fort worth

i made a trip to fort worth on saturday. most of the day was spent at the kimball art museum and the modern art museum, the two buildings being right across the street from one another. the kimball had an exhibit of portraits over the course of the 20th century. what caught my attention the most was the relationship between money and expression. a good portion of the portraits consisted of the artists' patrons or their families. it's the irony of artists who we generally think of as poor, the poor starving artist, but they have ties to the wealthy. in fact, their lifelihood and the sustaining power of their works are dependent upon the upper class. something to think about.

at the modern art museum, i saw an exhibit called "pretty baby," artworks the dealt with childhood. i didn't realize that yoshitomo nara's work would be part of the exhibit although it was an obvious inclusion. i have only seen one of his works in person: a fiberglass sculpture of a black dog at lacma. at this exhibit, i saw several of nara's paintings, one sculpture piece, and 2 drawings. i was excited to see a piece that was relatively new: the thinker, a little girl with chestnut brown hair and short bangs, wearing an orangey shirt with splotches across the collar, her eyes closed with 5 eyelashes on each eye lid. she was so cute. an artist that i wasn't familiar with whose work jumped out at me was makiko kudo. her paintings also focus on girls but just on the brink of adolescence. one memorable piece consists of two girls in their school uniforms, painted in magenta pink, lying in a green field, sharing their contemplations about life, surrounded by penguins. kudo's works are at once surreal in their situations and concrete in their emotions.

the ron mueck exhibit that i saw in brooklyn has made its way to fort worth. it was so much nicer to see it in fort worth; i didn't have to elbow through throngs of patrons to catch a 2-second glimpse of his work. his sculptures are amazing. they are so lifelike except for their size - either too big or too small - and they're frozen in a moment that entices you to not only look at them but to actually watch them, as if in anticipation that they're going to do something.

overall, the museums were small, and their permanent collections were not exactly outstanding. the architecture, however, was pretty impressive. both had wall fountains that calmed the surrounds and gave off a sense of coolness in the texan heat. the restaurant at the modern art museum has a great view of a manmade pond that hugs the glass section of the building. the interior, however, was not as well designed. i was confused as to how i was supposed to go through the exhibits. some spaces seemed to have been created to display pieces because there was just space. some of the displays didn't even have anything to do with exhibit that occupied that section of the floor.

after the museums, i drove around the town, through downtown and the stockyards. i stopped in dallas at oishii, a sushi/vietnamese restaurant, for dinner before making my way back to shreveport. it was a fulfilling day of good art and good food.