HIGH, ATLANTA!

My visit to see the Vermeer marks my third trip to the High Museum. My first two visits were part of group trips to see traveling exhibits in college. With a group of other people, one cargo van, and a plan to return to campus before it got too late, I never really saw the permanent collections. After seeing the Vermeer first, I spent several hours walking through the permanent collection galleries. The High has wonderful holdings in 18th and 19th century American and European art, decorative arts, folk art, contemporary art, and African art. The majority of these galleries are in a wing designed by New York architect, Richard Meier. (Originally the whole museum, but now a wing, since the addition of three more buildings by Renzo Piano in 2002.) They are arranged off a spiraling ramp that goes up four floors. I hadn't looked over the High website before I left and was surprised to find a live drawing fundraiser happening in the atrium of the Stent Family Wing. Monster Drawing Rally was a 4 hour event. Roughly 20 - 25 artists spent one hours creating art. Whatever was made during that hour was for sale -- $75 per drawing. After the hour was up, there was a shift change, and a new group of artists sat down to create. People circled around the tables, chatted with the artists, and just watched people make work. A DJ spun soul 45s and the PBR tallboys flowed freely. It sounded like a bar, it smelled like a bar, but I was looking at marble statues and early American furniture. As I progressed up the spiral, I peeked over the railing to check on the progress of things.

Favorites from the permanent collection included:

Breughel the Elder, Holy Family with garland of flowers (Normally I don't go for paintings like this. It was one of those Dutch paintings with Those Dutch Flowers. I think floral arrangement paintings are boring. In fact, I skipped two in the Vermeer exhibition. HOWEVER, in the garland of flowers surrounding the Holy Family were insects. Lots of insects. Points to Breughel for a little reality and humor.)

William Stanley Haseltine, Nahant -- Egg Rock (I am always down for a good watercolor and pencil sketch. Haseltine is good at suggesting a lot with a few pencil marks.) 

Joseph Rodefer Decamp, The Blue Mandarin Coat (It reminded me a little of the Vermeer portrait I had just seen and Seargant's painting of Ellen Terry as Lady Macbeth.)

Folk Art by Howard Finster (Favorites included Bust of Shakespeare, Horses like No one on Earth Has Seen, and his painted briefcase. My Day Job has brought me into contact with several of Howard Finster's works. I didn't really get them or like them until this day. One painting looks crazy. Thousands of paintings is a body of work. His leather briefcase was painted on all sides with colorful faces and figures, and could have held more than its own next to a Steven Sprouse Vuitton bag. I really want to visit his Paradise Garden this year.)

Maarten Baas, Real Time (A video of the artist painting and changing a digital clock in real time to reflect the time change over a 12 hour period. Also...available as a mobile app)

Nellie Mae Rowe, Plant Sketches ( I like the simplicity of these drawings in marker and crayon. Her tree drawings reminded me of the trees that Margaret Kilgallen drew on walls and the sides of trains, and the stylized weeping willows that sometimes appear on headstones.)

Marble and Rain

A View from the Top

All of the profits form the Monster Art Rally go to a fund used for purchasing art by Atlanta artists. Neat. Well done, High Museum. I had a great day.

I've participated in several museum art fundraisers here in Knoxville and even a live painting one this spring. But this set up appealed to me -- many artists+ less time = more spontaneity. More exposure for artists, and more artists participating. The KMA Art on Tap event only had 5 working painters. For the sake of having a finished 30" x 30" painting, we all arrived to event set-up with paintings 80-90% completed. I feel like people may have gotten bored eventually with watching 5 people paint almost-finished paintings, and this type of Art Rally set-up would have been fast-paced with something new and exciting always happening.