culture
To the uninitiated, art after 1950 can be tough to wrap your head around. Artists moved away from just a pretty picture and expanded their repertoire to include the likes of dripped paint, text on walls, boxes made of plywood or dropped the visual entirely and went conceptual. I've often overheard museum goers scoff at these works and mutter "I don't get it." or "That's not art." or, my favorite, "I could have done that." (My reply to this is criticism, by the way, is "but, you didn't.")
I appreciate that the desire to understand or "get it" is innate or perhaps pounded into our heads as schoolchildren. However, as an adult, I find pleasure in not understanding everything around me. There's a joy in looking at a work of art whose meaning is not immediately grasped or deplete of meaning entirely. I love that the artist gives us, the viewer, some of the control to allow the meaning to be what we make of it, depending on the attention we chose to give. And, I'll admit, I often let myself stop worrying about what it all means and just take pleasure in its beauty.
If you're one of these skeptics, I encourage you to not skip the modern wing on your next museum visit and take some time to acquaint yourself with some great American artists. Stop worrying about what it all means and just give yourself an afternoon of pure, unadulterated experience. But, don't take my word for it, let these five artists change your mind about the value of that art that you don't quite understand.
I didn't go out in search of Jaume Plensa's sculpture, but instead it kept finding me. In my travels lately, I keep bumping into the work of the Spanish sculptor. In New Orleans, I became enthralled by this work made of a lattice of letters in the sculpture park at the New Orleans Museum of Art. A month later, I was confronting with him again. This time walking along Sunset Beach in Vancouver, BC as he called to me from the hillside.
By the time I got home I couldn't get this sculptor out of my head. Why did he keep showing up everywhere I went? Who is he?
We're art museum fiends here at Travellious, but I remember the days when I couldn't tell a Rothko from a Rembrandt. The photo above is of my former art history professor who taught me the subtleties of looking at art and the first to make me fully appreciate the beauty of Mark Rothko's paintings. I'm hoping that this new series will help you become a bit more "art smart."
Last December, I spent an afternoon visiting Lamanai, a Mayan ruin site in the heart of Belize. But to get there, I had to take a 26 mile boat ride down the New River.
I don't know about you, but I get bored quickly at the beach. Don't get me wrong, I love the sun and sand, but I like to keep moving and learn a little bit while in the process. In St. Croix, I found two ways to do just that.
In my travels, I'm always on the hunt for something off the beaten path. On a recent trip to St. Croix, I found this quite literally, as I headed off into woods to the Virgin Island Sustainable Farm Institute (or VISFI.) What I discovered down that path was an oasis of tropical fruit, sustainable farming, and a community of people who touched my heart. If you're looking to get off of the beach and experience a different side of St. Croix, head down this road.
Imagine a place where you could bask in the colors, the tastes, and smells of tropical summer, all the time. A place where you can enjoy exotic, juicy, fruits for very little money. This place is the Hilo Farmer's Market. The farmer's market can be deceptively unassuming place on a rainy, gray Saturday morning. Clusters of white tents flank the road and keep you from seeing exactly what's going on inside. As I made my way through the entrance, I kept a watchful eye on the ground and the overflowing pile of coconuts at my feet.
For a few bucks, they'll split one open and drop in a straw, but my hand's weren't willing to give up that real estate, just yet, so instead, I look up and beyond.
My line of sight becomes full of papayas and mangos, pineapples and other fruits I don't recognize. Where to begin? I've got $10 in my pocket and a challenge to see how far it might go. I set out to wander and to find a bargain.
A rainy day in Shanghai allowed for this great shot and a lesson in how the random can make a photograph. As jrodmanjr describes:
Walking out in Shanghai's heavy rain, I saw this bicyclist donning a bright red bike-adapted poncho. When he turned the corner and headed right towards me, I knew I could position myself to get a good shot. Little did I know that the just when I opened the shutter, another cyclist crossed the frame heading the other direction, with a yellow poncho!
Love how the yellow poncho creates the illusion of a flash of light and captures to movement of Shanghai. Thanks for sharing!
