Friday, June 27, 2008

Art Visit




For my art visit I decided to go to the Crocker Art Museum in downtown Sacramento. I have been to the Crocker Art Museum several times in my life. Last September my wife and I took a short trip to downtown and stopped by. Looking at all those paintings can mess with your head especially if you don’t know what you’re looking at. Back then I didn’t know what art was or what to even look for. I left the museum happy but unsatisfied! That trip actually made me want to take an art course at Sierra College, so I could learn what to look at. When I first read the course outline I was excited to learn we had to go visit a museum. I couldn’t wait to go back and re-evaluate all those paintings.
On June 24, I finally had a day off from work and school; it was the perfect day to go to the museum. I loaded up the car and prepared for the 30-minute trip downtown. I was a little nervous because I brought my wife and 8-week old daughter who always starts crying when she’s hungry, which is all the time! We packed an extra bottle just in case we had to do some damage control. When we arrived downtown the air was horrible. The northern California fires smoke blanketed downtown and the surrounding areas. For some reason downtown looked worse than Roseville. We got to the museum and paid for our tickets and I asked the receptionist what I could photograph. She told me anything that was part of the permanent collection.
We started out by looking at special exhibition, The Language of the Nude; Four Centuries of Drawing the Human Body. The exhibit was spectacular! The drawings were from the 16th through 19th centuries and were mostly from European countries. The lines on all the drawings were perfect and matched evenly. I could never imagine drawing or tracing that well. Most of the drawings were done with pen, chalk, or ink on paper. Next we decided to check out Tsakopoulos Gallery to view some contemporary art. My favorite painting in this gallery was a large acrylic on canvas done by a local man named Stephen Kaltenbach. The painting’s name was, Portrait of my Father, which took seven years to complete (1972-1979). If you ever get a chance to see this painting you will be amazed. The painting is a picture of how he saw his father before he died. His father was very sick and on the verge of death. Over his father’s face he painted a light blue design on top of the painting which gave it a hologram look. The colors matched perfectly and you can’t stop staring at it. After browsing the contemporary art we decided to check out the European art gallery.
I have always liked nature scenes which include mountains, streams and oceans. My favorite painting n this gallery was, Evening Shadows, Lake of the Four Cantons by Eugene Verboeckhoven and Jean Roffiaen. The painting was oil on canvas and made in 1862. The artist used raised brush strokes on the mountains to give them a sharp crisp edge. They also used lighter colors in the back to show distance also known as atmospheric perspective. My favorite thing about this painting was the details the artist used such as the little dog playing on the lower left hand corner. After an hour viewing different painting my daughter started crying because she was hungry. I didn’t want to interrupt anybody else’s art visit so we decided to leave. Viewing art in person is a lot better than viewing it on the computer screen or from a book. The computer screen doesn’t do the painting justice. The colors in person make the painting more enjoyable. I’m glad I got another chance to visit the Crocker Art Museum. I had a lot of fun and I got a chance to show my daughter some excellent paintings. In August I plan on going again to see an Andy Warhol exhibit which should be fun.


1 comment:

Michelle Pacansky-Brock said...

James,

Glad the trip to Sac was worth it despite the bad air quality (blach). I'm pleased to see that you've identified the importance of seeing art in person.

Have fun being daddy! Congrats!

Michelle