I'm back! We had a great trip, spent lots of time with family, and still had time to play tourist. As I mentioned in my last post, we saw three museums in Dallas and Fort Worth (the metroplex has so many amazing museums, filled with important works). I've broken my museum visits into two posts because I went a little photo crazy as usual. This post features
The Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth - a museum that every modern art or architecture lover must see.
Frommer's review expresses it perfectly: "The most noteworthy recent development in Fort Worth -- and one of the most important on the national culture scene -- is the Modern, a landmark design by the celebrated modernist Japanese architect Tadao Ando and a true notch on the city's belt. It is my favorite new museum -- or work of architecture, period -- since Frank Gehry's Guggenheim Bilbao in Spain. Opened in 2002, the museum, quickly hailed as a masterpiece, contains over 50,000 square feet of gallery space, making it second in size only to the Museum of Modern Art in New York among museums dedicated to contemporary and modern art. The galleries, of warmly textured poured concrete with 20-foot-high ceilings and suffused with spectacular natural light, are housed in three rectangular, flat-roofed pavilions built around a large pond."
Museum goers have permission to photograph some works, but not others (including the Susan Rothenberg exhibit). Forgive me for being an idiot - I forgot to log the artists' names so most of these works won't be identified. Above, a series of photographs of four sisters taken annually, over 30 years, and the Standard Oil - one of my favorite paintings whose creator I cannot recall. Below, a Jackson Pollack.
The curved concrete wall that encircled this large sculpture appeared to have been designed around it.
The second Jackson Pollack (sidebar, modern art lovers should really read
this book).
Exactly what it looks like: silver pieces hammered flat and suspended from the ceiling. And yet I stared at this piece for a full five minutes.
Above, a view of the
Cafe Modern from one of the museum's rectangles. Gourmet Magazine named it one of America's Best restaurants (although not knowing this, we ate at
The Kimbell in the courtyard, also good but not as spectacular a view).
My husband sits in my favorite non-Eames chair: the Barcelona.
I wish I had a better pic of this sculpture, called "Conjoined", by artist
Roxy Paine. The sculpture stands 40 feet tall and 45 feet wide, and consists of two stainless steel trees whose branches "cantilever in space to connect in midair."
View of downtown Fort Worth from a second floor window. Note the pool that runs the length of the back of the museum.
A monumental metal sculpture outside the museum.
Inside the sculpture, looking out. Voices have an interesting reverberation when inside the sculpture.
Coming soon: Museum post 2. My posting may be light these next couple of weeks for various reasons, and it will take me a while to catch up on my blog reading. I promise I haven't forgotten about everyone!
Shop sneak peak also coming soon. I have lots of great new stuff to be listed these next few weeks. Think Curtis Jere sculptures, Scandinavian pitchers (Picknick and Arabia), lots and lots of deer...
I'm spending the holiday with my husband's family, and Mr. Cheese and I are doing most of the cooking. I must say, it was really fun cooking with my husband last night (we didn't even get started until 8:30, so some beers made it much easier to get motivated after an exhausting couple of weeks). This is the first time that he has ever participated in the holiday meal prep. The house already smells so good from the pumpkin pies, and other dishes we prepared last night. I'm off to cook the turkey and try to get a little housework done. I wish you all a very happy Thanksgiving (and to my friends around the globe, have a fantastic week)!
