david smith at the clark

sam and i checked out the new david smith exhibit at the new clark art museum last week.  check out that first link for many images from the remodeled museum .. the clark has been closed for about 2 years and just reopened on  july 4th  .. sam and i went to the guggenheim exhibit back in 2006, which was a tour de force of the smiths incredible output of amazing steel work.  heres a link to images online from that show  he filled the whole main spiral and several side rooms .. an amazing show .. even the catalog was a whopper.  ive got it out again for a review and its a great one ... the catalog is still available, but hang on to your checkbook ..

surprisingly, i was able to find this photo from our visit to the guggenheim in 2006
in my computer.  i think that is australia behind us ... 

it was crazy crowded for a thursday morning at the clark, but we got to see what we went to see and it was all very inspirational

they are big

and they are colorful

and they are well thought out ... in the exhibit, they are set up exactly as 

mr smith had them set up in his meadow at bolton landing.

there were also a few other pieces with a circle theme

and a few of his large, interesting, spray over arranged objectscanvases.

they are all good in their own way ..

and the main collection was intact and only slightly rearranged.  above is the famous alma tadema designed steinway that took a lot of people a long time to create in 2005, 500,000 pianos after steinway made the original in 1887.

but the approach and the reflecting pools are quite striking ..

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fun with edvard

 well, kit had a visit from edvard last night while she was making a salad.  love the teeth ...

 click the photos to enlarge them

 

ill be looking for one like this again now every time i cut a pepper.

a little more history on the original paintings below, from wikipedia

"The original German title given to the work by Munch is Der Schrei der Natur ("The Scream of Nature"). The Norwegian word skrik usually is translated as scream, but is cognate with the English shriek. Occasionally, the painting also has been called The Cry.
In his diary in an entry headed, Nice 22 January 1892, Munch described his inspiration for the image:

One evening I was walking along a path, the city was on one side and the fjord below. I felt tired and ill. I stopped and looked out over the fjord—the sun was setting, and the clouds turning blood red. I sensed a scream passing through nature; it seemed to me that I heard the scream. I painted this picture, painted the clouds as actual blood. The color shrieked. This became The Scream.^[8]

This memory was later rendered by Munch as a poem, which he hand-painted onto the frame of the 1895 pastel version of the work:

I was walking along the road with two friends – the sun was setting – suddenly the sky turned blood red – I paused, feeling exhausted, and leaned on the fence – there was blood and tongues of fire above the blue-black fjord and the city – my friends walked on, and I stood there trembling with anxiety – and I sensed an infinite scream passing through nature.^{[9]  "}

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