Beaux Arts

Today, as one of the Brennan Family pre-Christmas outings, I went for the second time ever to the Portland Art museum. I was upset that I would be gone for the visiting Degas/Renoir/Toulouse-Lautrec exhibit, but then I remembered that I am going to be within a few hours of Musée D'Orsay in a few weeks, so no worries.

We went primarily for the Chuck Close exhibit that was about his printmaking process; halfway through the exhibit I realized: I don't like Chuck Close that much.
I will give him credit where it is due: the method must have taken years to perfect and complete. But to me it doesn't say anything more than, say, pointillism, and it's much less interesting. All he paints is faces. Over and over again. And yeah, his techniques of printmaking are admirable; but I always find it hard to appreciate something if, in order to appreciate it, you need to understand how it was made, all the grids that were used, the mathematical use of color, blending, whatever. In the end, the painting itself just doesn't sell, because the idea behind it, the inspirational part that's supposed to ring out like lightning or a big loud churchbell, is actually pretty dull. Yeah, images are made up of smaller abstract parts that form one complete form. Period.

It's funny, though. I went to the gallery with my parents and fourteen-year-old brother. Tucker didn't really say anything, but my dad was full of opinion, especially in the modern wing. We were in the Minimalism room (and yeah, it's Minimalism, so you know I can't be that crazy about it), and he was scoffing off everything. My dad has a tendency to turn into a crotchety old man at the drop of a hat, and this seemed to be the perfect time to do it. I got a bit fed up with the "Oooh, hey, it's a cube. So what?" and "Ugh, what a waste of paint" after the first ten minutes, it wasn't very nice to have it for a full hour.

But if you've never been to Portland, take a note: the museum is worth a look-through. It's not an incredible collection, by far, but the lesser-known works are still lovely. I've been looking in vain online to post them, especially Eastman Johnson's The Little Harpist, Franz von Stuck's Allegorical Figure of a Woman and Eugene Berman's Time and the Monuments. If you ever happen upon any prints or pictures of them online, let me know. Here are a few of the pieces that I could find online:



Edward Steichen, Lilac Buds; Mrs S. 1906



Joseph Stella, Factories of the Night



Kiki Smith, Saint Genevieve 1909



Vincent Van Gogh, Charrette de boeuf, 1884. This is the museum's most recent acquisition



Pablo Picasso, Head of a Woman, 1909



Auguste Rodin, La défense, 1879


I'm still pretty bummed about not getting prints of those other ones; I might have to go to Powell's and see if there are any books that might feature them.

Christmas is coming up pretty fast, and I'm practically done with my shopping. All my gifts are wrapped and finished and under the tree. There are even a few small gifts under there with my name on them!