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Art ... Again

January 24, 2002

Dear Friends and Family,

First, I must put forward the disclaimer that I am writing this and am responsible for it's content. Marianne's job is limited to editing and occasionally correcting my more egregious errors of fact. These views on art are my own.

After seeing the Dahli museum north of Barcelona and, of course, the Gaudi buildings, I was beginning to think that straight lines and representational pictures were no longer in my art-viewing future. Now we were heading to a Picasso museum, a Miro museum and a third, even more contemporary museum. I worried that my head would ache again from trying to figure out what was going on. But this is culture and I'm supposed to get some. Man can not live on tapas and wine alone.

First, Pablo Picasso. You know, he's the guy who paints pictures with distorted faces, and body parts. However, the Barcelona museum contained his own collection and some that he had given to his family, The collection is weighted toward Picasso's early work. There are two works that he painted as entrance requirements to two art schools. As a teenager, still painting in the formal representational style of the late 1890's, Picasso's talent and skill would have been obvious. The collection traces his development through the art school years and after as he removed the formalism and added or perhaps just left, what we know as "Picasso". For me, this collection was a clear demonstration that Picasso chose to paint as he did, distorted faces and all. This recognition made me appreciate his work even more.

(Pictures were not allowed in the Picasso museum. I wish museums would standardize on this. I understand the "no flash" and "no tripod" rules because those invade the enjoyment of others, but just a simple click from my camera disturbs no one. Anyway, I have included a shot of a half-dozen post cards to illustrate a few of the works at the museum.)

Our next art goal was the museum at the Joan Miro Foundation. Inside, we picked up our high tech "audio guides" and started with the foundation's temporary show of works by Jean Arp. Arp's work is pretty widely recognized, even by engineers. Lots of it looks like giant eggs or river stones. People react to this positively or negatively, but I don't know who writes the material for these audio guides or for the similar placards near each display. For example, we heard and read:

"AUTOMATISM AND CHANCE
Certain creative mechanisms discovered during the Dada years can be found in various periods of Arp's work. These include experiments with automatic gestures (lines produced by the hand at random, independently of the mind) and the effects of chance (such as snippets of paper arranged in the pattern in which they happen to fall)."

Give me a break. "Lines produced by the hand at random"? I call that Doodling. As for letting pieces of paper fall, I can do that. I really can. But, I don't get a museum show. I guess that's the point. Anyway, the museum had lots of Arp's work and allowed photography. I have to admit I liked seeing and taking pictures of what was there.

But the main attraction was, of course, Miro. Everyone knows Miro. He's been reproduced on everything from lithographs to ashtrays. Strong colors and black lines. The museum described how he wanted to try everything from painting to soft woven sculpture to carved sculpture to ceramics and pottery. Marianne said she wanted to do that too. Somehow I think a full-time frenetic artist has a better chance at such a lifestyle than we mere mortals. Nonetheless, I found I liked most of the Miro works on display, most but not all. Just don't make me understand all the stuff the audio guide was telling me.

Joan Miro was buddies with Alexandar Calder. Calder's the guy who is famous for huge wind-moved kinetic sculptures in building lobbies. "Kinetic sculpture" is audio-guidese for "mobile". Engineers like Calder because he works with big chucks of steel. In a glass-enclosed display case in the passage between Arp and Miro, there was a Calder sculpture where the movement was caused not by air or flowing water but by flowing liquid mercury. It was fascinating, but I could not help think such work with hazardous materials might not even be allowed in America. Too bad.

Our last art museum was at the AntoniTapis foundation. Here, the temporary exhibition was of work by Hans-Peter Feldmann. These are both famous contemporary artists, so I'm told. But this was the strangest collection of stuff I've ever seen. A crust of bread. Some shoes. A wardrobe with old clothes. A bed that looked like someone had just left. I was so put off by it; I didn't even take my camera out of its case. Feldmann did have a couple black and white photo collections that were certainly well done but his "installations" were way too far out for me.

So, there we have it. Young Picasso was impressive and helps understand later work. Arp and Miro I like, for whatever reason. Calder's an engineer's artist. Tapis is too wierd and, in my view, Feldmann should stick to photos.

Take care. Go see some new art.

John and Marianne

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Created February 4, 2002

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