Emerged from Orchestra Hall to the sound of a snowblower, a stark contrast to the Minnesota Orchestra, the Minnesota Chorale, and vocal soloists. The snow had started during the concert.
Category: Arts
People in a Gallery
Complex Surfaces: Man and Disk; carbon fiber, automotive paint, Dwight; Palm Springs Art Museum. Elsewhere little kids interacted with art, giggling uncontrollably at breasts in a painting. Some adults walked, talked, oblivious to their surroundings.
Blues for an Alabama Sky
Looked out at our apartment (among many apartments) through a mirror-framed window at the Guthrie Theater while sipping a pre-show glass of wine. We then stepped into a world of Harlem apartments in the 1930’s: Blues for an Alabama Sky, finding family, fulfilling dreams.
LEGO Art
Followed building instructions while marveling how Hokusai created Great Wave off Kanagawa in 1831 before the Impressionism movement had started in Europe and while Japan was still closed off from the world. The quasi-pixelated style of the over-loved print lends itself to a LEGO interpretation. Note Mount Fuji and the three boats.
Makes You Think
Unintended triptych, left to right: Dwight at the Getty Center today (pack in front as required by museum guards); sculpture depicting 17th century femininity; “Joey at the Love Ball,” drag, 1991. A few provocative juxtapositions of contemporary and pre-1900 European art are scattered throughout the galleries.
Expanding the Repertoire
Afternoon chamber music concert at Orchestra Hall. The first half was European (that’s OK) and the second half grabbed my attention with pieces by two American women: edgy contemporary by Du Yun, (born in China), and more traditional by African American, Florence Price.
No Longer Taken for Granted
It did my heart good to see school buses lined up outside the Guthrie Theater this morning. For a year and a half, during the early days of the pandemic, the building was lifeless. Tonight we’ll walk over to see Leo Kottke performing on the Thrust.
Teshima Art Island
Walked across Teshima, one of the “art islands” in the Seto Inland Sea, looking for art installations. At one point, sat on the floor in a vast concrete inside space while little rivulets of water slowly formed around me, only to “find” tiny drain holes. (Photography wasn’t allowed.)
Spirited Away
We usually rent a movie on Saturday nights. Tonight: Spirited Away from Japan’s venerable Studio Ghibli. They’ve just opened up their catalog for online rental. Tonight we got to watch this imaginative anime, probably their most famous production. It won an Oscar in 2003.
A Tiny Museum
Every now and then, when out cycling, I like to take in the latest exhibit at The Smallest Museum in St. Paul. The current show is “Paint it Before you Eat it” by local artist Lisa Burke who “loves the idea of art that can fit in one’s pocket, or in an Altoid box.”