We don't get much master work to look at in our small city of around a million. Lots of great art, but I've had to travel to Montreal or Toronto if I wanted see the stuff that fills the pages of my art history books. You people who live in Europe sure have it good!
The gallery's grand opening has given us the excuse to order in some master art.
The highlight for me was Goya's series of etching called "The Disasters of War," should be required study for anyone who thinks that war is a good thing. They are so sad, brutal really, and presented with such a ferocious honesty, it's a wonder Goya survived them. (Never mind the technical brilliance of many of these little compositions. I tried to imitate a Goya etching many years ago. It took me two months to finish and convinced me to stick with photography.)
One room over, I spent an hour looking at some Degas paintings. There were sculptures too, but they left me cold. The paintings though, damn!, that man could wield a brush. There was nothing holding him back, each stroke was a mindless as a branch in the wind and as perfect as a Basho poem.
It was the contemporary art that impressed my young boys most. A massive sound installation called The Murder of Crows blew us all away. 98 audio speakers, 98 tracks, one mind-expanding listening experience. A person could return to this exhibit 98 times and hear something different. Wow!
There's a pile more cool stuff. If you live near Edmonton, get yourself down to the new gallery. It's another reason to call Edmonton great.
aga, February 2010
Inside a sculpture, February 2010
Stop, notice the light, February 2010
Do you see the point? February 2010
Timing, February 2010
Timing too, February 2010
New neighbors/sliver of ochre light, February 2010
Eternity is an illusion, but the idea is still awesome, February 2010
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3 comments:
Go, Edmonton! Way to take a little step back from your redneck roots.
Great photos - I love the angles and layers.
Again nice angles, Timing being my favorite. As for Goya I can remember seeing some of his work in London amongst it were a few plates from The Disasters of war series, Two stood out and I can still see them now Harvest of the dead, and The same elsewhere I think they were called. Brutal indeed! There was also one on a bull fight that had the same impact.
Sometimes I think us over here in Europe don't appreciate what we have on our door steps and become almost too choosey or elitist as to what we choose to go and see or not! Glad to see the stuff reaching out to more people, and the timing for Goya could not have been better!!!
I think i like "Do You See The Point" best - i like the fact that you really bent the architecture towards what you wanted to see/show
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