MOM GOES TO THE ART GALLERY, Part 1

Yesterday, Mom and Aunt LaDene went to the art gallery.  First they ate lunch in the Roselle Courtyard, where Mom says the food tastes very good, but I wouldn't know about that because Mom has never brought any food home for me.

After lunch, Mom and Aunt LaDene saw two exhibits, and it was the last day for those exhibits, so they just barely saw them in time.  One exhibit was work by an artist named Romare Bearden.  He was born in 1911, which is the exact same year that my Grandpa Claude was born.  Mr. Bearden grew up in the south, and he liked to make pictures of people living there, like this one, for example:

Some of his pictures were painted with oil paints, and others were collages.  And he liked to make prints in lots of different ways.

Later on, he moved to New York, and he made a lot of pictures of jazz musicians.  This probably means that he enjoyed listening to jazz.  Also I think he liked bright, bold colors, because he put a lot of them in his artwork.

Some of his pictures are very complicated, and it's hard to figure out what is going on.

Other pictures are easier, like this one, which is called The Fall of Troy.  It is part of a whole series of paintings that Mr. Bearden did that showed some of the stories from the Illiad and the Odyssey.

Romare Bearden died in March of 1988, of complications from bone cancer.  Here's a picture of him.  I guess he had at least one cat, but I don't know if he ever had any dogs.  I think he should have had a basenji, but nobody asked my opinion on this subject.

The second exhibit that Mom and Aunt LaDene saw was called "To Make a World:  George Ault and 1940s America."  There were several artists in this exhibit, but Mr. Ault probably had the most pieces.  Mr. Ault liked to paint what he saw around him, and he mostly painted in a flat, realistic style.  This is a picture of his studio, which I think should have included a dog sleeping in front of the heater, but once again, nobody asked for my opinion.

Mr. Ault kept painting this one particular place called Russell's Corners, which seemed to be just sort of a wide spot in the road, and not a real town or anything like that.  One time he painted it in daylight.

But mostly he painted it at nighttime.

Also, he painted this barn in the moonlight, which is a little spooky, but also kind of interesting because of the shapes and colors and stuff.  Looking at all these snowy pictures makes me feel cold, though, and then I want to curl up in a ball and make sure my feet stay nice and warm.

Mr. Ault was sort of a sad, depressed man, and that may be why he painted so many dark-looking pictures.  He died in 1948 from drowning, and it's likely that his drowning was not an accident.  Here's an icy-looking waterfall that he painted.

Anyway, I am sorry that Mr. Ault drowned himself.  I like his paintings because when you look at them, you can understand right away what is happening, which is not true with some people's paintings.

Mom took a bunch of other pictures at the gallery, and in my next entry, I will show you some of them.