As I said in my last post, my daughter-in-law, Amber and I spent a fun Saturday in December visiting the High Museum in Atlanta. We had a great time wandering thru the special collections that were on display!!
The first gallery featured the works of Romare Bearden from his “Profile Series” These paintings begin with Bearden’s earliest memories as a boy in North Carolina in the 1910’s and concludes with his life as a young artist in Harlem in the early 1940’s.
Most of the art was mixed media and each included a short comment from Bearden’s life. This piece said…. “During certain times of the year I would get my last view of daylight as I entered the subway on my way home”…..
His colors were vibrant and exciting!!
As we left the exhibit hall, Amber drew my attention to a plaque about QUILTS!! How did I miss that one!! This is fairly long, but I like what he had to say…..
“For African American communities in the rural South, quilting was not only a practical domestic art but an opportunity to gather and socialize. Bearden wrote, “I feature the quilt because everyone had a beautiful quilt. And the ladies used to gather in the church and all help each other to sew their quilts.” Some scholars have associated Bearden’s own process of collage with the quilting traditions that had impressed him in his youth.
After reading this, we backtracked to find the piece entitled “Miss Mamie Singleton’s Quilt”.
He said of this quilt…..”She was famous for her quilts”, highlighting the status a skilled quilter could earn with her craft. The picture shows not Miss Mamie, but her quilt, laid out in a domestic interior. The picture is as much about the quilt as the home environment it was made for.”
As we continued thru the galleries, I was excited to see this piece by Frank Stella. It is part of his “Protractor Series”…….
….and reminded me of a sister piece that I saw back in the fall in the Kunst Museum in Basel Switzerland…..
One of these photos is blurry and the other is cut off……sigh!!!
This full wall piece (“Winter Landscape” by Alex Katz) was stunning……
One of my favorite pieces of the day was this folk art church scene……
It was created by Carleton Garrett and was called “Church Revival”. It was originally motorized and I would have loved to be able to see it in action!!
Amber and I are both drawn to shadows and immediately pulled out phones to take a photo of this piece (Latin Study by Al Taylor)…..
We also laughed at this piece…..
It is a gorgeous art piece with lights and metal and this picture does not do it credit. However, what we both noticed was the cord in the background. Surely there was a better way to plug it in!! It really detracted from the beauty.
Our final gallery was artwork by Virgil Abloh. I knew nothing about this person but Amber filled me in. He trained as a architect but moved into fashion design. He has brought his design ideas into many other disciplines and has made many people aware of his work thru the use of social media.
The exhibit entranced reminded us to clear our perceptions before we entered…..
I particularly liked this architectural drawing from one of his sketchbooks…..
…and this dress designed for Beyonce was amazing…..
…although I was interested that the edges were not finished…..
Amber quickly pointed out that this is another example of his “breaking the perceptions”.
We ended the morning with a late lunch at a local bistro….wonderful warm soup for a cold day!!!
Amber….I can’t wait to see where we go NEXT December!!!