Wednesday, March 18, 2015

It’s Shocking How Art Imitates Life

Or is it Life Imitates Art?

Today it was time to visit the Botticelli to Braque exhibit at the de Young Museum and see what sort of goodies they brought over from the National Galleries of Scotland.  I walked into the big special exhibition space with the walls painted in a rich, deep red and of course I immediately could only think of one thing when I saw that room – fallen bimbo-boy Congressman Aaron Schock.  It took some time to get passed that. 

And with walls in mind, this special show with the extra ticket price has a lot of empty walls. Big, empty walls and plenty of room for a show of just 53 paintings.  It seems the work could have been comfortably installed in about 2/3 of the space they used.  This would have allowed for another show, even of some of the less often seen pieces in the de Young’s own collection.  One has to wonder if they are really just using the entire space in order to justify the ticket price.  It’s beginning to feel like those cereal boxes that are half empty.  It keeps happening and I realize the box is the same, but the weight of the contents has been lowered so they can sell less cereal for the same price while making me think I am buying a larger box.

Yes, there are a few exceptional works that I am glad they brought over.  Particularly, Edgar Degas’s, Diego Martelli, (below).  I have a feeling this painting had to have influenced the work of the Bay Area artist Elmer Bischoff. 


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