Art Madison

One Special Saturday started with drving through blustery weather en-route to explore the Art Museums of Madison, Wisconsin. Why? Because I never hear about them. I have heard decent things about the art program at UW though.

THE MAINSTREAM would like you to eat your pinecone and shut up! To hell with the mainstream! The mainstream says "contemporary art= unintelligible, conceptual, monstrosity with excrement smeared on it." Yeah, Right! Contemporary Art, really = art done in our time. Even watercolors, landscapes and portraiture.


#187: Chazen Museum of Art:

In Stabiano: Exploring the Ancient Seaside Villas of the Roman Elite

For me this exhibit was a sort of reaquainting with roman culture. It fleshed out the experience I had while exploring Empuries on the Spanish coast north of Barcelona. I think this is a good exhibit for those interested in history and willing to slow down enough to take in what they are seeing.

Peter Gourfain: Roundabout and Fate of the Earth Doors

This piece is massive and fills almost the entire main floor. The reliefs made of terra-cotta are interesting though seemingly repetative. The artist had originally intended to carve the reliefs from wood but had to stop after developing an alergic reaction to the wood dust.

Permanent collection

Browsing the permanent collection felt as if I was getting just a sample of great collection. The size of the museum confims this, as there are several galleries with changing exhibitions, there is not enough space to show more of the native collection.


#188: Madison Museum of Contemporary Art:

You can go on the roof! This is really cool and you get a small sculpture park/dining area with a good view of the roofline across the street and a great pearch for watching people on the street below.

In Depth: A Closer Look at MMoCA's Permanent Collection:

These guys have a nice photography and print collection, it's almost as if they cornered the market on Bravo photographs, Just kidding. Overall I enjoyed a lot of the works from Wisconsin artists unknown to me.

Young at Art:

Alot of childrens exhibits often look like just that: childrens work. Alot of the work in this exhibit seems to be a bit more polished than I am used to. Kudo's to Madison's student artists!

Comment: I am really glad to see usable building space at MMoCA is much more successful than other buildings of similar concept. The MCA, Contemporary Art Center and Racine Art Museum all have an exorbitant amount of wasted space. Thank You again MMoCA!