In mid-March, I took a quick trip to Indianapolis to visit family. While I was there, Mom and I decided to check out the Indianapolis Museum of Art. Sheila and Chris are members, but Mom had never visited. They have an incredible collection. We spent a couple of hours wandering around and didn't see nearly all of it. It's on my to-do list for next time, as well. I asked the guy at the ticket counter what I shouldn't miss, and he sent us in the direction of the Van Goghs. Personally, I think you should go straight to the Caravaggio (there are fewer than a dozen in the US) and go from there. A few highlights:
Mom with a matching Sol LeWitt
Gorgeous Tiffany window created in memory of President Benjamin Harrison by his wife
Erwin Wurm's One Minute Forever (Yogurt Cup), which made me laugh out loud.
The Caravaggio (Sleeping Cupid)
My favorite painting at the Frick Collection is Bellini's St. Francis of Assisi. The IMA had a visiting exhibition on Bellini and his studio that included this painting of the Madonna and Child with St. John the Baptist. It seems so modern to me (probably because of the rainbow-colored angels)--it's hard for me to believe it was painted in the late 15th Century. I love how Bellini signs his paintings. This one looks like an unfolded piece of paper he affixed to the base.
This Francis Criss painting of Greenwich Village (including the Jefferson Market) made me smile. I walk around there all the time, and I've been up in that clock tower. (Thank you Open House New York!)
One thing I think the Indianapolis Museum of Art does better than any museum I've ever visited is the wall cards. You don't just get the artist's name and years, with the title of the work, and you don't get an art historian's thesis on the piece that makes you feel like an idiot. You get several bullet points that help you to understand better what the artist was trying to do. They don't assume you know anything about art, and they don't talk down to you. For example, here is what they tell the observer about City Landscape above:
2. The architectural mishmash of an Art Deco prison (NY Women's House of Detention), a Victorian Gothic courthouse (Jefferson Market), and a pre-war Greenwich Village apartment building provide inspiration for City Landscape. Bisecting the scene is the Sixth Avenue El, an elevated railway razed the same year Criss painted the image.
3. This approach, reducing views of the world into relationships of form and color, was taken up by many progressive artists of the Modernist era.
Usually, I feel like the wall cards are kind of high brow in their language and their tone. For example, at the Nelson in KC, I read this: The sculpture..."acknowledges the power of human imagination and technological innovation...Its organic tree-like form also speaks profoundly to the dendritic (branching) structures of nature." Here, however, instead of art feeling like something that's only for intellectuals, this feels like something that is for everyone. You learn what to look for, what you're seeing, and how it might connect with other things you'll be seeing on your visit. I loved it.
The real reason for my visit, though, was my nephew, Henry's, starring role in the 8th grade presentation of Peter Pan. He was incredible, if I do say it myself. :) Disney has created a series of junior versions of plays that are perfect for younger kids. The play lasted about 70 minutes but covered all the basic plot points. My sister was the choreographer; she's the queen of 'simple but entertaining' dancing. The kids did a great job! A high school girlfriend brought her two sons to see the show, so I got to catch up with her as well. It was a terrific night!
Flying to Neverland
Getting a talking-to from Tinkerbell
Flying!
The star with his very proud aunt (You'd think his mother would know by now how not to cut off heads in photos...)
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