I am a big advocate of seeking out museums wherever I
travel. This Christmas I found myself in
the gated community, McMansion, suburban sprawl that is Scottsdale,
Arizona. Fortunately, the Monday after
Christmas, the Phoenix Art Museum was open for
visitors. I visited the museum about ten
years ago, but that time I was helping organize an event and was unable to see
as much as I wanted to. This year I had
all the time I needed on a quiet day.
The permanent collection is solid. There is a good overview of western art such
as the Deborah
Butterfield (seen above). The
contemporary collection has noticeably grown since my previous visit. I really like Betsabeé Romero’s piece in the
courtyard and then I looked at her website. I would love to see a big installation
of her work.
As an artist who works with maps, of course I was all over
Horacio Zabala’s exhibit Mapping
the Monochrome. Seeing my first
large exhibit of Kehinde Wiley’s
work was a real treat. And then there
was Martin Creed’s installation Work
No. 2497 — a room filled, tightly packed actually, with white
balloons. Visitors are allowed to
navigate their way through it. It was a
bit terrifying, yet I am glad I did it — but once was enough.
Now I am back home in San Francisco. It is good to be home. But I have to say, as we all love to diss red
state Trumpizona, it should be noted
that they have this museum. It is a
place where all the signage is bilingual, where women and non-white artists are
well represented, where this is plenty of new, dynamic contemporary art. I am not sure where to find that in my little
city by the Bay….
No comments:
Post a Comment