Friday, March 27, 2009

Field Trip - Minneapolis Institute of Art

A trip to the MIA always means a few minutes of staring at this massive work by Dale Chihuly. I saw an exhibit of his work once and it was really amazing to see so much of it all together - like walking into an alternate (albeit fragile) world.
This hand above and the weathervanes below are part of a permanent exhibit of American art and folk art from the 1700's-1800's. It's cool that they can put more of this kind of thing on display now since adding a new wing.


I was drawn to the painting below by the shiny, luscious fruits. No raspberries have ever looked that way - unless these were an heirloom raspberry that we have since stopped planting? Hmmm... still, I like the depiction of the fruit as little jewels.


And below is a creepy copper horse from China - must be a war horse, right?


This buddha below was originally gilded but was damaged in a fire. I really like the patina on it better than I would a smooth gold finish. I've read that a lot of the ancient statues and buildings were originally painted in bright colors (one prime example is the pyramids in Egypt and in Mexico). It's hard for me to imagine.....

2 comments:

Alex said...

whoa! how did you get pictures of this stuff?

btw, people in days of yore were just so obsessed with hands, weren't they?

grubekl said...

Cool! The MIA was always on my list of places to visit while I lived there, but I, unfortunately, never got around to it. Poo. I like the squiggly yellow sun ball by Chihuly. Cool stuff - thanks for sharing. Speaking of sharing, check out the cupcakes I recently made (pics of the are on my blog: grubekl.blogspot.com). They would be right up your creative alley!