Cincy Art Museum
A few weeks ago I drove up to the Northern Kentucky area and met a friend. From there we headed a bit further north into the big metropolitan area of Cincinnati with the intent of spending the afternoon viewing the various galleries at the Cincinnati Art Museum. It is an afternoon well spent if you have any inclination or appreciation of art and the collection has just a little bit of everything so regardless of your personal taste you are sure to find something that you appreciate.
A bit of background, apparently it is a rather older museum as far as the United States is concerned. It is truly a museum of the people, with most all of the galleries being open to the general public (with a few of the special exhibits as I understand it, requiring a membership). That being said, the grounds coming into the museum are beautiful and are artistic in their own right – putting me to mind of an Olmsted landscape as we entered. There is a parking fee, but even that was a very reasonable amount, especially given attendance by a family or group or more then two.
Our travels through started with a very energetic tour of a special exhibit by Don Lambert. Don Lambert is a very young, very modern artist and while I could mildly appreciate his work, it was not really my cup of tea. However, the tour guide actually made the exhibit come to life with some of antics and comments and I probably appreciated it more then I would have otherwise.
From there, we wandered through several of the permanent parts of the exhibit, starting with the classical and ancient and working our way up through the centuries and locations in a haphazard way. Of course my personal favorites were when we hit the medieval and renaissance exhibits, followed closely by the galleries covering the 18th and 19th centuries. While the medieval and renaissance exhibits were extremely interesting I was a bit dismayed to think of some of the master works that had been dismantled (numerous bits of altars) that made up some of those exhibits. As I thought on it, it occurred to me that I had come full circle to an understanding that had been a point of contention with someone in the past, so that was a nice thought.
One other issue I will take with especially the medieval works was a lack of thorough labels on various things and it almost always seemed to be things in which I had the most interest. For instance, there was an effigy of knight in classical pose in his armor. His legs and even part of the top of the armor appeared to have been broken off or just abused. Beneath the surface with remnants of paint though, it appeared to be wood beneath, close inspection even suggested cork to me. I am struck by this though, as I thought they were most always cast in brass or bronze. A tag explaining that and mentioning to others that they are typically other materials would have been nice.
A couple more galleries that struck me oddly. I admit I was not particularly interested in especially the ancient African art traditions. I was pleasantly surprised to find myself pulled into both the history of the goddess that some fo the art represented and the fine detail work that was clearly displayed in a lot of it it otherwise. Of the one temporary exhibit still on display that I did see, the Roaring Tigers, with its focus on animal symbolism in Chinese work kind of lost my attention. I expected to be absorbed in that one but maybe it was the timing at the end of the time being there that just left me less then taken with it.
Regardless, by all means the trip is well worth checking out the museum. I plan to make another day of it sometime in the near future spending a bit more time with some of my favorite parts and timed with an exhibit that I would like to see. It has also renewed my intent to get back to the museums in Louisville and explore a bit as well.
** – image from Roaring Tigers exhibit, presently on display at the museum
November 29th, 2009 at 10:00 pm
Hhhmmm…I’ll have to try it some day.You’d probably like the Indianapolis museum of Art too.The gardens there are wonderful also. I used to go sit out by the fountains to study.To cold for that right now unfortunately;)It is free to get into the museum here to but if there are special exhibitions they sometimes charge.They are working on building a 100 acre outdoor wetlands/woodlands/lakes and meadows with interactive art works next door to the museum.I’m not sure when it will be completed.They have a new thater they built in teh museum where they show old movies and cultural films during the winter and have live performances.During teh summer they have movies on the terrace behind the museum on Fridays and you can bring picnics and enjoy the evening;) I love the art museum!