Classical Art at The Clark

At the end of the day, I am still more of a classical art person. While at The Clark museum I saw a gorgeous piano that was ornately decorated. No single picture could really do it justice since every single panel of it was beautifully crafted and detailed.

The panel right above the keys is a full panorama painting of its own.  Each leg of the piano has detailing like I've never seen. I could have spent a good hour just taking detailed pics of this piano but figured there were some other more famous pieces I should probably see as well.

One such piece is Monet's Cathedral Rouen.  I actually have a print of one of the versions he did since middle school.

This is the first time I saw an original of Monet's Cathedral Rouen, and I learned that Monet had stayed in an apartment across the way from the cathedral, which is where he had this perspective.

He actually painted around 20 versions of the Cathedral Rouen, at different times of the day to get different lighting effects, at different crops to see which composition worked the best.

Knowing so much work went into creating his vision is what makes Monet one of the great impressionist masters, and it makes me appreciate his art even more.

And Monet is not alone in this. I've seen exhibits before on Degas where he sketched the same subject over and over in charcoal first to get just the right composition and just the right perspective. When the final painting is finished, dozens of versions have already been tried out with different color combinations and perspectives. The patience!

Last but not least in the famous department, is the Little Dancer by Degas.

I've actually seen this sculpture multiple times and was always wondering if there were more than one floating around. It turns out there's several indeed, and none of them are of the true original.

It turns out, Degas had created the original out of wax, and used real hair.  It had gone on exhibit just once toward the end of Degas' career and life.

The audience had reacted very negatively to the sculpture due to its life-likeness, and Degas never exhibited it again.

At some point a cast was made of the original wax sculpture, and these bronze ones were made from it. And since there were no photos of the original floating around, I guess no one alive today will be able to say they've seen what Degas originally created. This actually explains why I've seen color differences of the bow on the little dancer's hair each time I've seen it. They were all different copies! The things you learn!

Watch Out for That Piano!

Since I'm taking classes again, I have to coordinate my vacation with spring break. I got a chance to head out to MASS MoCA out in western Mass.

First up is an art installation with a falling piano. It's really amazing to see everything positioned in such as a way that it represents the explosion of impact, yet everything is completely still.

Next is giant wall paintings of Sol LeWitt.  His style is to give instructions and sometimes sketches accompanying his instructions, and have someone else actually do the installation and painting. This is done in such a way that the art can be repeatedly created, which is certainly a very different way of thinking about art.

I attempted take a panorama of one of the LeWitt art walls because it was so large and could not be captured in a single (or 3) shots).  But as proven from the previous time I tried to use the panorama feature, it creates this fish eye perspective that distorts the actual view quite a bit. Nonetheless, it gives a good sense of the scale of the installation while capturing all the details. 

One of the art walls happened to have a light source above and center.  I almost look prophetic. :)

Modern art might not be something I naturally gravitate toward, but I think MASS MoCA has enough variety that even the noobs like me can still appreciate it.

Linsanity

Although I'm not much of a sports fan in general, I wouldn't pass up a chance to see a pro game in person.  It just happened to be I got a pair of company tickets to go see the Celtics play the Knicks at TD Garden.

Linsanity has been the talk of the town for the past month so I most definitely had to go see what Jeremy Lin is all about.

It was pretty crazy to see him make some amazing shots. He was practically falling over on some of them.  But at the same time, he turned over many simple plays, almost tripping over his own feet a few times. At the end, my conclusion is he's fairly inconsistent, so he's got some ways to go before he can be counted on to really carry any team.

Outside of the game (which was pretty exciting considering the Celtics looked like they were about to lose, and then in the last few minutes, managed to tie it up to go into overtime, and then winning it at the end) the company seats were pretty nice.

It was at the same level as other company boxes, but not as extravagant. It's at a "sports deck", and had tall bar height leather swivel seats, and a bar counter for food and drinks. Definitely way more comfortable than the regular seats beneath.

This also gave me a chance to test out the panorama features on my Galaxy Nexus. My first attempt at using it, and it turned out pretty nice.  It's pretty clear that any panorama shot is going to have a weird perspective due to the positioning / origin of the photo and how it all gets stitched together. But it does a pretty nice job of showcasing the space I was in.

All in all, a pretty positive experience, both via the game, and with my smart phone. :) I just need more opportunities to try out more of its features so I can write about them.