Month: May 2020

Some great, free, online documentaries about artists have got me thinking about museums in these Corona times. They are a pretty low-tech way (remember television?) to experience some of what we love about museums while we continue, on the whole, to #museumfromhome. Some online museum resources are fun, while others are not much to get excited about. These documentaries seem to me a great quasi-substitute for not only museum visits themselves, but an array of cultural offerings that are lacking right now: things like film screenings, lectures, and art galleries. One in particular really revved me up – I think you’ll like it too!

One mind-expanding artist documentary was I, Claude Monet by Exhibition on Screen (a company to keep an eye on – they make great stuff), which you can buy or rent over the website. I don’t know about you, but I had the wrong impression about this guy. I turns out that those happy sailboats and seaside scenes now used on feel-good products like calendars and greeting cards came out of very dark circumstances. Poor Monet was desperately poor for most of his life, and suffered greatly at the loss of his wife – from hunger and lack of medical care due to extreme poverty – and multiple children. In addition, he was not much appreciated during his lifetime; in a letter to his galerist, Monet once wrote that at least when his art was being excoriated, it was being talked about! – better than being ignored, as it was for a long time. This documentary is narrated purely from Monet’s own letters, voiced with heart-rending emotion by a great voice actor. You’ll never look at a Monet the same way, I promise.

Another free online documentary on my list is El Greco: An Artist’s Odyssey. Narrated by Adrien Brody, what’s not to love? It’s one of many videos in the National Gallery of Art’s Vimeo channel – check it out!

Have you found a good artist documentary too? Let us know in the comments section below or through the Contact page!

Welcome to the third in a new series of Guest Posts from museum lovers around the world! Each post is like a mini-tour with an expert on a museum topic they’re excited about. So let’s get to know our guide:

As the weeks of working from home stretch on, I’ve become keenly aware of the art decorating my apartment. I haven’t started talking to the paintings on the walls (there’s still time), but I have enjoyed reflecting on why I’ve held onto various posters, prints, and drawings, and more importantly, what has made them worthy of display. It’s a question I so often ask of the ancient world—why would a first-century Roman want a certain mosaic or fresco for their dining room or reception hall? What might the work tell us about the room’s use, the (projected?) identity of the homeowner, the fashions of the times, or the supplies of artisan workshops? So, what do my walls say about a museum professional and art-enthusiast living in Los Angeles in the early twenty-first century? If you are at home, take a look around—what insights might your surroundings offer?

Turn around and there’s another Getty exhibition street banner: Jackson Pollock’s Mural from the 2014 show. Kudos to the Getty design team for filling the banner with this life-size crop of the original, letting the high res photography pop (the Getty still sells old banners, well-worth checking out). From my work-from-home desk, I’ve had lots of time to enjoy its bold brush strokes and paint splatter. In the before times, a guest even asked if it’s “real”—a favorite question about art reproductions, because of course, “yes and no.”

Next to it hangs an original copy of sorts, Pizza in Gold, my riff on Gustav Klimt’s Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer, which I made in 2017 for a bi-annual art contest held by Zachary’s Pizza (notice the nimbus-like pizza behind the sitter). A Berkeley institution, Zachary’s was a mainstay of my college years, and in the years since, has become an essential part of every Budrovich-family Bay Area trip. After two years on display, a new batch of paintings were selected, so I was thrilled to reclaim it this past January. Now in my living room, it signals potential guests that I’m worldly and artsy, but also a bit silly (and a loyal fan of Zachary’s Pizza).

Welcome to the second in a new series of Guest Posts from museum lovers around the world! Each post is like a mini-tour with an expert on a museum topic they’re excited about. So let’s get to know our guide:

What’s not to love about a museum occupying a late-Ottoman villa along the Bosphorus? From the ferry ride (which I hope visitors will take from the main touristy hubs of Eminonu or Besiktas ports in Istanbul), the Sadberk Hanim Museum is like the 19th-century domestic architecture that floats by as you travel up the waterway. Pastel, ice-cream colored paint jobs with white gingerbread trim makes one wonder what it might be like inside. Well! Step right in.

The (post-Islamic) right wing contains objects from the wealthy Koç family who once inhabited the home. Madame Sadberk herself was quite the collector, and her acquisitions give a good overview of pieces from the Islamic world across multiple dynasties and regions. Another gallery contains rows of Iznik pottery and tiles from floor to ceiling (see illustration), and around the corner is a grouping of early-19th century crockery wherein you could put a whole cabbage inside the ceramic cabbage, or an artichoke inside the glazed artichoke on display. (See the illustration for this 3-D trompe l’oeil.) When the present author visited there was a display of Ottoman velvets and brocaded robes for (petite) noble ladies. In looking at the tiles and textiles of this part of the museum wing one is struck by the ambiguity of what is of European or Asian manufacture in the 19th-century exhibits on display. They are all from the heyday of Orientalism and Chinoiserie, after all.

Welcome to the first in a new series of Guest Posts from museum lovers around the world! Each post is like a mini-tour with an expert on a museum topic they’re excited about. So let’s get to know our guide:

Puebla, Mexico, has a baroque heart. Built by Spanish colonists, the city’s historic facades pulse and swirl with ornament. Its well-preserved collection of 16^th-18^th century architecture earned the city UNESCO’s World Heritage label. And out in a new suburb of the city, a remarkable museum describes the global context for the city’s historic center.

Photo: Christian González Verón.

The exhibit planners made liberal use of digital technology. Multi-touch monitors swarm with examples of paintings from the period, and listening stations offer selections from Baroque composers.

Exhibit text (always in both Spanish and English) acknowledges that European military conquest funded and spread the Baroque style. But the dire consequences to conquered people and their cultures do not appear in the Museum. The galleries effectively celebrate the period’s beauty and spectacle.