from airplane

from airplane

Thursday, February 25, 2016

The Columbus Museum of Art

While Alejandro was up here, we spent several days in Columbus, Ohio, visiting family of mine.  My sister-in-law took us to the Columbus Museum of Art.

The Columbus museum is much smaller than our museum here in Cleveland.  I have to plead guilty to being a bit of snob and to looking down my nose at the museum in Columbus.  However they recently opened a new wing, and the additional space gave them the opportunity to bring many works of art out of storage.  Although it still cannot compare to the Cleveland Museum of Art, I must say that I now have new-found respect for the collection in Columbus.


I wonder if the designers of the new wing drew inspiration from the recent addition to the Cleveland museum in the way in which the modern section is connected to the original building.


The new wing contains space for special exhibits and for its collection of contemporary art.  I'm not a big fan of contemporary art, but I found these two canvasses quite interesting.  They are so large that previously there had been no place to properly display them.




The collection of Old Masters are displayed in one hall in the traditional "salon style" that was popular in earlier centuries.  It makes quite an impression as one enters the gallery, although I prefer the modern style of giving more space to each painting.




The noted, early 20th century, American artist George Bellows was a native of Columbus, and the museum contains a number of his paintings.




I bet that you would never guess who painted this canvas.  It is an early work by the famous Mexican artist Diego Rivera, and dates from the period when he was experimenting with cubism.



In the Impressionist gallery there were four canvasses by one of my favorite artists, Claude Monet.







This Impressionist painting was done by a Columbus native, Earl Butler.  Butler moved to Giverny, France, the home of Monet, to study art.  There he married one of Monet's step-daughters.




In the basement there is a fun display of Columbus landmarks all built out of Legos.


2 comments:

  1. Nice post. Diego Rivera, unlike Frida, was such a prolific artist that his art can be found all over the world. And he hasn't done a single piece that I haven't liked.

    I'll have to make it to Columbus and Cleveland both.

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    Replies
    1. Even though Ohio is not thought of as a tourist destination, there is definitely a lot to see here.

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