The Rodin

On our first day in Paris, we went to the Rodin museum. We both quite liked it because it was fascinating. I quite like 3-D art and especially sculptures. The museum is set in a beautiful garden so it feels more like a sculpture garden than a museum. There is more art in the building as well. As our new usual, we got the audio guide and learned some interesting things. I learned how the sculptures were made and that there are multiples of them. We also learned that Rodin liked Dante's "Inferno" and sculpted many scenes from it. We're going to have to read it now.

Lenbachhaus

On John's birthday, we went to see his favorite art museum in Munich: the Lenbachhuas. It is in an old palace/villa type building so the building itself is quite grand. They had a wide collection of art but seemed to focus on artists from the Blue Rider group which formed in Munich. The walls in some of the rooms were also quite intersting as they were painted in funkey ways. Some of the rooms had colored walls (which I used to tell John that walls don't have to be white to hang art on). Other rooms had designs on the walls. The museum also had a section that was still decorated the way it would have been when the original owner lived there. The artwork in that section was much older and the lights dimmer. It was quite grand.

Prado Decorative Arts

In the basement near the cafe of the Prado, there is a room with decorative arts. John and C teased me about wanting to see this stuff as a break from the art. Howeve, we were all impressed with the room and really liked the exhibit.

Prado tables

At the Prado, there were many beautiful inlaid tables throughout the museum. John's sister C teased me that I was more interested in the tables and spent more time looking at them than the art on the walls even though the art was far more famous, possibly more "important."

In general, I appreciate three dimensional art more than two dimensional, other than photographs. I am not really sure why except that there is more to look at. When we look at sculptures that are hundreds or even thousands of years old, I am in awe of the techniques used and wonder how the artists got such detail. I wonder the same thing about paintings but the three dimensional stuff just resonates more with me. I also take a lot of pictures of wood work and stained glass because my father is interested in them and appreciates the pictures that I send him.

Prado Part one

While in Madrid we visited the Prado art museum. It houses many famous works by Goya and others. The museum itself is beautiful. In many of the rooms, there are marble "baseboards" and marble frames around the doors. In the newer parts of the museum, the marble was lighter. One of the works we saw was Velasquez’ 'Las Meninas'. This was particularly interesting to see because while we were in Barcelona in January we viewed several works by Pablo Picasso's reinterpretation and study of this painting. We got the feeling that if we could just travel all of Europe eventually everything would tie together.