Tag Archives: paintings

Monet to Matisse

By | |
Comments Off on Monet to Matisse

Monet to Matisse
San Diego Museum of Art
Balboa Park, San Diego

May 29, 2022


We enjoyed the Monet to Matisse exhibition at the San Diego Museum of Art with our friend Chris. Apologies for lagging so far behind in making this post! But the exhibition was recently extended and will run through October 10, 2022, so it is still possible to view it.


The museum describes the exhibition as follows:
See Impressionist masterpieces from some of the most significant names in European painting, including Paul Cézanne, Edgar Degas, Claude Monet, Berthe Morisot, Pablo Picasso, Alfred Sisley, and Pierre Bonnard.

Organized by the Bemberg Foundation, which is based at the historic Hôtel d’Assézat in Toulouse, France, the exhibition features more than 60 works produced from the 1870s to the 1930s. This is the first time this collection of works is on view in California, and SDMA is one of only two showcases in the United States.


Meredith was pleased to see a painting by Maurice de Vlaminck. Her grandmother’s second husband Herb was a distant cousin of Maurice, an established Impressionist painter.



Adult admission to the museum is $20, but youth under 18 are free. There are discounts for seniors, students, and military. For this exhibition there is an addition $5 charge. We have the Balboa Park Explorer pass, which is accepted at multiple museums, so we only needed to pay the exhibition fee. Parking is free in Balboa Park but is not close to the museum. Plan to walk or ride the park shuttle.
After our museum visit we ate at Panama 66, the open air restaurant next to the museum. We enjoyed it, as we have in the past. The food is good, they have craft beers on tap, and diners can stroll through the sculpture garden.


Timken Reopens!

By | |
Comments Off on Timken Reopens!

Timken Museum of Art
Balboa Park
San Diego
June 5, 2022

We are delighted to say that the Timken Museum in Balboa Park has reopened after more than two years. During its hiatus it has undergone a major refurbishment and systems upgrade. The Timken is probably our favorite museum, and it was delightful to get reacquainted with an old friend.


We attended a members’ preview on the first weekend in June; the museum reopened to the public on June 8. The San Diego Union Tribune did a pair of very thorough articles, a long piece about the reopening which covered the history of the museum and what’s new, and a second, shorter piece that highlighted ten “must see” works of art in the collection. We recommend those articles highly and will not try to repeat all that they covered.

Here are some highlights from our visit:
We enjoyed seeing the two new works on display as part of the permanent collection. The first is an 1874 marble bust Eve by American artist Thomas Ball.

The second is an 1890 oil painting Salome by American artist Ella Ferris Pell.

Hearty thanks to the donors who made those acquisitions possible! (Kevin and Irene Rowe, for Eve, and Sandra and Bram Dijkstra, for Salome.)
The gallery walls have been repainted, and the overall effect is to make the interior lighter and more pleasant. The collection has been rearranged in chronological order. The prior grouping was by category. The new system makes sense and is pleasing, and it did not take us too long to find our old friends. Every work of art now has an explanatory text on the wall to inform visitors. The bronze details have been refinished, inside and out, and this beautiful mid-century modern building really shines now. The air conditioning system has been completely revamped, an invisible but important upgrade.
Among our all-time favorite works in the collection are:
Eastman Johnson’s 1880 painting, The Cranberry Harvest, Island of Nantucket:

And the 1557 painting by Pieter Bruegel the Elder, Parable of the Sower:

Early in the pandemic lock down, Meredith ordered a mask from the museum store online with that Brueghel image, and she wore it for our recent visit.
The museum website has photos of all the works in their permanent collection, along with facts about each piece.
The gallery that houses special exhibitions was not open when we visited. There is a planned exhibition of works by summer artist-in-residence Marianela de la Hoz set to open July 10. Something to look forward to!
Things to know: The museum is open Wednesday – Sunday 10 am – 5 pm. Admission to the museum is free. Please make a donation! Parking in Balboa Park is also free, but located at a distance from the museum, so you will need to walk or take the park shuttle.

Bemberg Foundation Treasures

By | |
Comments Off on Bemberg Foundation Treasures

San Diego Museum of Art
Balboa Park, San Diego
September 5, 2021

We donned our masks and headed to the Museum of Art for our first conventional indoor museum visit in a year and a half.  We went to see the special exhibition “Cranach to Canaletto: Masterpieces from the Bemberg Foundation.”  The exhibition included more than 80 paintings belonging to the Bemberg Foundation collection in Toulouse, France.  Artists represented included, in addition to Cranach and Canaletto, Clouet, Boucher, Tintoretto, the younger Brueghel, and several others.  Their home is undergoing restoration, making it possible for the works to be sent on tour elsewhere.

We saw some impressive and beautiful works from the 16th through 18th centuries. They were gathered by type and subject matter, with portraits all shown together, interiors in another section, religious and mythological works together, and then landscapes and other exterior scenes in the final room.  Meredith particularly liked the portraits painted by Tintoretto.  We were both amused by Boucher’s putti (cherubs).  They were playing in their own paintings, apart from any larger scene, and looked as if they were taking a break from dancing attendance on God in some great theophany scene.

In the gallery just outside the Bemberg exhibition we looked at some contemporary paintings inspired by the pandemic.

The Bemberg exhibition has since closed. We are planning to go see the Renaissance to Realism exhibition currently on view which features secular paintings from the 17th century.

Il Guercino

By | |
Comments Off on Il Guercino

Timken Museum
Balboa Park
November 24, 2019

Recently Meredith discovered the 17th century Italian painter Giovanni Francesco Barbieri through a blog post featuring one of his paintings of the Annunciation.  The Angelus Project blog posts a new image of the Annunciation each week.  Barbieri is better known by his nickname “Il Guercino.”

She wanted to know more about Barbieri, and started with the Wikipedia article about him.  Apparently guercino is Italian for “squint-eyed.”  His Wikipedia entry has an image done by a contemporary artist, Ottavio Leoni, that shows Barbieri’s right eye crossing in, a form of strabismus (an umbrella term for several types of misalignment of the eyes).  Also intriguing was a link in that Wikipedia article to a medical journal article exploring whether Leonardo da Vinci may have had strabismus.  Other famous artists with various types of strabismus may include Rembrandt, Dürer, Degas, and Picasso.

We shared this information with our optometrist daughter, who told us that she had been discussing strabismic artists, particularly painters, with a colleague recently.  She was struck by the observation that paintings represent a 3D world in a 2D medium, and that translating three dimensions down to two may be easier for people who already see the world in two dimensions because of their strabismus.

Soon after that discussion we were visiting the Timken and discovered that there is a painting in their permanent collection by Barbieri, of the parable of the Prodigal Son.  In that parable, the father who welcomes back the errant son represents God forgiving sinners.  Luke 15:11-32.  A docent at the Timken explained to us that in addition to illustrating the original Gospel story, the painting also represents the Catholic Church of the Counter-Reformation, ready to welcome back Protestants.

Manet’s Later Years

By | |
Comments Off on Manet’s Later Years

Getty Center 
Sepulveda Pass, Los Angeles
November 16, 2019

We drove up to the Getty to see Manet and Modern Beauty, their special exhibition of over 80 works by Edouard Manet, created in the final years of his life.  We had read a preview article about it in the Los Angeles Times, and we were reminded of it by the monthly email newsletter we receive from the Getty.  Meredith’s sister Kathleen met us there.

The works on display included not only oil paintings but also pastels, watercolors, and letters Manet sent to friends that he decorated with small sketches or watercolor images.

The marquee work, Jeanne (Spring), is a beautifully executed painting of a well-dressed young woman who symbolizes Spring.  Manet had originally intended to paint all four seasons, each represented by a woman in seasonal dress. He did not live long enough to finish the project. He did paint Autumn, and that work is displayed near Spring in the Getty exhibit.

We enjoyed seeing images of the artist’s black and white cat Zizi, first eyeing a brioche and then curled up on his wife’s lap, in typical cat pose.

 Manet also painted friends’ dogs, and the portrait of one named “Bob” was included in the exhibition.

As we finished touring the Manet exhibition, we were treated to an outdoor musical and dance performance piece that was part of the Bridge-S series created and produced by Solange Knowles.  On the drive up to the Getty, we had read an article about her production in the Los Angeles Times. 

We stopped for lunch in the museum cafe, then went to see two other smaller temporary exhibitions, Balthazar: A Black African King in Medieval and Renaissance Art and Peasants in Pastel: Millet and the Pastel Revival.

The magi who came to see the infant Jesus are not named in the Gospels; indeed they are not even stated to be three in number.  But legend has filled in the gap, and tradition has it that one of the three wise men came from Africa and was named Balthazar.  We were interested to see how depictions of Balthazar changed over the centuries, and some of the illuminated manuscripts on display were exquisitely beautiful.

The pastel collection only included about a dozen works, but they were very well done.  Jean-Francois Millet came from a peasant family and often depicted rural scenes.  He led a revival in the use of pastels; displayed with his works are some by other artists who followed his lead like Alfred Sisley and Camille Pissarro.

It was a beautiful day; we enjoyed the views both to the east to UCLA and downtown, and west toward the ocean. The Getty Center gardens are beautiful, and we made a mental note to leave time for a tour of the grounds when we next come.

Admission to the Getty is free, but parking costs $20 per car. The price drops to $15 in mid afternoon and to $10 in the evening. The Manet exhibition runs through January 12, 2020.  The Balthazar exhibition ends February 16, 2020, and the pastels run through May 10, 2020.

Spain’s Golden Age

By | |
Comments Off on Spain’s Golden Age

San Diego Museum of Art
Balboa Park
May 19, 2019 and July 28, 2019

We went to see the San Diego Museum of Art’s new featured exhibition, Art & Empire: the Golden Age of Spain, on its opening weekend and then again more recently with a friend.  In between our two visits we went to Spain, where we saw other Golden Age paintings at the Prado Museum in Madrid.  It was fun to put the San Diego exhibition in the greater context.

The SDMA Golden Age exhibition features more than 100 art works, mostly paintings, from Spain’s imperial age.  The works include not only those by Spanish artists, but also many by contemporaneous colonial artists.  They are grouped thematically, with religious art making up a majority of the pieces on display, and many secular subjects shown as well.  The museum’s own Spanish art is gathered here, together with many borrowed pieces.

There were many great works, and we cannot name a favorite.  A very memorable piece was Velazquez’s Kitchen Maid with the Supper at Emmaus, which is interesting for its focus on the maid, with Jesus and the disciples in the background.  It is displayed near a more traditional treatment of that subject. 

We entered the museum for free as part of our annual Balboa Park Explorer Pass but paid $5 extra to get into the Art & Empire exhibit. It was well worth it!  Without the pass, museum admission is $15, $10 for seniors, and the exhibition is an extra $5. 

The exhibition runs through September 2.

After we were done at the museum on our first visit, we had fun riding the carousel over near the zoo. Meredith succeeded in grabbing the brass ring and won a second ride for free.

 

Art Sampler

By | |
Comments Off on Art Sampler

San Diego Museum of Art
Balboa Park
January 6, 2019

Our first museum trip of 2019 echoed our 2018 start. We used our Balboa Park Explorer passes to visit the San Diego Museum of Art. This time we concentrated our attention on two temporary exhibitions. The first showcased World War I propaganda posters; the second featured early 20th century prints that are not often displayed, due to light sensitivity.

We also spent some time in the permanent collection, viewing the gallery with European devotional art. El Greco is one of Meredith’s favorite artists, and his painting The Penitent St. Peter hangs at the entrance to that room. Further inside the room we got into a spirited discussion with a fellow enthusiast, comparing notes about the historic St. Nicholas, 4th century bishop of Myra, whose legend has evolved in odd ways to become the modern Santa Claus.

Family Holiday

By | |
Comments Off on Family Holiday

Timken Museum of Art
Balboa Park
December 28, 2018

We closed out 2018 with a trip to our favorite local museum, the Timken. It was a banner week for us because all three daughters, our son in law, and our new grandchild all visited together, overlapping by several days.

We first bought lunches from food trucks and ate out on the Plaza de Panama.

We then strolled through the Timken Museum lobby, looking at the hand made holiday decorations which were hanging both overhead and on the large tree at the back of the lobby.  They are an annually recurring exhibit, Jewels of the Season.

We next viewed the special exhibition of Rococo art.  (It closed a few days after our visit.)

We then dispersed to enjoy the permanent collection, particularly the Russian icons and San Diego’s only Rembrandt, “Saint Bartholomew.”  He is back in town after being loaned out to museums elsewhere.

The Timken offers free admission, so it is a great option for the thrifty or an easy add-on to other activities in Balboa Park.  Donations are welcomed and encouraged, however.

The next special exhibit at the Timken will be Metonymies: A Dialogue with 20th Century Works from the Sonnabend Collection, which runs from February 8 through April 28. We plan to visit again soon.

The Nile Comes to LA

By | |
Comments Off on The Nile Comes to LA

Getty Center
Sepulveda Pass, Los Angeles
August 5, 2018

We headed north, and met up with Meredith’s sister Kathleen at the Getty Center in Los Angeles. We went to see the special exhibition Beyond the Nile: Egypt in the Classical World. The exhibition runs through September 9, and we wanted to be sure not to miss it.

Various pieces of fine and decorative arts are displayed in the special exhibition pavilion. They span nearly two millennia, and the galleries are arranged in chronological order. The theme is cultural exchange in the Mediterranean world, that is how Egypt and the other civilizations around the Mediterranean traded with one another and how their interactions influenced their respective art. The first room displays the oldest pieces, including objects traded between the Egyptians and the Mycenaeans and other items from the Bronze Age. Among the early pieces is a wooden model of a river boat; this piece had been placed in a tomb. Meredith liked seeing a boat full of rowers, although she thought one rower on the port side was leaning back too far relative to the rest of his crew.

The next room shows Egyptian and classical Greek pieces. The gallery which follows features works from the Ptolemaic period. The last several rooms contain Egyptian and Roman pieces, including some from Pompeii and others from Hadrian‘s villa.

The three of us took a docent led tour, which lasted about an hour and was quite informative. After lunch in the museum café, we went back through the Egypt exhibit on our own. We were all interested by two separate ancient papyri with medicinal recipes and magic healing spells. Although the documents are thousands of years old, large parts remain intact and the writing is clearly visible. We saw numerous statues, busts, and other sculpture. One we particularly liked was a basalt sarcophagus made around 600 BC, on loan from the Rijksmuseum. The person entombed in it was a Greek who attained high office in the Egyptian government, so someone who exemplifies the multicultural theme.

We saw several other things at the center. We caught the end of Pathways to Paradise: Medieval India and Europe. There were some truly splendid illuminated religious manuscripts on display. Although that particular exhibit closed after the weekend of our visit, the Getty has an extensive collection of illuminated manuscripts and often rotates them through special exhibitions like this one. There are some ancient Roman and Greek sculptures on loan from the Santa Barbara Museum of Art. We found them in the south hall of the South Pavilion. The Santa Barbara museum is undergoing extensive multi-year renovation, and these works are on loan while that work is going on. The Lansdowne Hermes was particularly impressive.

Admission to the museum is free, but parking costs $15. A tram runs up the hill from the parking garage. Handicap access is good. The café offers a selection of cuisines, in a food court type arrangement. Food is good, prices are a little high, as is typical with most museum restaurants.

PMCA’s Last Hurrah

By | |
Comments Off on PMCA’s Last Hurrah

Pasadena Museum of California Art
Pasadena

We learned from an article in the Los Angeles Times that the Pasadena Museum of California Art will be closing.

As the name suggests, this museum features California art. Specifically, its mission is “to present the breadth of California art and design through exhibitions that explore the cultural dynamics and influences that are unique to California.” It is unusual in not having any collection of its own. Rather, it showcases special exhibitions, three at a time. The museum lacks an endowment and has largely been supported by a pair of donors, the founders Bob and Arlene Oltman. It fills its niche well, but its unusual structure has proven to be unsustainable. In June, the board voted to close on October 7 when the current exhibitions finish.

The current exhibitions include: works by painter and graphic designer Grafton Tyler Brown, the first known African American artist to work in California; another featuring feminist artist Judy Chicago; and the third displaying sculptures by contemporary Los Angeles artist Brody Albert.

We visited the museum once, on a get-away weekend in Pasadena a few months before we started this blog. We did not take photos there, but our “PMCA” stickers can be see in this selfie taken outside the Gamble House.

While there we saw an exhibition featuring paintings by Alfredo Ramos Martínez produced in the 1930’s and 40’s, another displaying several dozen silk screened political posters from the 1970’s on, and the third compromised of studies done by Flora Kao of cabins in the Mojave Desert.

We enjoyed our visit and are sad to see PMCA close.