High Art

Yesterday, Alyson Stanfield wrote in her ArtBiz Blog at http://www.artbizblog.com/2007/01/in_atlanta.html about visiting the High Museum of Art in Atlanta. She mentioned that it was her third visit to a museum which had been designed by Richard Meier; she did not mention the 2005 addition by Renzo Piano which more than doubled the size of the Museum and added more space for exhibitions and visitor amenities. She mentioned the exhibition by Morris Louis and Elsworth Kelly and described being in the room with Louis's veils as a sense "--simultaneously--of being at the bottom of a canyon, at the foot of waterfalls, or in a room full of Medieval tapestries;" she did not mention the much touted LouvreAtlanta Exhibition. Did she choose not to mention the soaring architecture or the block-buster exhibition because she was unimpressed? I wonder.

In October, I wrote about my visit with my daughter to The High and LouvreAtlanta. http://bushstrokes.blogspot.com/2006/10/enlightening-conversation.html
I wrote that I was disappointed in the exhibition from the Louvre and the adjacent collections while my daughter simply enjoyed the opportunity to see the sketches, paintings and sculptures. I wonder if I should have done as Alyson did and simply not mentioned it.

However. I promised to return for a more thorough viewing. I did. And I approached it with fresher eyes. Alone and with a full day to browse. I started once again with the 30 or so busts; I am still in awe. I viewed all the art from the Louvre, spending a good bit of time with each piece and even listening to ALL the audio explanations. I enjoyed a number of small pieces, but I am still underwhelmed

I wandered through the gift shop and through several floors of the permanent collections. I stopped to visit the 'Hiney' Gallery (my name for a restroom where the black marble floors are so shiny there are clear reflections of bottoms in the stalls.) As I lunched on a lovely mushroom bisque and a veggie wrap in the ground floor café, I thought about what I might see next. Then, I decided to save the other exhibitions for another day.