TRAVEL HERE: MORE GOOD STUFF AND MORE QUESTIONS AT MBA

OK, we’re back at the Museum of Biblical Arts in Dallas.  I’ve been warming up on the sculpture garden and one wing of the museum for several weeks.  I need to move on and need to tell you about the rest of it.

National Center for Jewish Art

I confess!  The murals on the walls of this gallery were some of my favorites items exhibited in this museum.  I’m a big fan of the Old Testament and Jewish Tradition.  The remarkable works on these walls were a contemporary look at these timeless things.  Even though I was trying to hurry through to keep up with my friends, I was forced to stop and ponder these images.  What were they representing?  Were the images Biblical or merely traditional?  Did I like them?  How did the titles relate to the work?

A Hallway Full of King James Bibles and a Library

One area that I definitely didn’t give enough time was the hallway full of historic King James Bibles.  At the end of the hallway was a library dedicated to Charles Ryrie, the man who wrote the Bible Commentary I most frequently refer to.  This exhibit and library are proof enough that the MBA deserves your attention.  The books on display are rare, ancient and beautiful.  I yearned for an opportunity to touch a page, even if it had to be with a glove-clad finger.

Contemporary Gallery

This was not one of my favorite galleries.  I’m not a big fan of Chagall.  I admire his creativity, but not the way he expressed it – if that makes any sense.  Half this gallery was devoted to pictures painted “in the style of Chagall”, but few were actually by Chagall.  That’s part of what kept nagging at me as I visited the museum.  Don’t give me replicas, prints, in style of or from the studio of.  In the days before the internet I can understand people being eager to see replicas or prints or anything that would give them an idea of these beautiful works of art they would never see, but nowadays you can gawk at a reasonable facsimile of almost any work of art you so desire, in your pajamas, without leaving your sofa.  If I’m going to get dressed and drive to a museum, I want to see the real thing or a new thing I wouldn’t look up online.

Also confusing in this gallery was a roped off section.  It looked like a storeroom where items were being crated or uncrated, but no one was working in there, so I couldn’t tell whether the art was coming or going.  Later an adjacent hallway was filled with similarly semi-packed objects’d art.  Inquiring minds want to know what was going on.

Odds and Ends

In halls behind the Contemporary Gallery and the Library, were two thought provoking pieces.  One was a photograph of a “Last Supper” but all the people in the picture were dressed as if they were characters in Japanese Noh theater.  Even when I don’t want to think about this painting, it keeps teasing the corners of my mind. The other item was a painting called the Tapestry of the Ages by Vladimir Gorsky.  I could have spent hours identifying the hundreds of people in this painting and considering their contribution to this world.

I stepped into the ballroom of the museum (They do weddings!) and was disappointed to discover it was covered with landscape paintings.  From a visit I made to the museum about the time it opened ( I actually think it was some kind of preview event) I had remembered the ballroom being home to something remarkable – and it may have been the resurrection mural, but it also seems there were pictures of the apostles.  (I was in the throws of care-giving drama. I didn’t get a blog written, so I can remember being impressed, just not by what!)  I want to be clear that the landscapes are wonderful.  Since they are landscapes of Israel, I can even understand their presence in a Biblical arts, it’s just that I miss whatever was there before!  I hate to think they removed the art to help sell the venue.

And while I’m complaining, if they are going to display an exhibition in the ballroom, then it needs to look like an exhibition space, not a catch all.  There were tables and chairs scattered around the room in no apparent order and the chairs were more randomly placed than the tables.  In one chair set a photo of the ballroom all tricked out for a reception.  My bet is someone left it behind after a meeting with a bride-to-be.  I’d already been chafed by the crating/uncrating debris spread out in the hall and gallery.  This added to my dysphoria.

The Main Attraction

The featured exhibit this summer is “God in the Garden, The Impressionistic Works of Henrietta Milan.”  I had somehow missed the signage for this part of the galleries.  I wandered in from the landscapes and found myself in galleries of Monet-like garden paintings.  They were gorgeous.  I wanted one of each, but I kept wondering what made them Biblical Art.

Come to find out, the paintings were by a Texas Impressionist and to quote the attendant at the ticket counter Milan is “very spiritual in her approach to painting.”  Okay…  I’m thrilled this Texas artist is getting exposure in a museum of this caliber, but I still have to wonder why.  In the catalog I purchased from the gift shop, Scott Peck, the Executive Director and Curator of the Museum, waxes eloquent, using the old hymn “In the Garden” as the springboard for his discussion of her art.  The brief article was interesting, even eloquent, but for me, it didn’t connect the dots.

I’ve rattled on far too long today, but there was no way I was going to have a fifth post in this series.  I am always honest with you in my reviews.  When I rave, you can trust that it was very good.  When I rant, you know something was very wrong with my experience.  I wanted very much to rave about the MBA and while there is a lot which is very rave-worthy, that’s not the whole story.  I don’t really want to rant against the museum, but there is also some dissonance resounding from my visit.  I hope you’ll go visit and tell me what you think.

TRAVEL HERE: WHAT YOU’LL SEE AT THE MBA

I certainly didn’t anticipate a multi-post series on the Museum of Biblical Art  (MBA) when I sat down to write about my recent visit, but that’s what it’s turned into.  We’ve chatted about the origins and history of the place, discussed the sculpture garden, a little architecture and the people who visited the museum with me.  Finally, lets get down to the art!   

So What is a Biblical Art?

That’s a good question but I don’t know if I have an appropriate answer.  Inside the museum are examples of Judaica, modern mosaics, a bronze replica of the Pieta and an exhibition of some lovely gardenscapes, along with a collection of antique Bibles, a lot of statuary, many paintings and some prints loaned by Thomas Kinkaid.  Basically, if art has to do with the Bible, then it’s Biblical Art.

I did some reading up on the museum as I wrote these posts and what the museum really doesn’t want to do is push a particular religious persuasion and that’s OK, but in truth, I found the exhibits a little uneven.  Across the gallery from a huge and powerful original painting of the Resurrection by Ron Dicianni was a print by Thomas Kinkaid I usually see on thank you notes.  Gorgeous Judaic religious items in silver and gold were around the corner from a guy painting in the style of Chagall.  There were a few items by Chagall himself, but most were by this guy I didn’t know.   Many of the items in the museum were engaging, but others I merely found confusing.

Let’s Get Going

The first area we entered was the Colonnade and the map says it holds works by American artists.  However, the hallway was full of magnificent pieces of Judaica in silver and gold.  Book-sized containers of gold and silver held miniature religious objects of the Jewish faith.  They were gorgeous and interesting, but I didn’t see any symbols advising me of pieces described on the free audio tour, so even though I loved them I can’t tell you their significance.  They are also left off the museum’s website, so it’s a mystery.  Were the items created by American artists and if so, why are they disguised in ingenious containers that look like books?  I didn’t get to read all of the signs all the way through, so I moved on with a lot of questions.

The next room was the McCreless Collection of European Art.  I did listen to the audio tour’s description of the gallery.  The gentleman who owns the collection didn’t go into a museum until he was in his 40’s and when he did, he fell in love with religious art and started collecting.  His taste is eclectic, just like the museum his art is featured in.  I saw a Coptic Cross, the life-sized Pieta replica I mentioned and a number of paintings that said they were after the style of or painted by the studio of artists I was familiar with.  I’m still trying to figure out why anyone would want a huge bronze replica of Michelangelo’s Pieta.  I could see it in a local church, (maybe) but a museum?  It baffled me.

At the end of the Colonnade was a mixed bag.  My first glance in the room landed on one of the Thomas Kinkaid prints.  I happen to like Thomas Kinkaid in most situations, but being as familiar with him as I am, I almost didn’t bother going into the room and that would have been a mistake.  Also in the room is the huge Resurrection mural on canvas.  The chotskish souvenir bookmark does it no justice, because in real life the tomb is open and the painting is gorgeous.   The detail of Queen Esther is just a hint of its beauty.

The Resurrection mural distracted us for so long that I almost missed the familiar drawing of Jesus I had seen so many times as a child.  Intellectually I realized this stylized face of an American WASP is most likely not the face of the Resurrected Lord, but I have to confess that many times in my prayer, especially in my prayers addressing my deepest fears, this is the face I conjure when I cry out to Jesus.

I can’t believe it, but I’ve run out of words again and we’ve only scratched the surface.  I promise if you will come back next week I’ll tell you about the rest of the museum!

TRAVEL HERE: MBA WORTH A VISIT

So last week I suggested you visit the Via Dolorosa Sculpture Garden at Dallas’ Museum of Biblical Arts.  It’s free and right across the street from NorthPark.  I also think you should go inside the museum.  Let me tell you about my recent visit.

An Outing with the Buffalo Gals

I live in a subdivision called Buffalo Creek and facilitate a Bible study for women in and around the neighborhood.  Mind you, I’m just the facilitator.  The irrepressible Beth Moore is the teacher, through her marvelous collection of video series.  We’re on our third and have plenty more to keep us busy.  We call ourselves the Buffalo Gals.

The group is small and while we’re officially a Bible Study, we’re also a group of friends.  We’ve developed the tradition of having some fun along the way.  We have lunch together on Bible Study day, find reasons to celebrate occasions together and each of Beth’s series is interrupted by what we call a field trip or play date.

Right now we’re doing a series on David and we decided to visit the Museum of Biblical Arts (MBA).  For good measure we planned for lunch to be across the street at Neiman Marcus’ NM Cafe.  So, the day definitely started out with the right vibes.

Where Do You Go In?

On a recent Wednesday morning the Buffalo Gals pulled up to the MBA a few moments after it opened and the parking lot was virtually empty.  Piling out of the car we stumbled into the Sculpture Garden and began orientating ourselves to the art.  Some of our members weren’t familiar with the Stations of the Cross, so we shared our experiences.

I was particularly fond of the MBA’s Via Dolorosa, because they didn’t leave Jesus in the Tomb the way the traditional Stations of the Cross do.  The garden includes a sculpture of the Risen Christ.  Hallelujah!  There were a few other pieces of sculpture by the same artist in the garden which were unrelated to the Via Dolorosa.  Most of them I liked, but his Rachel by the Well looked like an old woman, not the fresh-faced girl that inspired a man to labor fourteen years for the privilege of marrying her.

Then we had to decide how to enter the building.  It seemed logical to enter via the Damascus Gate replica next to the Sculpture Garden, but that was locked.  So we went to the double doors next to a porte-cochère on the front of the building.  I’m no architect, but the entrance seemed a little abrupt.  There is virtually no gathering space under the porte-cochère.  Nor is there much in the way of a vestibule inside the front of the building.  You open the door and are standing at the ticket counter.  If these guys ever booked a blockbuster exhibition they’d need to re-think the entry, but I digress.

The entry fee is $12, less for children, seniors, students and such.  Included with your entry ticket is an audio guide.  This makes the price very reasonable.  I have to admit I didn’t use my audio guide as much as I usually would, because I was trying not to slow down my friends.  The few bits I did listen to were very interesting, but it would take hours to listen to all the recordings as you wandered around.  I just promised myself I would hear them next time.

Well, look at this, I’ve used up all my words for today and I haven’t even gotten past the ticket counter.  Well, come back next week.  There’s a lot to see.

TRAVEL HERE: SERENE OASIS AWAITS ACROSS BOEDECKER FROM NORTHPARK

When you think about attractions in Dallas you’ve got a lot to choose from.  Theme parks, museums, shopping – you name it, but you may not have even heard of the Museum of Biblical Arts (MBA).  Many locals haven’t and even among those who have, there’s a good chance they haven’t visited.  Let me encourage you to change that.

Oh, Has That Place Re-opened?

The Museum of Biblical Arts used to be a little better well known.  When I moved to Dallas in the late sixties, it was all the rage.  NorthPark, which is right across the street, was still brand spanking new and the only other museums in town were out at Fair Park.  The Dallas Arts District might have been in someone’s dreams, but there was no hint of it on our horizon.  The Biblical Arts museum featured a large mural of the Miracle of Pentecost.  You went into a gallery, the room went dark and a sort of light show picked out parts of the painting as the story of Pentecost was narrated.

I remember hearing all kinds of rumors about the painting.  I heard the building it was painted in used to be part of the cemetery next door, which I believe is actually true, but I also heard rumors of wild parties, addiction, affairs and extortion which I doubt had any basis in fact.  Whatever the reality, the experience of seeing the painting was exciting and over the years the museum surrounding the painting grew into a lovely building featuring a replica of Christ’s tomb.

Then in 2005 there was a fire.  I was out in California at the time, so I don’t know much about it first-hand.  I know it burned up the Pentecost painting.  It seems the rest of the museum was open for a while after that, but I could be wrong.  Then they announced the museum would be upgraded.  I do know the museum was closed for renovation for a long time.  More rumors abounded.  The fire had been a case of arson to force a remodel.  Somebody had embezzled everything.  Fighting among the board.  Probably none of that actually happened, but the construction of the new building seemed to take forever and the longer it took, the more the dis-information grew.

The museum re-opened in 2010, but while it was closed it disappeared from Dallas’ consciousness.  Occasionally, I’d hear someone ask about that building across from NorthPark, but over time the answers deteriorated from remarks about the old museum, to guesses that it might have been some kind of church.  In case you were wondering, the museum is back and it’s pretty darned good!

Free Sculpture Garden is Tip of the Iceberg

Your first trip to the MBA could be short and free!  On the north side of the museum (which is on the west side of NorthPark) is a beautiful sculpture garden called the Via Dolorosa, featuring the compelling sculptures of Gib Singleton.  According to your religious affiliation or lack thereof, you might be more familiar with terms like “The Way of the Cross” or “Stations of the Cross” than you are Via Dolorosa.  The literal translation from the Latin is “Way of Sorrows” and it memorializes the events of the Crucifixion.

I knew the Stations of the Cross were a liturgical tradition memorialized in churches across the world.  I’ve seen evidence of it in everything from elaborate murals to stained glass windows to wooden plaques painted with Roman numerals.  An MBA brochure informed me St. Francis of Assisi began the tradition in the 13th century.

Gib Singleton’s style for the sculpture is called  Emotional Realism, which the Oxford Dictionary tells me is “a representational quality in a narrative that is felt to be ‘true-to-life’.  I’d say it was more like sculptural impressionism.  The sculptures are obviously representational, but they aren’t smooth marble and gleaming metal.  They are bronze, but ruggedly cast.

The north side of the museum building is a replica of Jerusalem’s Damascus Gate, so the sculpture garden stands in a dramatic setting.  The Texas heat is doing a number on the gardening efforts, but it is a beautiful space and it’s surprising to find it across the street from one of the nation’s premiere shopping.  The garden and it’s sculptures are open to the public for free.

On you next trip to NorthPark, you could drop by for a few moments for meditation or art appreciation, but be warned, you might be inspired to visit the museum, so perhaps you should allow more time.  come back next week and I’ll tell you what you’ll see inside.

TRAVEL HERE: HOME IMPROVEMENT INSANITY

I’m going to rant today.  I’ve whined before over the “improvements” companies insist on making to things I love – “improvements” that render my favorite things useless to me.  All it takes for a cosmetics company to discontinue a lipstick color is for me to like it, but that’s different from improving products past the point of being useful.  You know what I mean.

The Tension-less Shower Rod

I grew up with something called a tension shower rod.  The tension came from a spring.  You’d twist the rod until it was just a smidge bigger than your opening.  Then you’d squeeze it into place and forget about it – like for decades.  This was a true improvement over the old shower rods you attached with screws.  The improved rod worked without marring your wall and if it ever did come down, you weren’t left with a hole in the wall.  What’s more, if your spring ever did lose a little of its tension, you could just unscrew it a little bit and get another decade or so out of the rod.

Then the shower rod companies decided to “improve” their product.  I remember going to the store and buying a tension shower rod and coming home to put it up.  I ripped off the cellophane and started twisting it the way I always had, but something was wrong.  I dug the wrapping out of the trashcan and paid more attention to it.  A big blue star on the wrapper informed me the rod was “SPRINGLESS”.  And they thought that was good news???

For awhile, springless and springed tension shower rods were sold side-by-side, but only for awhile.  After our most recent move, there were no springed tension rods – at all.  I looked everywhere.  So, I came home with the new springless version and gave it to my husband, because I already knew there was no hope for me with the rod.  He watched a YouTube video and managed to install the rod, but after a couple of weeks our expensive custom shower curtain was down on the floor.  After a few rounds of that, we went out, bought the really old kind that screws into the wall.  It took some research, but we found one.  Months later, the shower curtain is still up there.  I’m thinking it will always be up there, but so will the holes we made.  So much for improvement.

Do-It-Yourself Mini-blinds

There was a time when people who wanted mini-blinds had to call a decorator.  I’m glad those days are over.  Now you can get mini-blinds at your big box home-improvement store, but the measuring might be a little tricky.  For our latest house we ordered “custom” blinds and since we have 30 some odd windows, measuring them was quite a challenge.  My husband did the installing and it wasn’t the easiest thing he’d ever done, but he did it without the egregious use of swear words.

So when we needed mini-blinds for one of our rent houses, we thought we knew what we were doing.  We showed up with our measurements, thinking we’d go in and make do with the “standard” sized blind that were trimmed to fit, but got a lesson in mini-blind packaging from our friendly big box sales employee.

Seems folks used to measure their window and then the store personnel would do some kind of mathematical equation to provide blinds with the perfect fit.  The mini-blind manufacturers have now decided to cut out the mathematical equation.  Now when you go to the big box store you just pick out the box with your window width on it and voila, you have mini-blinds that fit – at least theoretically.

We pointed out to the nice man at the store the blinds were at least a foot longer than we needed, but he assured us the length was adjustable.  Nice right?

The actual installation of the blinds was pretty straightforward.  In fact, hubby was able to negotiate the blinds into the window without reading the instructions or asking me anything.  Then we got to the adjusting the length part.  I dug out one of the instruction pages and read through it.  The instructions sounded like gobbledy goop to me.  There were four different types of string and you had to hold your tongue just right, but the instructions assumed we’d find it simple.

Simple isn’t exactly the word I would use, but there was one part that was virtually impossible.  At the bottom of the blind was a plastic plug which had to be removed so you could thread those four types of string through the hole it filled.  The instructions said to remove the plug with a screwdriver.  Bill gave it a shot, but his efforts destroyed the plugs.

Remembering the “helpful” YouTube video he’d watched to install the SPRINGLESS  tension rod, I whipped out my phone and googled “adjusting Levolor blinds length.”  (FYI, there are 6100 results to that inquiry.)  I clicked on the Levolor video and watched it while Bill wrestled with a mini-blind.

Liar, liar!  Pants on fire!  Since we’d already figured out those four types of string, I waited impatiently while the video got to the plastic plug part.  The video showed the bottom of the blind and then someone popped the plug out with no hassle at all.  I must have watched that part of the video three times, thinking I missed the part where they explained the removal process, but the truth of the matter was, they cheated.

The blinds are installed and we adjusted them, but let’s hope our tenant never gets around to inspecting the bottom of the blind.  Next time we’ll just leave a foot of extra slats laying up in the window.  So much for that improvement, too.

TRAVEL HERE:  NOT EXACTLY A SUMMER TREAT, TRY IT IN AUTUMN

Since Joe T. Garcia’s is one of my favorite places in the whole wide world, I think any trip to Fort Worth should include a visit to their Fiesta Garden, but Bill doesn’t feel the same way.  For one thing, he has an aversion to lines and for another, he thinks variety (not chili) is the spice of life. So last week when we went to the Kimbell to see The Brothers Nain, we tried out the Woodshed Smokehouse.  You should too, but let me tell you why you should wait until late September, maybe October.

A Restaurant from Love, Tim Love

As much as I enjoy food, I am not a foodie.  I hear friends gush over celebrity chefs, but I can barely sit through an entire episode of any cooking show – with the possible exception of Cake Boss and I don’t watch it for the cakes.  I’m positively grossed out by now much the cakes are handled before they are served.  However, I dig marketing concepts and business development, so I like Restaurant Startup.

Tim Love isn’t just another celebrity chef, he’s a local legend, so while I’m not the sort to go out of my way for a particular chef, his stamp on a riverside restaurant could sway me in that direction.  Since Bill was the one who didn’t want to go to Joe T.’s , I tasked him with narrowing down the Cowtown choices.  From his suggestions, I suggested The Woodshed.

What It’s Similar To

My first thought on being seated in The Woodshed was The Katy Trail Ice House & Outpost.  My next thought was The Truckyard.  It’s not really exactly like either one of those, but there are hints of each.  To round out the vibe, I’d have to add Stampede 66.

The Woodshed has some structural similarities to the original Katy Trail Ice House, but the outdoor sections of the Woodshed are more compact like the Outpost.  However, the outdoor sections are also more formally arranged, which made me think of Stampede, but outdoors.  I only thought of The Truckyard because it was a casual outdoor sort of a place with the same clientele. The food is very seriously related to Stampede.

How It’s Unique

Location, location, location!  Sitting adjacent to Trinity Trails, The Woodshed has an idyllic view and vibe.  Walking from our parking spot we noticed the multitude of mini-woodsheds with various woods – (hence The Woodshed).  Your menu will let you know which wood is used to cook your entree.

The Woodshed claims it’s green, but I’d just call it hot.  They don’t have any air-conditioning and this is Texas.  We sat right under one of the big fans they brag about, but we were uncomfortably hot. .  There are a few trees out on the patio, but not the big shady kind.  The Katy Trail Icehouse, Katy Outpost and Truckyard all have The Woodshed beat, hands down, in the comfort department.  And it was loud.  Not the fan; the restaurant

The most unique thing we saw were HUGE cutting boards loaded up with meat and being delivered to tables.  We’re talking a vegetarian would faint at the sight of it.  Last week was Father’s Day and I think one of the reasons they were so busy were these carnivorous feasts.

How’s the Food?

The bottom line for any restaurant is the meal.  Bill ordered the chopped brisket sandwich and I opted for tamales.  We liked both, but weren’t carried away by either.  We agreed they got a little enthusiastic on the hot factor of both recipes, but I guess that’s the Tim Love Schitick.

The Woodshed has been around since 2012 and is still packing them in, so I suppose people like what they have.  It just wasn’t our favorite cup of tea – or perhaps I should say, glass of iced tea.  We liked the restaurant enough to give it another try, but you can bet your sarsaparilla we won’t be coming back until the weather cools down.

Speaking of beverages, you have your choice.  They have a wine list, but we stuck with beer.  They have a varied selection of beers, but not as expansive as other places I have mentioned in this review.  I noticed margaritas, too.

Bill thought they were a little stingy with the chips on his entree, not that he wanted more to eat, but it looked like the potato chip clique was giving the sandwich the cold shoulder.  There was way too much plate for what was served – especially with the meat orgies floating around over our heads.

To Sum Up

This is obviously a concept restaurant and I’m not that fond of forced concepts.  It seems to me they try too hard to be one thing, but are too cool to just go ahead and be that.  Like they have to maintain a certain amount of chic, so you won’t forget they are a trendy concept.

The food is OK, but if they want to be green, they really need to ship in a whole lot of big trees to combat the swelter.  Then perhaps the hot taste they insist upon might be more enjoyable.

Bill says we’ll go back some time when it’s cooler.  Maybe, but if it’s up to me, I’m sticking with Joe T.’s.

TRAVEL HERE: A TRIO OF ARTISTS TAKE PARIS BY STORM

So, imagine you’re a Seventeenth Century Parisian and you’re looking for a little something for the palace wall.  Are you going to settle for some no-name artist? Or are you going to hire the guys who just installed the new altarpiece in Notre Dame Cathedral?  You got that right!  You’re going to pick the Brothers Le Nain.

How the Le Nains Spelled Success

The most frustrating thing about the current exhibition at the Kimbell is no one really knows very much about Antoine, Louis and Mathieu Le Nain.  Oh, the curators can give you birth dates and show you a few paintings, but in truth, they can’t tell you much about how three guys came in from a small French burg and became the Toast of Paris.  However, art voices spend a lot of words speculating about it.

The forty painting on exhibit at the Kimbell right now demonstrate the talent of this trio of brother artists, but talent alone doesn’t get you gigs like altarpieces for Notre Dame or portraits of bishops and musketeers.  (Yes, those musketeers; the ones in the novel.)  However, I do suggest you hurry over there and see the exhibit, because whatever their formula for success was, these guys knew how to paint.

Who Painted What?

After listening carefully to every word of the audio guide (included with the $14 price of admission) the one thing I can tell you for sure is the art world is very frustrated by their inability to identify which brother painted which painting.  The Brothers didn’t sign their names to their work and while they may have kept some journal of who painted what, that log didn’t make it to modern times.  Can you imagine the auction price if it ever came to light?

While talent certainly played a role, I think it may have been the brothers ability to play a variety of roles which brought their fame.  Want a portrait?  We’ll paint you up a humdinger.  Need an altarpiece?  We’ll go all mystical and ethereal for you.  Need a little genre painting?  Well, we do great peasant pictures.  I can just hear one brother calling out to the others, “We got a few Brits on the way! Put out the Dutch look-alike paintings!”

The Le Nain Genius

Beyond the fact their oeuvre contains a variety of styles (which may or may not be related to which brother painted any given picture), I found several things of interest in the exhibit.  My favorite observation was the presence of various models in more than one painting.  There’s a mop-headed boy who plays both angel and peasant.  A chubby cheeked girl made a merry appearance in a number of scenes.  Even a donkey in an altarpiece is copied exactly in another painting. I’d like to spend more time with a catalog in hand making comparisons, but since it costs $75 I probably won’t be availing myself of one.  I may spend time on sites like WikiArt, though, scoping out the faces and looking for repeats.

For another thing, I was struck by how religious 17th century Parisians were.  It’s given altar pieces will be religious, but whether the Le Nains were painting soldiers cheating at cards or peasant children dancing by the fire, they included something religious.  Whether the Le Nains themselves were religious or they were merely pandering to the tastes of their patrons, there is no way to know, but either way, that little something for your castle wall needed to have a Sister of Charity, symbols of communion or a little morality tale – or you’d look elsewhere.

Perhaps most interesting was their most frequent subject was peasants.  Apparently, that was the going thing at the time.  The Brothers captured them doing all kinds of things and there was always group of them.  I painted a mental picture of the Seventeenth Century French Court singing a chorus of “What Do the Simple Folk Do” from Camelot, the musical.  Meanwhile, out in the streets, the actual peasants were desperately trying to keep food on the table and shoes were out of the question.  Perhaps if helping the peasants had been as popular as hanging pictures of them on the wall, there might be a few less to paint.

Regardless of the matters of taste or which brother painted which piece, I think you’ll enjoy The Brothers Nain.  It will be at the Kimbell until September.  Come back next week and I’ll tell you where we went to eat after the exhibit.

TRAVEL HERE: DALLAS MUSEUM OF ART CONNECTS TO THE ARTS DISTRICT

OK, so I’ve been a little hard on the DMA as of late.  I loved Bouquets and  Body Beautiful, but while I found other exhibitions, like International Pop interesting, I was less than in love.  What’s more, as I traveled around enjoying delicious meals in other museums,  I bemoaned the culinary choices at the DMA.  I won’t even talk about how I was contemplating a change of membership to the Kimbell Art Museum.

Things Have Changed

The last few times we visited the museum we had to maneuver our way around construction.  I was glad to see the renovation going on.  The shrubs along the north side had overstayed their welcome, but I had no idea just how amazing the face-lift was going to be.

Klyde Warren Park is one of the best things to happen to Dallas in a long, long time and now the DMA has plugged into the vibe.  The construction re-directed traffic in front of the museum and opened the Atrium up with patio seating for their Atrium Cafe and a new outdoor cafe.  The DMA got there before the rest of the Arts District, but had sort of fallen out of the energy flow.  I think this new patio will breathe in some much-needed life.

As we entered the museum’s driveway, the first thing I noticed was the patio, but when we got inside we were really able to appreciate it. The gorgeous Chihuly hanging in the window is one of my favorite pieces on exhibit, but it seemed like a boundary between the museum and everything else.  Now the atrium spills out onto the new patio through a door beneath the Chihuly and there’s a line of sight to Klyde Warren Park.  We were drawn outside into the Eagle Family Plaza and I’m sure others will be drawn into the museum from the park.

And There’s More

The opening up of the Museum doesn’t end at Klyde Warren Park.  What used to be the rear of the DMA gift shop is now a wide-open counter space connecting the Atrium with the Fleischner courtyard, which faces Flora Street.  Glass doors in a glass wall between the cafe counter and the gift shop allow traffic to flow between them.  I’m hoping

Connecting the Atrium to the outside from two directions is genius, but so far the museum has decided not to take advantage of the possibilities.  One hopes this is a temporary situation.  The museum used to charge for admission, so they limited the points of access.  Now general admission is free, so it makes sense to provide entry to the museum that intersects with the traffic in the Arts District.  The museum is still fairly inaccessible from St. Paul Street, but I guess they have to have someplace for loading and unloading art – both new acquisitions and pieces for exhibitions.

Some Things Haven’t Changed

Modern art continues to be an emphasis at the DMA.  As a one-time director pointed out, by the time the DMA came along, pretty much all the Old Masters already had a home, so we had to look elsewhere for ways to cover our walls.  I accept this, even if I wish it were not true.  I’ve been listening, so I know why all this modern art is important, but I haven’t quite developed a taste for it.  To borrow an old saw, I try to eat the meat and ignore the bones.

My husband is a little more vocal about his distaste.  Prominently featured on the Eagle Family Plaza is a sculpture by Rebecca Warren. While it’s not my cup of tea.  Bill thinks someone should get after it with a bulldozer.  I think the sculpture is safe.  Last time I checked, Bill wasn’t up to speed on operating heavy machinery.

Here’s a few more shots we took.  I hope they’ll inspire you to go down to the Dallas Art District for a visit.

TRAVEL HERE:  NEW EXHIBITION GOES FAR BEYOND BEAUTY

I do love fashion and Dallas is a great place for it.  NorthPark, The Galleria, Highland Park Village, The Dallas Design District – these are just a few of the places Dallas offers to the fashion-minded and until mid-August, the DMA is another stop for the fashion-forward.

The DMA Does Fashion

I can’t believe the Jean Paul Gautier Exhibition was five years ago!  It seems only yesterday I was popping into the DMA at every opportunity, showing off the strolling mannequins and crazy designs to anyone I could drag down there.  The Gautier exhibition was not the DMA’s last nod to fashion, but it will always be one of my favorites. 

That’s why I was so excited when I heard about this latest exhibit, Irving Penn: Beyond Beauty.  I haven’t been all that fond of some of the recent exhibition offerings, so I was ready to love something.  Unfortunately, I was not in town for the kick-off party, but I was invited to a lecture about Penn, so I waited until I knew more to take a peek.  The lecture was last Tuesday, so I’ll share a few tidbits.

Highlights of the Lecture

Sue Canterbury, The Pauline Gill Sullivan Associate Curator of American Art and presenting curator for Irving Penn: Beyond Beauty in Dallas, was the speaker.  While the delicious Harlequin Dress pops off the signage for the exhibition, Ms. Canterbury chose  a very different type of photo to use as the intro slide of her lecture.  The message?  This isn’t your usual fashion photographer.

Becoming a famous fashion photographer was not the overriding passion of the young Irving Penn.  He studied drawing and painting in college, but fell into an internship at Vogue magazine.  Yeah, it makes me crazy, too – like Samantha Brown falling into her job as a TV travel host.  I’m still waiting to fall into whatever my destiny is and I’ve been waiting a long time.  It isn’t that either of them was undeserving of their luck, I just wish they’d smear a little of it on me.

Anyway, after his internship he slipped down to Mexico to give drawing and painting a try, but instead spent most of his time on the business end of a camera.  The interlude convinced him that he was in fact a photographer, so he came back to the States and was welcomed back into the bosom of Vogue.

Far from being an elitist artiste photographer, who showed up late for a shoot and reduced the models to tears, Irving Penn embraced his job.  He admired the models who he said trained him in fashion and always named them in the photo credits.  He worked hard designing his shots long before he got into the studio.  He became a virtuoso in the dark room, practicing his own brand of alchemy.  When it came to equipment, he became an engineer, not only training himself to know everything about f-stops and lenses, but inventing modifications to get his cameras to do what he wanted them to do, even if they weren’t originally designed to do it.

Then there was his work.  At the time he joined the industry, fashion photography was somewhat of a mess.  The scenery added to the frame was so fussy and crowded that one was hard-pressed to see the actual subject of the photograph.  Penn stripped all that away, leaving only the fashion against a stark background.  You see it all around you today and don’t realize who to give the credit to.  Well, you can thank Irving Penn.

You may be wondering if you’ve seen any of his work.  Seen a Clinique ad lately?  Well, he gave them their clinical vision.  As Ms. Canterbury flipped through the slides I saw many that made me think, “I remember that!”  But Irving Penn was a lot more than a fashion photographer.

He was a voracious photo diarist.  Wherever he was, he endeavored to capture the essence of what he saw, often by adding a flavor of Dadaism.  While other photographers in Paris clamored to capture the obvious beauty of the city, Penn sought out beauty in unlikely places, like in the flour dust on a pastry chef’s shoe.  Back in the States, he hired models who usually posed for art schools and brought them into his studio for geometric studies which stare so closely into the crotch of the model, with such technicality, that you forget what you are looking at and begin to see the geometric form.  In Peru, he hired out a studio usually patronized by the native population for holiday photographs, then paid the customers to let him shoot them in their unique costumes in poses of his choosing.

I could go on, but I think you get the picture (I’ll admit, pun intended.)  If you love fashion, you’ll love this exhibit, but so will people with an interest in photography who have no interest at all in fashion.  Marketing types will have a field day.  So obviously, I think you need to get down to the DMA and see this exhibit.  I’ll be joining you myself, soon.  They’d shuttered the exhibition when the lecture was over, so I have to get down there and see what I was writing about.

TRAVEL HERE: APPARENTLY IT’S NO LONGER THE THOUGHT THAT COUNTS

Let me begin with a disclaimer.  I was recently one of the hostesses for a gift card bridal shower.  I adore the bride and if she’d wanted a mud ball shower, it would have been my pleasure to throw her a mud ball shower (not that I know what a mud ball shower is).  However, the bride had no idea what kind of shower she wanted and when one of the hostesses suggested a gift card shower, that seemed to please most everyone.  We had a lovely shower, the guests seemed to love it and the bride was pleased – mission accomplished! 

Seems as if in this, as in most other things, I was reminded of what an old lady I am.  I always swore I wasn’t going to be one of those people who sat around extolling the good old days.  When I was in my teens, everybody at my church knew the anti-rock-and-roll mom.  In all other things she was an absolute delight, but if you dared  show a fondness for any music newer than the Big Band Era, she became your worst nightmare.  Hopefully, I’m not anybody’s worst nightmare, but how awful is it that I want to buy a present, not a gift card, for a bride? 

The Way It Used to Be

Back in the day, when one of the young ladies in our church showed up with an engagement ring, all of our mom’s would go into a tizzy.  Immediately, there would be a lot of chatter about which ladies would be the most appropriate hostesses for the bride-to-be’s shower, usually a Miscellaneous Shower, but on occasion they would agree to a Kitchen Shower or perhaps a Linen Shower .  That was usually decided before Sunday School was over and by the time the pastor finished the sermon, the only question was which hostess would actually earn the honor of having the shower at her house.

Please understand, the bride might have just gotten engaged the night before, with no idea of a wedding date or guest list, but the bridal shower wars had begun.  Most of our church showers had 10-20 hostesses and the bride was hard-pressed to come up with more guests than there were hostesses, especially since her closest girlfriends would also want to throw a Lingerie Shower for her and Miss Manners said no one should be invited to more than one shower.  What’s more, anyone invited to a shower, by necessity, had to be invited to the wedding.  (For those who might be interested, there was an exception made for close relatives and members of the bridal party.  They could be invited to multiple showers, but they were not required to show up with a gift to each shower or if they chose, they could present personal gifts or tokens of affection.)

To today’s modern bride this all might seem burdensome.  You’ve already been living together for several years, you’re having a destination wedding and you can’t imagine the idea of polishing silver.  You’re also horrified at the thought of all those hand-written thank-you notes.  Surely, email would be OK – right?  Fine, do your own thing.  Miss Manners has died an agonizing death.  I’m just here to tell you that all of this used to be more fun.

Registering Your Selections

With a major mall planted every 5 miles in Dallas, it’s hard imagine the original reason brides registered their selections.  There was a time when you only registered at one store and which store told a lot about the life you planned to lead.  The store would help you be smart.  They’d discuss the lifestyle you intended to have, the number of guests you would invite and how many of those guests were in-town.  Based on these factors and some others, they’d help you decide what to register for and then they’d take steps to make sure they’d actually have the things you registered for in stock, in time for all your events.

Back in my mother’s time, this store would usually be the local jeweler.  Many of these stores had a dining table on their sales floor and they would set it with the selections of “their” brides.  The table would be set with a variety of settings and next to each would be a crisp white place-card with a bride’s name on it.  When one of the local “it” girls made her selections, everybody in town went to see what she had chosen, whether they were invited to the wedding or not.  Then her selections would be the talk of the town for a season.  Before you get to judgmental, think about what you watched on TV last night.  I’m thinking there’s a chance that discussing a real person’s choice of china and silver might be more entertaining than a lot of what shows up on TV.

In the days of those marvelous church showers of my memory, life had already gotten more “convenient.”  I registered at Joske’s, because that’s where my mom worked.  She decided it would be “convenient” if I also registered at Sanger-Harris.  The Joske’s where I registered promised to display my choices, but that just meant everything I had chosen would be somewhere on the sales floor, not on a dining table with my name on a place-card.  A bride in those days only registered for a few items, the ones she really wanted.  She’d inform the hostesses of the colors she planned to use in her home, so people could buy more “practical” gifts like towels and skillets, but they had to depend on their own taste.  One of the nightmares I remember from this double registration was keeping each store aware of the actual total I had received of the various items.  Not so convenient after all.

Opening the Gifts 

The day of the shower was a real bonanza.  You knew you were going to get at least one gift of amazing proportions, because the hostesses always went in together on a single gift.  Sterling silver was beyond anybody’s pocketbook by the time I married, but I had registered for fine china, fine crystal, “good” flatware and casual china – eight of everything.  When all the presents were stacked up and ready for me to open, I have to admit the one which interested me the most were the ones wrapped by Joske’s and Sanger’s.  Those were the gifts for which I had registered.  I thought that shower was my only real chance for a complete set of china.  Since I now have four sets of china, none of which came from that day, this is pretty funny.  For the record, I inherited most of it.

Though none of the crystal and china I opened that day made it to this end of my life, some of the funny odd things I had not registered for are still with me.  Porcelain items fired especially for me in the church kiln, a casserole dish that didn’t match anything, a watercolor painting and various small kitchen utensils that I can’t stand to let go of, even though I have never used them.

Things Kept Getting More Convenient

Due to lots of advertising and the counsel of greedy salespeople, brides found more and more stores at which to register and more and more items to include on that register.  No longer was a wedding guest left to their own taste in the bath towel department.  Some brides registered for all the same stuff at forty stores and others choose all different things at four stores.  As you purchase your gift for the forty-store bride, you are aware that everyone invited to the wedding may be buying the exact same item at one of hundreds of stores throughout the world – let’s not even talk about online shopping.  If you wanted to buy a complete place-setting for the other bride, you might have to make purchases from all four stores.

Things got so convenient that shopping for a bride got to be a real pain in the neck.  You knew when you got to the shower there was every chance in the world that this purchase that you had labored over might be reduced to humiliation when the bride opened the fifth sugar bowl of the day.  The thing I hated most was that more often than not, your gift was actually a piece of paper assuring the bride she could trade it in on one of her crystal goblets.  No store anywhere made any effort to have your selections in stock.  They just wanted to get the money and the bride was left with the job of hounding the store for that last pickle fork that no one anywhere seemed to have available.

I Want to Buy a Gift Anyway

When I graduated from high school, I received a gift in the mail from the sweet woman who had cleaned our home in Dublin, GA.  Gertrude was beloved by every member of the family, but it had been several years since she’d seen me in person.  We exchanged Christmas cards and visited her each time we were in Georgia, but I guess it was hard to judge my size from a picture.  Gertrude sent me the hugest pair of nylon panties I had ever seen in my life, but as my mom pointed out, it was the thought that counted.

I still feel that way.  You might end up hating an item I purchase for one of your occasions, but it has been my pleasure to go out and shop for it.  If you did register your selections, I will buy one and I will have the store wrap it in their most opulent gift wrap.  If I was left to my own taste, then I assure you that I labored over what to buy with complete joy and I will most likely wrap it myself with many kudos for whoever thought up gift bags.

I’ve gone on for entirely too long about this today, but it’s been bothering me ever since the first time a sales lady told me how convenient it was for the bride to get that card saying I’d purchased a serving piece from her fine china.  If I buy you a huge platter in triple digits, I want a huge box at the shower and I want to hear all the oooohs and aaaaahs.  If I can’t have that, then I guess I might as well get you gift card.