to note the artist or medium used; however, the pieces certainly made the viewer take notice. The first lawn sculpture was of a car standing on its back wheels. The second was of an iron spider, and the third was a bike rack that displayed “I’m watching you.” Little did I know the main exhibit was entitled “Bike Rides?” To my surprise, there was no photography allowed in the museum. The staff assured me that I could find all their pieces online if I needed to them.

The museum is a two story building that is one of the only museums in Connecticut that does not have a permanent exhibit. All the pieces in the museum are on loan from private donors. That fact actually increased my intrigue. The main hall displayed a wall size mural that had black and white images and words describing the current state of our globe due to climate change. There were all sorts of facts about riding bikes, and the benefits that it would have on the climate and global warming.

The first room housed bikes that were actually ridden by bike groups. There was a trio of “low riders”, which were no more than 1 yard in height, from a group out of New York. The bikes were elaborate, and had tons of decorative metal designs and axils. There was another bike displayed that had hundreds of signs, flags, stickers, horns, and even an actual radio with speakers. It was a billboard for Puerto Rico, as everything on that bike had something to do with Puerto Rico. The front sign said, “Yo soy Boricua. Mi amor es Puerto Rico”, which means, I am Puerto Rican. My love is Puerto Rico. I don’t think anyone could argue who much the owner loved Puerto Rico after seeing the decoration on that bike!

There were other bikes displayed throughout the museum, as pieces of art, and as bikes that people can actually ride. Lance Armstrong’s bikes were displayed, and the docent directed us to a bike that was for sale for $8000! Amazing, I didn’t know that bikes were even sold for half that much! Upstairs, there was a less expense bike, and was owned by a Chinese man. He had hung inflatable balloons from the bike, and would bike around villages in China and give them to children. In addition, there were also sculptural pieces by Edward Tufte that were exhibited in the gallery, as well as, on the back lawn.

The one artist that captured my attention immediately with her taxidermy work was Kate Clark. Kate is a Michigan native who combines taxidermy with sculpting. Her work is as realistic as Hanson’s work, which had me in awe at the Yale Art Gallery. Kate uses real animal heads and bodies and sculpts human faces on them. The eyes are rubber and the faces are made out of leather, clay, and foam, and are emphasized with small metal pins. Kate’s goal is to show how similar animal faces and facial expressions are to humans. The docent quoted an interesting fact about children with autism when discussing Clark’s pieces. She noted that most children with autism do not look at other people in the eyes; however, they do with animals, possibly because of an innate connectedness that humans unknowingly have with animals.

The initial piece that grabbed my attention was of three antelope whose gazes were fixed on the entry way. The bright blue eyes of the center antelope shocked and scared me, all while intriguing me. As I looked closer, I could see that there were pieces of the animal’s skin that were positioned like patchwork and combined with the other mediums. Fascinating! Clark’s other pieces from that series was a head of a zebra and a baby bison. The baby bison’s face was so cute, and reminded me of my daughter’s face when she’d look up at me as to say, “Hey, don’t forget about me.”

I certainly will not forget about this exhibit or this museum. I am excited to see what new pieces will be added in January when the exhibits change. I look forward to visiting Ridgefield and the Aldrich Museum again.

New Britain Museum of American Art

On Saturday, I visited the New Britain Museum of American Art. I must admit, I was not looking forward to going to this museum. American art is not my favorite, so my expectations for enjoying my trip were very low. To my surprise, I not only loved this museum, but I made sure to tell one of the staff that “this museum is the best one that I’ve been to.” Don’t get me wrong, the Metropolitan Museum of Art was fabulous, but who knew that New Britain held such a fabulous little jewel in its hand.

The museum which boasts the tagline, “Where art meets life”, was a small two story museum. The architecture is a piece of art itself consisting of an angular design. The sculptures which inhabit the front lawn and walkway prepare the visitor for an exciting and creative experience through art once inside. As soon as you walk into the museum, you’re greeted by a grayscale vertical mural. The design stands out against the bright yellow walls in the background. I hit the bathroom before I started on my quest, which I was already excited about. Even the bathroom had artwork on its walls! I looked up and saw a speckled, collage-like, whimsical design trailing around the room. I loved it.

The ground floor of the museum showcases more than 5,000 works of art dating back to the 18th century to the present. The periods that are represented include the Colonial period, the Hudson River Can School, genre painting, the American Impressions, the Ash Can School, the early moderns and works by contemporary artists. One of the most captivating pieces was a mural by Thomas Hart Benton. It hung in a room covering three walls. It depicted life in America through the eyes of Americans. The colors were opaque and intense. It seemed like the artist put a lot of thought into which details should be included in the mural. I can only imagine how much work was put into the piece.

As I made my way through the ground floor and up to the second floor, I stopped to enjoy the many pieces that decorated the foyer. There was mesmerizing pieces that hung on the walls. Many of them were portraits. Some done from charcoal, others from pastels, or paints. A beautiful charcoal drawing of a woman caught my attention. It was lovely. As I made my way to the stairs, I noticed a portrait of, what looked like a black man, with an afro. Toward the top of his head and hair there were three sets of eyes. What looked like broken glass was drawn as an outline to the painting. Understandably so, it was entitled “Paranoia”. If that weren’t enough, I shifted my gaze towards the stairs to take in a two story 3-d piece entitled “The Gravity of Color” by Lisa Hoke. It was enormous. When I moved closer, I saw that it was completely constructed of cups. Most of them were plastic cups that were painted on the inside. There were some paper cups that were included in the piece to give it a greater sense of depth and texture.

The second floor was the most modern part of the gallery. The main exhibit was illustrations from children’s books. The art was fabulous. Most of them were water colors, and the details, depth of color, and sharpness of the paintings were phenomenal. I was floored. I felt like a kid in a candy store. It was if I were in a dream, floating along from cloud to cloud watching individual stories take play out. I saw paintings of animals eating vegetables, houses under twilight skies, Eskimos, and astronauts. There was a huge piece demonstrating the devastation of 9/11. I didn’t realize the subject of the piece until I read the description and looked closer. The final piece on the second floor was a piece illustrating the ABC’s of America.

This museum had so much to look at. There different style pieces everywhere and boredom was NOT an option. We went back downstairs, and to my dismay, we had gone through the entire museum. I was shocked. I had gone from not wanting to come to New Britain to not wanting to leave. Like a jewel, when you look in it, you find new and different colors every way you turn it, the New Britain Museum of Art was filled with pleasant surprises, and absolutely talented artists.
The piece that I chose to focus on was not the most captivating piece in the museum; however, it spoke to me as soon as I saw it. I can only imagine that it did so because of the current speed of my life. The piece, entitled “Sunset on Sea” was created in 1872, by John Frederick Kensett. The medium used is oil on canvas. The frame was gold and ornate which enhanced the impact that the painting had on me. As I walked in the room, I knew I would be writing on this piece. Its stillness grabbed me immediately. I was drawn to the colors which reminded me of my nights in Africa. The colors blended seamlessly. As I moved towards the painting, I realized that the water was not. The water was just as still as the painting hanging on the wall. The brilliant sun pushing its way through the center of the colorful clouds pulled me closer to the center of the painting, deeper into the sea. I almost cried. My life has been moving at an unprecedented speed, and as much as I want it to slow down it does not. As I looked at the “Sunset on Sea” I was forced to stop. Stop. I sat and listened to my breath. I let time stop in my own world as I let everything else buzz around me. With my senses heightened, I could hear the children laughing on the stairs in the hall. I could hear the air move as my fiancé passed through it. I could smell the museum, and see time absolutely stop as I stared at the blessing hanging on the wall. Even as I type now, I hold back tears, because I know that that painting was a miracle; an unexpected blessing of the greatest magnitude because I needed that very thing at that very moment. I needed life to slow down so I could enjoy it. The experience that I had while looking at the painting probably contributed to the fabulous time that I had throughout the rest of the museum.

The artist, Kensett, had several paintings in the gallery. The information that the museum shared noted that Kensett made 38 paintings throughout the summer of 1872. The collection was entitled, “The Last Summer’s Work.” The soothing pieces were thought to have been made to combat the cruelty of the Civil War devastating the country. The collection which was discovered after Kensett’s death was exhibited at an auction sale of his work. Reverend Dr. Samuel Osgood leaves the most fitting quote describing the painting as “…no land or sail, no figure, and not even a noticeable cloud to give peculiar effect, or a rock to provoke the dash of waves. It is pure light and water, a bridal of the sea and sky.”

The British Museum of Art

The top floor exhibit had pieces from the 17th-18th centuries. Most of the paintings were oil on canvas, and featured the following artists: John Glover, Samuel Scott, J.M.W. Turner, John Singleton Copley, Allan Ramsay, Sir Joshua Reynolds, Joseph Wilton, George Beare, Philip Mercier, Sir Anthony Van Dyck, John Martin, Willem Wissing, Simon Verest, and Joseph Wright of Derby.

(Artist unknown)

The first floor with exhibits housed pieces primarily from the 1600's to the 1700's. The artsists for the following pieces are John Stevens, George Stubbs, John Closterman, John Vanderbank, Philippe Mercier, Joseph Wright of Derby, and Sir Joshua Reynolds.

The British Art Museum is located in downtone New Haven, CT on the Yale University Campus. It has three floors of exhibits. Most of the exhibits are opene xhibits; however, there are currently 2 private exhibits in which pictures were not allowed. The first exhibit was entitled "Mrs. Delany and Her Circle". Mrs. Delany was a letter writer, ametuer artist, woman of fashion, and a naturalist. Many of the pieces that Mrs. Delany created were of flowers and plants. Many of the pieces exhibited were done in a collage style. The works of art were primarily from the 19th century, and the exhibit was organized by the Yale Center for British Art and Sir John Soane's Museum in London.

The second private exhibit was a collection from Horace Walpole entitled "Strawberry Hill." Many of the pieces in the collection were from the 15th- 18th century. The artists with pieces in the collection are Paul Sandby, John Philipps, Johann Heinrich Muntz, John Giles Eccardt, Marcus Geeraerts, John Carter, Edward Edwards, William Faithorne, Jean Antoine Watteau, Richard Bentley, and Hendrick Danckerts.