A Disappointing Exhibit

Yesterday, my high school friend Gail and I went to a special exhibit at the Cleveland Museum of Art.  In 2020, a wealthy Cleveland couple, Nancy and Joseph Keithley, donated their large collection to the museum.  With more than 100 pieces of art, it is the largest donation made to the museum in more than sixty years.  Their collection in currently on display in an exhibition called "Impressionism to Modernism".   Frankly, both Gail and I were disappointed.

I had hoped that there would be more paintings by the Impressionists.  There were only two French Impressionist canvasses... one by Camille Pisarro and one by a lesser-known painter, Gustve Caillebote.

 

From the post-Impressionist school of pointillism (paintings created with small dots and dashes of color) there was this painting by Henri-Edmond Cross.  I had never heard of him, but I liked this painting.

Of names that the ordinary person who is not an art expert would recognize, there was a painting of tulips by Henri Matisse and a small cubist portrait by Picasso.

The collection contained a large number of works, mainly lithographs, by a late 19th century school of artists known as the "Nabis" (Prophets).  Last year the museum had a special exhibit on the "Nabis", and many of the pieces from the Keithley collection were in that show.  I really did not care that much for the exhibit.  One painting which I had not previously seen, and which I liked (perhaps because it is more Impressionist in style), was this depiction of a Parisian restaurant by Edouard Vuillard.

There were a number of pieces of decorative arts in the collection with a concentration on antique Chinese porcelains.

There were a number of modern pieces of abstract expressionism, which is not my cup of tea.  Gail said of the paintings that consisted of squiggles of paint, "Even I could do that!"  This large canvas by Joan Mitchell is at least bright and colorful.

I admit that my artistic tastes are quite old-fashioned, but when we were done with the exhibit, I felt like saying "Is that all there is?"