Day 83- August 4

Sally Goes to Brooklyn

Al stayed home and rested and read.  Iced my knee.


By Sally

I had heard good things about the Brooklyn Art Museum, so I crossed the East River to explore it.

The museum is next to a subway stop. It has a plaza in front, large windows, and another large open area inside with a coffee stand. There were lots of people in both places. A much more welcoming place than the Metropolitan Museum. It's a smaller museum, with exhibits grouped by theme, rather than by period. This made my visit a bit difficult- I wanted to see paintings by Sargent because I had just read about him in The Greater Journey. In order to find his paintings, I had to go through all of the rooms with American paintings, and check the label on each painting that looked like it might have been painted by him.


This museum would be a greaet museum for a family outing. It doesn't have the pieces you would easily recognize that you see at the Met or the MOMA. It is 1/4 the size of the Met; second, the admission is much less; the food in the cafeteria is much cheaper; and the kids I saw there were enjoying themselves. It reminded me of the differences between the Minnesota Zoo and the Como Zoo.

The Museum is across the street from Prospect Park- I would have returned to the park for another visit if it weren't so hot.
Sally

I have posted a Gilbert Stewart painting of George Washington before.  I think he painted about eight of them altogether because people kept commissioning him to paint them.

These two paintings are by Singer, a 19th century American painter.  He studied in Paris, along with a lots of other Americans.  The stream reminds me of lots os streams in southern MN.

This mask was part of an exhibit of African masks.  I don't remember the country.  It was painted shortly after Elvis died.  It was used by the tribe as a teaching mask for their youth to teach the bad outcome of a life of drinking and drugs. 

This mask was from a tribe in which the women had the power and money.  The men made masks.  In the 70's the masks became quite marketable, and suddenly the men had money, and there was a shift in the power. 

This mask was HUGE.  It was worn only by strong men.

Sally