It seems we visited more art museums and galleries this year than usual. That was really fun, particularly since there were many and varied topics and styles. Here is a selection of what we saw, in order of the museum, gallery or city (in the case of public art) where we saw it.
AD EX is the shorthand name for the downtown home of AIA Dallas. In October, there was an interesting exhibit about the architecture of Charles Stevens Dilbeck, a very influential local 20th century architect. Karen’s friend and architectural photographer Carolyn Brown led a class that photographed the Dilbeck buildings so she presented the work of her students at the exhibit’s Opening Reception.
Buenos Aires, Argentina is using public art to create distinctive identities for its neighborhoods. These are murals in Palermo Soho.
These fanciful birds are among the public art pieces in plazas in Cordoba, Argentina.
Cultivate 7 Twelve is a gallery in Waco TX. Karen visited it during her state planning conference. The birds in art are always engaging! The gallery had other exhibits including an exhibit combining paintings and poems about the experience of immigrants.
The D2 was the Police ‘enforcement’ division in Cordoba, Argentina during the dictatorship of the 1960’s through the 1990’s. It’s very near Cordoba’s main plaza. The space is now a memorial to those who were ‘disappeared’ here. This is one of the tiny courtyards where people were held. These people could easily have been our college classmates.
Also in October, the Dallas Center for Photography held a show called ‘Sacred Spaces: A Sharing Through Photographs’. It was sponsored in collaboration with a group called Friends for Good, which is an interfaith group consisting of members from Jewish, Muslim, Christian and Unitarian congregations in Dallas. It was beautiful to see the many places people consider sacred — and fun to be able to recognize so many places we’ve visited among them.
The Drawing Room is a gallery, meeting place and Pilates studio imagined and managed by our friend Nika Reinecke in Old Town Lewisville TX. It’s another exhibit with a bird theme, but this time the artist is Korean.
Fundacion Mercedes Sosa celebrates the life and music of Mercedes Sosa, one of the first prominent singers of local folk music in Argentina. The city’s indigenous heritage is also celebrated with this sculpture in Parque Lezama. Both are in the San Telmo neighborhood.
Granada, Spain has a great deal of history and major events that happened here are depicted in its public art. Here’s one example — Queen Isabella signing the contract for Christopher Columbus’ voyage of exploration when he ‘discovered’ the Americas.
Guernica is best known because of Picasso’ painting, which we saw in the Reina Sophia. But we also were able to visit the town itself and the museum describing the history of Franco’s bombing and its impact on this community. It’s a very chilling reminder of what happens under fascism.
The Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao, Spain — It’s hard to say enough about this fantastic museum! The building design is amazing and the exhibits were interesting, thought-provoking and fun!
The Jesuit Block in Cordoba, Argentina was the center of one of the most powerful cities during Spain’s colonization of South America. The library here contains amazing materials, including an original St. Thomas Aquinas book, medieval hymns and this 1521 map of South America. Imagine people from Spain carrying these things with them on ships traveling to a new life in an unknown continent!
The Kimbell Art Museum in Fort Worth had a fascinating special exhibition in August called “Monet: The Late Years”. It focused on the work the artist did after he turned 70! Here is a photograph of him in his studio and one part of a triptych painted during that time. We saw a second part of the triptych later in the year in Kansas City.Lewisville TX added this sculpture to its public art collection. Wayne Ferguson was an important community leader whose statue now sits in the park named for him in the heart of Old Town. It’s always great to have art showing people using plans!
Madrid’s public art includes the rare statue to celebrate Satan (‘El Angel Caldo’ or the Fallen Angel), as well as murals along a street in the Lavapies neighborhood and in a community garden.
The Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth had a number of interesting exhibitions this year. We didn’t particularly care for Robyn O’Neil’s ‘We The Masses’, but loved Anselm Kiefer’s ‘Book with Wings. It was fun to see a second Jenny Holzer installation (after we saw her work first in Bilbao earlier in the year).
Montevideo, Uruguay also has lots of intriguing public art. Here you see several murals in the Ciudad Vieja, sculptures in plazas celebrating Uruguay’s rural heritage, and the Greetingman, a sculpture that is bowing to an equivalent sculpture in South Korea, on the other side of the planet. (the scaffolding is for some minor repairs underway when we were there)Montevideo has a museum and shop focused on the works of Joaquin Torres Garcia, a Spanish-Uruguayan artist. This is one of his most famous pieces, making the point that there is no particular reason why we should all think from the perspective that the northern-most places should always be up!
The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art in Kansas City MO had two enjoyable but very different exhibits last fall. One, on Impressionists, included this lovely armchair. The second, called ‘Miner Portraits’, displayed daguerreotypes of miners from the California Gold Rush, posing with their gold! It also has a wonderful series of photos of the city itself at that time.The Prado (Museo Nacional del Prado) is one of Madrid’s Big Three. It’s got an amazing variety of work, including this sculpture, ‘La Defensa de Zaragoza’, an allegory of an event from Spain’s war of independence from Napoleonic France.
The Reina Sophia (officially the Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sophia) is the second of the Big Three in Madrid. The new addition has a glass elevator with great views. Then there’s the stunning Juan Miro sculpture Moonbird in the courtyard, and this memorable painting ‘El Abrazo’ by Juan Genoves, which was featured on an Amnesty International poster during the years of the Franco regime.
The San Francisco Museum of Modern Art had an exhibit on the design of Sea Ranch, an important early community designed with nature. Karen remembers a visit here with her family when it was first being developed (thanks to her architect dad!) and the impact it had on planning values and approaches.
The Sly Cat Gallery in Cedar Hill TX is managed by Hannah Tyler, the daughter of our friends Rod and Kay Tyler. We enjoyed the artists’ reception for the show “Cliche’ ” in July. It’s great to have such innovative art close to home!This sculpture celebrates the indigenous peoples of Tenerife, one of the Canary Islands.
The Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum is the third of the Big Three in Madrid. And such variety! Where else can you see a devil from a medieval cathedral, art from Russian women Avant Garde artists (in this case, Alexandra Exter), and a stunning self-portrait by Rembrandt?
A friend sent us an invitation to the opening reception of a show at the Valley House Gallery in Dallas. It was called ‘Bird Show’ and you can see why!
