Art Escape

 

What did I do on my summer vacation?

Well, one thing I did was go on a little Art Escape. My husband thought it would be good for me to get out of the house for a change, so he suggested a few field trips to local art museums including the Columbus Museum of Art, the Springfield Art Museum, and the Dayton Art Institute.

 

The current special exhibit on at the Columbus Museum is “Art After Stonewall 1969-1989.” If you don’t know what Stonewall is you’re not alone. I certainly had no clue. According to the museum website, “Coinciding with the 50^th anniversary of the Stonewall Riots of 1969, this long-awaited and groundbreaking survey features more than 200 works of art and related visual materials that explore the profound impact of the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender (LGBTQ) Civil-Rights movement on the art world. It presents a diverse group of artists and activists who lived and worked at the intersections of avant-garde art worlds, radical political movements, and profound social change. The exhibition focuses on both the work of openly LGBTQ artists as well as the practices of artists in terms of their engagement with newly emerging queer subcultures. Art after Stonewall, 1969-1989 highlights a wide array of conceptual, performance, film, and video art, as well as photography, painting, sculpture, music, along with historical documents and images taken from magazines, newspapers and television.”  https://www.columbusmuseum.org/art-after-stonewall/

I found it somewhat interesting and certainly educational. It’s always a good idea to be enlightened about these things and I definitely have a limited perspective as I don’t have any LGBTQ friends, but am certainly a fan of several gay/lesbian actors and artists.

Here are a couple of my favorite pieces: 

Later in the week we took a little road trip to the Springfield Art Museum. It may be small, but they always have something interesting on, and this time was no different. The main feature was Beneath the Smokestacks: Paintings by David Knapp. According to their website, “David Knapp thoughtfully depicts scenes of labor in foundries through this series of colorful paintings. A foundryman and artist, he intimately understands the processes, machinery, and physical skills required of metalcasting. In his art, Knapp chooses to highlight the people who work in foundries recognizing that the buildings and machinery are stagnant without their dedicated labor. Beneath the Smokestacks seeks to shed light on efforts of the laborers while preserving the rich, industrial history of foundries. Each piece depicts a foundry from around the country including Cast-Fab Technologies in Cincinnati, Ohio and Springfield’s own, O.S. Kelly Company.” https://www.springfieldart.net/

I read that each painting was an amalgamation of photos, so there was a little bit of a creative license taken there. My husband commented that he thought some of the paintings were a little disconcerting because of how close people were painted standing near giant vats of molten steel. 

Leaving there it was a little bit of an exploration of downtown Dayton as we drove around trying to find somewhere where we could grab some fast food for lunch. We eventually found a McDonalds, so got in the drive-thru for that and then ate in the parking lot of the museum (apparently the museum café is no longer operating).

Neither of us had ever been to the Dayton Art Institute, though we have been to Dayton several times to visit the Air Force Museum on the other side of the city.

We were most impressed by the size of the museum which is similar in size to the two in Cincinnati or even the pair in Toledo, though I think they’re all dwarfed by Cleveland’s which is absolutely massive. Anyway, we got a map and slowly made our way around. They didn’t have much modern art, which is my favorite, but I can certainly appreciate a wide variety of styles and time periods. Another favorite is anything Arts & Crafts or Art Deco and certainly anything by Tiffany or Frank Lloyd Wright or Dale Chihuly. I also appreciate it whenever I see anything new or different that I haven’t seen a million times before. That’s why I have to say my favorite collection was the fertility dolls, some made out of hollowed out shells and others that were wooden. I would much prefer collecting those over creepy tribal masks.

By the way, the special exhibit we saw was Samurai, Ghosts and Lovers Yoshitoshi's Complete 100 Aspects of the Moon. It took quite awhile to look at all of them and I only read the summaries on some of them. These pictures were intermixed with other bits of Japanese cultural items like kimonos and swords, etc. I think my husband especially enjoyed this exhibit as he loves all things Japanese (especially anime). 

I definitely enjoyed our excursions out and hope to someday visit the Dayton Art Institute again and can’t believe we’ve lived down in Columbus for 16 years and never visited. Next on our road trip of art museums to visit someday is the one in Akron (I may have been to post college days) and the one in Canton.