Museum Hopper

i headed back to university of michigan museum of art yesterday to finish up what i had started two weeks ago  (see blog post from earlier visit here ).  i visited the upstairs permanent exhibitions this time as well as spending about 15 minutes in the special exhibit.   as i headed upstairs, i was struck by the number of tiffany artifacts as well as the comfortable chairs to view exhibit materials. the special exhibit is currently on beauty and the everyday: the prints of james mcneill whistler .  it was quite interesting; i have never seen an exhibit so singularly devoted to the making of prints.  whistler did a number of etchings and dry points.  the exhibit clearly described the process, which i was not familiar with.  i thought it was really interesting that the prints change throughout the pressing process; therefore, the first print does not always look exactly like the third, which does not look like the sixth.  nearly all the w...

i recently started attending the university of michigan ross school of business for my mba degree.  ross just opened up a brand new building filled with beautiful art.  kathleen dolan is the curator and calls it " ross art ."  as she states, it is a collection of modern art mostly concentrating on art created since the 1960s.  it is a collection of photography, painting, and sculpture literally filling in the school.   Alexander Calder as you enter the new ross building, there is a pamphlet which contains a list of all the art.  at the top though (this surprised me), it lists a number you can call to get descriptions of about 10 pieces of art!  today, i called those and listened to the descriptions.   i enjoy her selections.  my personal favorites are right outside the zell lurie institute.  they are by frank stella and alexander calder; coincidentally they had created two out of the four bwm " art cars " on view last year....

i moved to ann arbor a few weeks and it was definitely time to visit a museum! i figured the first stop should be the university of michigan museum of art . they recently completed an addition on this museum which was started when i was wrapping undergrad at the university. this new wing, the maxine and stuart frankel and the frankel family wing, contains new modern and contemporary exhibits. the museum was not crowded, but definitely was not empty. it was a nice level of busyness. i only visited the first floor of the museum figuring i will go back and visit the second floor. the first floor of the "old" wing, alumni memorial hall, contains european (renaissance and 18th century) and american art. it was a refreshing mix of paintings, sculptures and artifacts. the art was quite beautiful although tended to be lesser known artists. i really enjoyed the renaissance sculptures on the main floor as well as the large american landscape paintings. i did not enjoy...