What Can Art Be?

This is my last post from my visit to the Cleveland Museum of Art earlier this summer.  As I was about to leave the museum I saw that the Art Lens Gallery was once again open after being closed during the pandemic.  The gallery, which is located next to the main entrance, is an introduction to the museum and to the world of art.  It has around twenty items from the museum's collection presented in such a way as to engage the viewer.  The exhibit changes every two years.

Currently the theme of the Art Lens Gallery is "What Can Art Be?".  Here are a few of the objects on display.

What can art be?

LUXURIOUS

    Tea set on stand, 1907

This was designed by the Italian Carlo Bugatti and is made of gilt silver, ivory, mahogany and mother of pearl.

What can art be?

INSPIRATION

"Indian Combat" 1868

This marble sculpture was done by Edmonia Lewis, an Afro-American and Native-American artist who was the first woman of color to gain international recognition in the art world.  This sculpture inspired Pulitzer-prize winning poet, Tyehimba Jess, to write a poem about it.

What can art be?

NARRATIVE

"Oedipus at Colonus" 1798

The French painter Fulchran Jean Herriet portrays the blind Oedipus with his daughter Antigone in a scene from the ancient Greek tragedy by Sophocles.

What can art be?

DESIGN

Peacock table lamp, 1902

This lamp was designed by Ohio native Clara Wolcott Driscoll for the Tiffany Studios.

What can art be?

SCIENTIFIC

 Microscope, 18th century

This French, gilt bronze microscope is a piece of decorative art as well as a functioning scientific instrument.

What can art be?

FUNCTIONAL

Piggy bank, 1300s - 1400s

This terra-cotta piggy bank from the island of Java somehow survived the centuries without being broken open.

What can art be?

MYTHOLOGY

Greek amphora, 515-510 B.C.

This Grecian wine jar portrays Hercules fighting the Nemean lion while the goddess Athena looks on.

What can art be?

FASHIONABLE

"Portrait of a Woman" 1748

The French painter Jean Marc Nattier portrays a wealthy woman of the era fashionably dressed and coiffed.

Another interesting feature of the gallery is the Art Lens Wall, a forty foot long interactive wall which is one of the largest in the world and the only one in a museum.

The wall shows all of the pieces on display in the museum as well as some items that are in storage.  If you touch one of the pictures, it will emerge with information about the work and the gallery in the museum where you will find it.

That concludes our tour of the Cleveland Museum of Art... at least until my next visit.