All American

This past Columbus Day weekend we headed to Bentonville AR, to see the Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art with my sister and Mother.

Mother is celebrating her 80th birthday this month.  She retired from the Spenser Museum at KU after a 35 year career as a volunteer docent several years ago, but still likes to take in art. 


Crystal Bridges opened last year and it just seemed right for us to do this trip together.

The museum sits in a ravine and a stream runs through it.  The leaves weren't turning quite yet, but you get the idea!


It is a "new" museum, endowed by one of the WalMart heirs.  Because the collection was based on Alice Walton's purchases, plus a number of items purchased for the museum, it does not have the depth that some older museums do.  For instance, the museum has a Mark Rothko, but it's not one of his well-know color blocks, it's a greek statue.  Did you know that Jackson Pollock painted things that weren't paint splatters?  Neither did I until I saw it here.

I liked some of the themes in the museum, particularly those relating to Americans and Lakes.

Here is The Good Shepherd (1848) by Thomas Cole.

 

Then Home by the Lake (1852) by Frederic Edwin Church.

My favorite of this subject is Jon Boat (1973) by Thomas Hart Benton. 

Benton, a Missouri artist, knows what Alice Walton and most other Middle Americans know - a place to stay by a lake is a little heaven on earth.

I'd never seen this Andy Warhol - Dolly Parton (1985).


Intentional or not I felt like the museum had some focus on American art of my America.  Not New York City, but a rural place where vacations at the lake are what we look foward to.

The grounds have several trails, one populated with sculpture.  We took a walk before lunch.

I even made it into the artifacts myself!