vince’s ear

Allow me to present the magnificent and awesome Philadelphia Museum of Art. Besides being my favorite museum and a great tourist attraction of Pennsylvania, this museum houses one of the largest and most important collections of art in the United States. The current main building, built in 1919, commands the skyline at the end of the Benjamin Franklin Parkway, with the Rodin Museum a little further up close to city hall, and the new Perelman Building on Pennsylvania and Fairmount Avenues.

Founded in 1876, the P.M.A. holds about 15 to 20 special exhibitions a year which attract close to a million people annually. Some of the largest being the Paul Cezanne show in 1996, bringing in 548,000 people and the Salvador Dali exhibition in 2005, which attracted 370,000 museum goers. Both of which I had the pleasure of viewing.

The Collections

The Philadelphia Museum of Art contains close to a quarter of a million art objects with rotating viewing status in 12 main sections or wings. It boasts the most important Thomas Eakins collection in the world and the largest and most important Auguste Rodin collection outside of Paris. Some of the attractions of the Art Museum include a Japanese Tea House, with several rooms, a recreation of an abbey from the Middle Ages, a Burgundian Church, a Buddhist Temple, an English drawing room by Robert Adam, and many more recreations of other times which include their art and artifacts.

Arms and Armor

The Carl Otto Kretzschmar (not Otto Kretschmer the U-Boat ace) von Kienbusch Collection holds many pieces of European arms and armor on view. This huge collection shows relics spanning centuries of armored warfare and includes equine armor and armor for small children.

Here are some other pictures of the arms and armor collection. Click on the thumbnails for larger images.

From Bosch To van Gogh

Currently [12/07]on view in the European Art 1100-1500 is a special exhibit involving the Dutch masters Hieronymus Bosch and the Brueghel family. I couldn’t take pictures of a special exhibit but if you do an image search of these artists I promise you won’t be disappointed. Just don’t look at the Bosch paintings before you go to bed, you might get nightmares.

Some of the most beautiful paintings on view are in the European Art 1850-1900 section. Here you’ll find many notable Impressionistic works to include Paul Cezanne, Pierre-August Renoir, Georges-Pierre Seurat, and Claude Monet. Some of my favorite van Gogh’s are on view, notably his “Rain” painting and one of his “Sunflowers.” You’ll also find some Edouard Manet masterpieces my favorite being the “Kearsarge sinking the Alabama.” I talk a little about that here about halfway through the post. (all the paintings in that post were either from the Philadelphia Museum of Art or the Brandywine River Museum).

Below is the Resnick Rotunda with a fountain in the middle, which connects the European Art 1850-1900 section to the Modern and Contemporary Art section. Some noteworthy paintings on view here are Claude Monet’s “Japanese Bridge,” Vincent van Gogh’s “Sunflower,” both of which you can see in the picture and Manet’s “Le Bon Boch.”

The first gallery picture above under the heading “The Collections” shows the European Art 1500-1850 wing. Here are some other shots of the European Art sections, including some sculptures from the 1500-1850 rooms:

Art And Artifacts of The East

A visit to the museum would not be complete without seeing the Tea House. Here you have a perfectly recreated Japanese Tea House setting, complete with gardens and pathways exactly as you would see it in the Far East. This exhibition is loaded with information about Japanese customs and even shows a video on how the Japanese made the tea following tradition.

Other rooms lead you to Indian art, Chinese artifacts, and a Buddhist temple. Due to the sensitivity of the artworks they are cased in extremely low light making it impossible to capture with camera. The objects include ancient Chinese snuff bottles, statues, and icons of India, and other Asian countries.

Thomas Eakins and American Art

Thomas Eakins has been hailed as the father of American painting. His paintings and sculptures included Philadelphia high society, athletes and sports, and some local landscapes. His artwork also included a lot of nudes which unfortunately got him into a lot of trouble, seeing that people in the late nineteenth century were a bit prudish. I recommend reading up about him, you can read an article here.

His masterpiece “The Gross Clinic” sold in November of 2006 for $68 million and will rotate between the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts and the Philadelphia Museum of Art. Here are some shots of his paintings in the Eakins section of American Art. The painting on the left is the “Agnew Clinic,” another huge surgery painting.

 

Some other works in the American Art section include Winslow Homer paintings, some Andy Warhol art, 18th century furniture and all kinds of glass artifacts and cutlery. The museum is also noted for its large collection of Pennsylvania German antiques.

Modern and Contemporary Art

Depending on my mood this can be my favorite section of the museum. It shows art of the twentieth century to today from all over the world. Some great artists shown here are Jasper Johns, Pablo Picasso, Marcel Duchamp, Joan Miro, and Constantin Brancusi. Oh and don’t forget Cy Twombly.

There is always a video playing in the little theater room which shows some modern film which range from documentaries to stop film animation. This section of the museum has I think the most frequent special exhibition rotations and is a very exciting gallery to see.

The Great Stair Hall

In the very middle of the museum leading from the first to second floors is the humongous Great Stair Hall. Many performances are put on ranging from performing arts such as ballet to chamber music, with the people either sitting at tables in front or on the stairs themselves. This shot below just shows the top of the stairs with the huge statue of Diana on the back wall. The giant Alexander Calder mobile is visible in the foreground.

 

This is where the hub of activity is at the Art After 5 events. This happens every Friday night after 5, when the museum would normally close on the weekdays. Theres a bar where you can order your choice of liquor and a decent selection of wines. You can sit at the tables and order from the Museum Restaurant menu. Some form of entertainment commences such as a jazz band playing or a film might play. The first time I went was near Halloween so the film Nosferatu was playing on the big screen, with a live band playing for background music. The best part is you get to look at all the art a little drunk!

 

Here is the jazz band between sets, and a wide shot of the Hall from above:

 

 

The Perelman Building

 

 

If you’re going to visit the Art Museum, don’t forget to stop by the new Perelman Building right across the street on Fairmount Avenue. It’s the museums latest addition in 80 years and will showcase many of the more popular modern art items from the permanent collection. It’s full of sculpture and has a library on the second floor open on weekdays to the public.

 

In the galleries there you will find some Picasso and Lipchitz sculptures, photography, textiles, drawings, prints, furniture and more. You can see some shots below, click on the thumbnails for larger viewing.

 

 

Well I certainly hope you found this article informative and amusing. If this is true, leave a note in the comments box.

 

Maybe I’ll run into you at the museum one of these days, I hope to see you there.

 

Until then…

 

 

See also First Friday

Technorati Tags: art, museum, Philadelphia, Philadelphia Museum of Art, galleries, Eakins