Where else would I spend a Sunday afternoon other than the Dallas Museum of Art? I've been in Dallas for 7 months and have yet to venture into my local neighborhood art scene. Quite tragic I must say, but today we finally met. I found myself incredibly envious of the museum employees. While they are probably paid little and required to stand in a room for hours ensuring the artwork is not saturated by human touch, they are consumed with phenomenal pieces of art every day.
One of the newest exhibits, and my favorite of the entire museum, is by the modern abstract artist, Mark Bradford. His artwork is the kind you could stare at for hours and still not see all that it holds. Many are actually metaphors for novels, movies, specific quotes, etc. His mixed media is known for its use of yarn, string, magazine and bulletin clippings. Layers are picked and dulled away with sand paper and large saws. It was very difficult for the inner child in me not to reach out and touch the layers he created. Unfortunately, museum guests were not allowed to touch the artwork or take photos of his art. I did however happen to find my favorites online to share. I must forewarn you, these photos do not do justice to his artwork....
Mark in his studio.
Each tiny square of color was cut from magazine or bulletin clippings and pasted on to the canvas. There is also string glued and painted over. After drying, it was distressed with sand paper. The string came to look like streets on a map.
"Grey Gardens"
"Black Venus" You can see the layers of paper in this piece.
"Mithra" If I remember correctly, relates to the Katrina disaster/flood in New Orleans. This piece is very large, towering at least 20 feet tall. Kinda reminds me of an ark. Purposeful? Hm...
This photo shows the layers Mark creates in his work. You can see the distressed yarn combined with paint and clippings.
After my tour through Bradford's world, I visited the rest of the museum. It currently holds a large Asian art exhibit, African/Egyptian art exhibit, and Vintage furniture exhibit. While I had little interest in the Asian or African pieces, I did see works by Picasso, Monet, Manet, Modigliani, and Van Gogh. The only thing that could have made my visit better would have been some Gustav Klimt....but I'll save that for another museum adventure.
My first Picasso!
Van Gogh - "River Bank in Springtime" 1887
Wassily Kandinsky "Murnau, Burggabenstrasse 1" 1908
You can even see my reflection :)
Gerald Murphy - "Watch" 1925
Love all the colors used!
Fernando Campana (Brazilian) "Banquette chair with pandas" 2006
This fully defines "odd" to me! There are some artists I really just do not understand. Who would want to sit in a chair of stuffed pandas? Albeit he probably did not intend for it to ever be used as a seat.
Now I can check off Dallas Museum of Art off my To-Do list! On to the next....
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