Thursday

Today i rode the bus. Actually, it was yesterday, but i feel that to say so lacks the impressiveness of the above phrase. So. Today, i rode the bus. My prof (Med. Art Hist.) had a conference (wink, wink, nudge, nudge, saynomore, saynomore...) So after work i went to the bus stop. There was one other person there. We exchanged rank and serial number. She is a junior, biology major, and planning on going to law school. I think i creeped her out. Probably when i told her i was a Dutch minor. I rode the bus. I even got off at the right stop (aren't i incredible?). And i found my way into the museum. It's the New Art Museum, and everyone is very proud of it. I was ready to be disappointed, but actually i found it a rather impressive structure. It is modern, though not obtrusive (at least, i don't think so now, but in 20 years, who knows? like that absolutely horrid American Embassy in Den Hague). It is very stark and austere, almost ascetic. The floor is a pale (oak?) wood paneling, and the walls are tall and white. There are windows and skylights everywhere, and all of the doors and railings are made of glass. I think it must be Frank Lloyd Wrightish, as the doors are all placed very discreetly and there is a general feeling of both solidarity and solidity. It was very odd, being in a museum by myself. I haven't before, and i find that i very much prefer it for a first time through. However, now that i've seen it at my own pace, it would be nice to go back with someone (preferably someone knowledgable about the art, but not so much so that i feel inferior, as everything is, after all, centered on moi). The first floor had a local focus, and there were some paintings in the collection which i quite liked. I could not discover any particular theme on the first or second floor, although that's not to say there wasn't one. Throughout the museum there was a great variety of both style and medium, which made it very interesting. Some works i thought rather silly, and others plain, and others beautiful, and others intriguing. A large portion of the art came from the time during or right after the World Wars, which was an interesting context. And seeing all of the paintings together gave even the works i couldn't quite appreciate a contextual value. Some of the write-ups were very helpful as well - i have never ben able to enjoy a piece of art until i've read about it and its history (is that odd? otherwise i always feel like i'm missing something). The majority of the artist were American, but American art, like American quisine, consists mainly of improvisations from other schools - in this case, French, South American, Japanese, and Dutch. Afterwards i had some soup, and then a coffee in a small cafe. And it was very good. I tried to find the bus stop going the other way, which was rather difficult as i have no sense of direction. However, in my wonderings i happened upon a bookstore, which i considered to be Providence, so i went in and bought a book (The Warden by Anthony Trollope). I did eventually find the correct bus stop. I rode the bus again.