Musings From the Museum

 I go to the art museum to wander. 

With fully charged headphones and many downloaded albums I am ready to step slowly between mostly empty rooms and pretend this moment is a movie. 

But on this trip, I am routinely thwarted. Each staff member says "hello! how are you?" as soon as I enter a room. Like store attendants waiting to pounce. Who allowed this? What are you trying to sell me? I've already bought a ticket! 

But I digress. 

This does not stop me from my many hours of meandering. 

A special Japanese printmaking exhibit still inhabits my mind.   

The first thing I love about art museums is prints like this. 

Titled Rain B, made in 1954, the colors and angles were interesting on their own but upon learning that it represents rain a small exclamation mark popped off in my head. That is was watching rain looks like!! The raindrops bounce and ping and everything is blue-y green-y geometic-y. Suddenly I feel deeply connected to Chizuko Yoshida (who was 29 or 30 when she was making this), and I thank her for giving me a new way of seeing something I thought I knew. 

Some more honorable mentions from this exhibit. 

The second thing I love about art museums is how pieces are framed. Not just in literal frames, but in placement on the wall, placement in the room. Can you see it through a doorway? In the reflection of another piece? What does a modern piece of art look like placed beside something from 1854? 

There's this piece, which looks like a black square from far away but gains nuance on closer inspection. 

There's Tippi! A chair designed for children and on display with other chairs made for children between the 1700's to 2002 (when Tippi was made), that wants us to ponder how we have viewed the safety and comfort of children over the years. 

There's this painting, which I promptly made eye contact with after walking around a wall that was in the middle of the room. The choice to have the frame bring the piece up and away from the wall really demands your attention! (although I don't think this is quite captured in a photograph) 

Okay, this concludes my thoughts on the museum. Here are a couple more pictures worth sharing.