The first stop is The Toledo Museum of Art Glass Pavilion. My friends whom I spent a summer with in Echigo Tsumari people, be prepared.This is the entrance to the museum. I had a weird deja vu feeling when I got near the building. White ceilings, huge panel glass windows that covers the exterior of the museum.
The feeling of familiarity grew even more as I set my foot inside the building. Imagine yourself standing in a lift, and there are two mirrors against each other. If you look at the mirror, you will get infinite reflections. Well, this works in a similar way, only the mirror is replaced with atransparent glasses having gentle and slightly distorted reflections of visitors in the museum. Hence, you have a feeling that there is a lot of people inside the museum, but it is never crowded because they are simply silhouettes, almost like a person behind a curtain. So the place remains spacious but filled with the warmth of people.
Designed by the same architects who created the 21 Century Museum of Contemporary Art Kanazawa, both building has a heavy emphasis not only on the use of light and space but also the the transparency of the building. Barely able to tell whether this door is opened or closed, the transparency desolves the boundaries between what is the inside and what is outside of the building allowing interior space to combine with the exterior.
After visiting the Glass Pavilion I walked across the street and attended the "Power of Art" talk on Turner in the The Toledo Museum of Art.
J.M.W. (Joseph Mallord William) Turner (British, 1775-1851)The Campo Santo, Venice
Oil on canvas, 1842
A painting about the beauty of Venice and it's eventual decline. The elegance of the Folucha (the double winged boat) slowing gliding through the water in the still water contrasts with the white washed structure in the left which is actually a prison, the floating trash (no, they are not ducks) in the front to the left of the condolas and the dark gloomy condolas themselves. After becoming a success in the public, Turner would sometimes paint in the museum. He would have canvas hanging on he wall early in the morning, paint non-stop and not talk to anyone or walk away from the painting to gain a wider perspective. He knew exactly what he was going to paint and how he was going to paint it, so he just stood in the same position and awe the crowds surrounding him by his powerful paint brushes.
William van de Velde the Younger (Dutch, 1633-1707)Ships in a Stormy Sea
Oil on canvas, 1671-72
A painting that captures the excitement and danger at sea in the 17th Century. The spotlight ship on the right is a light Dutch fishing vessel called a kaag. It shows one of the most difficult sailing maneuvers in which vessel sails into the wind directly as it can without causing sails to flap uselessly. An image showing and boosting Dutch prosperity and the endurance of her people, this would have stirred up the pride of the Dutch viewers. I find it very interesting to see people on the larger ships on the left having a tough time barging through the sea, it almost seems that they are giving up their mother boats while the Dutch sailors battle the raging sea.
Having painted a total of 19,000 pieces, J.M.W. Turner was a master of watercolors. However, in his early days, he did made studies of a lot of the masters works. Yet, he would not settle on merely copying the masters. He would use his own painting techniques and improve the composition and lighting of his paintings to outrun the masters because he could. This was one of the painting he studied and you can compare it with Turner's
Dutch Boats in a Gale: Fishermen endeavoring ti put their Fish on Board, 1801.
John Martin (British, 1789-1854)The Destruction of Tyre
Oil on canvas, 1840
This painting reminded me of The Day After Tomorrow where a surge of water destroys the buildings of a great civilization and men are rendered helpless against the forces of nature. The wave on the right has an almost skull-like feature, intensifying the unforgiving devastation brought upon mankind. Helpless and half in the water, the soaked woman can only raise her hands in despair which is only answered by the blazing lightning that pierces through the blood red sky.
Gustave Doré (French, 1832-1883)The Scottish Highlands
Oil on canvas, 1875
So I was walking around with my camera sticking out and snapping pictures, then this security guard yelled "Sir, you are standing to close to the painting" while I was like a meter away from the painting. So I walked up to him and tried to engage in a friendly conversation. Turned out he wasn't any grumpy old man. He gave me a brief tour around the museum and showed me his favorite painting. Yes, the Scottish Highlands! So my plan is to go to the highlands and find a spot that looks like this painting and snap a few shot for him : )
Dale Chihuly (American, 1941-)Chandeler: Campiello Remor #2
Glass, blown, cut, assembled, 1996
What can I say, this is just pure beauty by rearranging 243 individual pieces of blown glass and forming this magnificent shape. If you are having a deja vu feeling, well, you probably have seen it at the Victoria and Albert Museum in London.
Frank Gehry & (American, 1929-)Center for the Visual Arts, University of Toledo, Toledo, Ohio, USA
1992
I ended the my Toledo museums experience by admiring the facade of the Frank Gehry building and wondering why this is so different from the rest of his works.
