Phoenix Art Museum: cool in the heat!

Sui Jianguo, Jurassic Age

Maybe it’s just me, but I’d never been aware of the Phoenix Art Museum until I went to Phoenix for the first time recently. If I’d thought about it I would have expected a city that size to have a decent museum, so I think it’s actually an interesting question: why hadn’t I heard of it? There are well known art museums in cities – some smaller than Phoenix – that I’ve never been to.

I don’t have an answer. Maybe they never lend works out to other museums. Maybe they don’t originate many important or traveling exhibits. Maybe they just don’t get enough press. Maybe it’s just me.

But finding the Phoenix Art Museum was a pleasant surprise. I spent a long time in it – and not just because it was over 110° outside!

The featured exhibit was called Paper! for the simple reason that all of the work in the show was either printed/painted on, made of, or in some way about paper. The few selections I’m including here just hint at the diversity of work in the show. In fact one could criticize the lack of a coherent theme, genre, historical period, or any of the other typical unifying art categories. But I found it refreshing.

Having just seen the new exhibit at the Milwaukee Art Museum, Posters of Paris: Toulouse-Lautrec and His Contemporaries, the biggest surprise was finding some of the exact same posters on display here.

These are just a few of my favorites. (I was also surprised that non-flash photography was allowed in the gallery, with a few exceptions.)

Liu Guosong, Which is Earth?

Mark Klett and Byron Wolfe, Rock Formations...

Tom Wesselman (I missed the title)

I don’t have time to describe my entire experience at the museum. It is strong in a few predictable areas, like the distinctive arts of the southwest – as it should. It also has an extensive permanent collection of contemporary art in a cavernous new wing.

Milwaukeeans like me who are fans of Cornelia Parker will find another connection between the two museums in this piece, entitled “Mass (Colder Darker Matter).” It was constructed from remnants of a church in Texas that was struck by lightning.

And for those familiar with MAM’s “Infinity Room,” its younger, hipper cousin resides here in Phoenix. By Yayoi Kusama, it is titled “You Who are Getting Obliterated the Dancing Swarm of Fireflies.” You can see a static image of it (which gives a feel but, of course, doesn’t do the kinetic/visual experience justice) by viewing the online gallery of contemporary art on the museum website.

To read two very different accounts of my exploits in Phoenix, check out:

Phoenix Botanical Gardens: Art vs. Nature

The Wilderness of Immigration Detention

A Day in Chicago: A Smart place to go

A day in Chicago: Chapter 3 (A 3-part serial post)

After the Art Institute and the Cultural Center, it was 3:30. The Kennedy Expressway was already a parking lot. Our Gallery Guide told us that the Smart Museum of Art is open until 8 pm on Thursdays, giving us another reason to linger. We spent some time browsing the contemporary galleries in the West Loop warehouse district. The icy forms as well as the Hitchkockian installation of squirrels (top) are by Carson Fox at the Linda Warren Gallery. Sparkles rule at the Packer Schopf gallery, where Andréa Stanislav is showing a series of glitter-embedded polymer paintings (above right). The centerpiece is an 8-ft crystalline—headless—horse with mirrored prisms protruding from its torso (detail, below right). Full view at Packergallery.com.) The horse also rotates on its mirrored base; ya gotta love art, eh!

OK, raise your hand if you’ve never been to the Smart Museum of Art. I’ve only been a couple times myself, but they’ve been good times! It is at the University of Chicago in Hyde Park. I was hooked as soon as I walked in the door and saw “Cleave” by Greely Myatt (below). It takes up an entire (large) wall and is made of “cotton plant roots and found object.” His artist’s statement includes: “As an artist, I want you to care about something as much as I care. I make work that is familiar, and a bit strange—mysterious and, I hope, poetic.” It’s all that. It was great at first glance and only got better as I took it all in up close. Art that speaks of our relationships with the environment has particular appeal for me; something I do care about, that inspires me to make art. (See Urban Wilderness.)

The main exhibit (which, sadly, closed yesterday as I post this) was called "The Darker Side of Light: Arts of Privacy, 1850-1900." With themed sections bearing characteristically Victorian titles like “abjection,” it was, as the name implies, a melancholy lot. But the prints by such well know names as Manet, Corot, Lautrec, and Kollwitz, among others, were luscious. Comparing these somber genres with light-filled Impressionism and the lively bustle of streets and cafes, the catalogue describes the show this way: "The Darker Side of Light evokes shadowed interiors and private introspections to tell a far less familiar story of late nineteenth century art."

From a narrative series of prints called "The Glove," by Max Klinger

The few simple, sketch-like prints by Toulouse Lautrec reminded me of his genius. Like Matisse, an exhibition of his work—at the Art Institute many years ago—is among the most memorable I’ve seen. Käthe Kollwitz has long been a personal favorite. No one has expressed pain, loss, and suffering as deeply felt as she. The one at right is titled “Woman with Dead Child.” If I had to choose, I’d put Matisse on my wall any day, but I always keep my Kollwitz book handy as a reality check in moments of “quiet contemplation.”

If you haven’t been to the Smart, it also has a wonderful permanent collection and is reason enough to venture away from the epicenter of art in the loop for a change. Just before closing time, the young guard—probably a student—interrupted my reverie in front of their red above red Rothko to ask with some incredulity if I really liked it. When I assured her I did, she shook her head with finality and claimed that despite all the hours she’d spent there she “just didn’t see it.” I turned back to it thinking this was a particularly nice one.)

(If you missed the first two installments of this 3-part serial post, click on Chap. 1 or Chap. 2. Or scroll down.)