Roamings of a Leo: January 2015

Sunday was a beautiful day in Balboa Park in San Diego. The park with it's beautiful Spanish architecture is celebrating it's 100th Birthday. It was built to host a Pan Pacific Exhibition in 1915. Most of the original buildings have been preserved and create a museum park that includes an outdoor pipe organ and arena.

I enjoyed the 2:00 pm concert which is held every Sunday. The organist was Dr. Carol Williams, a vibrant woman from Wales, UK. She played a variety of music that ranged from Bach, Beethoven, and John Philip Sousa. She wrote some of the songs including one entitled "Dietrich's Dilemma" written for her dog, Dietrich, who came on stage for the tribute.

That's Dr. Williams playing the pipe organ sans Dietrich.

Before and after the concert I enjoyed the art museum's permanent and visiting exhibits. There was a long line all afternoon, almost to the central courtyard fountain, to get in to see the visiting "Gauguin to Warhol: 20th Century Icons from the Albright-Knox Art Gallery" in Buffalo, NY. In fact the whole park was full of people visiting the other exhibits and enjoying a beautiful Sunday Afternoon...reminded me of the Iowa State Fair without the animals and deep fried food on a stick vendors. The program states that the exhibit features more than 40 monumental artist including works by Picasso, Van Gogh, Matisse, O'Keeffe, Dali, Kahlo among others. The visiting collection did not allow photos but here are a few that I took before knowing and a few I downloaded from the web site. The other paintings from the permanent collection that I liked are also included as I was allowed to photograph them.

Here are a few photos of the special exhibit:

" Green Patio Door," 1955 by Georgia O'Keeffe, American 1887-1986

"Spirit of the Dead Watching," 1892 by Paul Gauguin, French 1848-1903

"Head_Red and Yellow," 1962 by Roy Lichtenstein, American, 1923-1997

"The Old Mill," 1888 by Vincent van Gogh, Dutch, 1853-1890

"Fragment 2 for Composition VII," 1913 by Wassily Kandinsky, Russian active in Germany, 1866-1944

Here are some of my favorites from the museum's permanent collection:

"Quince, Cabbage, Melon and Cucumber," 1602 by Juan Sanchez Cotan, Spanish

"Ariadne's Thread," 2012 by Sandra Ramos, Cuban, born 1969

"Woman with a Rose," 1879 by Winslow Homer, American 1836-1910

"Simone in a Blue Bonnet (No. 1)," 1903 by Mary Cassatt, American 1844-1926

"Winter Road," 1912 by George Wesley Bellows, American 1882-1926

"Lobster Cove, Monhegan, Maine," 1913 by George Wesley Bellows

"Woman Reading," 1874 by Eastman Johnson, American 1824-1906

"Shipwreck," 1834 by Thomas Doughty, American 1793-1856

"Below the Towers of Tower Falls, Yellowstone Park," 1909 by Thomas Moran, American, born in England, 1837-1926

"The Hands of Dr. Moore," 1940 by Diego Rivera, Mexican 1886-1957. The hands trim the tree of life so that it is renewed and does not die.

"After Many Days," 1940 by Thomas Hart Benton, American 1889-1975
"After many Days" focuses on the passing of time and even death.

"Beastly Beestinger," 1968 by Alexander Calder, American 1896-1976

"Pink Shell with Seaweed," 1938 by Georgia O'Keeffe, pastel on board

"Winter Wind-Maine Coast," 1941 by Marsden Hartley, American 1877-1943

"Barn with Snow," 1943 by Georgia O'Keeffe

"Caged Pie," Wayne Thiebaud, American 1920-

"Edward Hopper, painter, and his wife Jo, Truro, Massachusetts," 1941 Gelatin silver print by Arnold Newman, American 1918-2006. Edward Hopper (1882-1967) was an American painter whose works are notable for their isolated figures, interest in architecture and melancholy moods.

"Tutzing," 1906 by Gabriele Munter, German 1877-1962

"The Blue-eyed Boy," 1916 by Amedeo Modigliani, Italy, 1854-1920

"The Corn-Poppies," 1946 by Georges Braque, French, 1882-1963

"Femme au Bandeau Bleu," 1959 by Pablo Picasso, Spanish 1881-1973

"Breton Women in a Seaside Field," 1889-1890 by Paul Gauguin, French 1848-1903. "This painting is executed in short strokes of thick paint, reflecting the influence of Vincent Van Gogh, with whom Gauguin had spent the summer of 1889 in Arles, in the south of France."

"Eve with Pillar," 1880, cast in bronze 1977, by Auguste Rodin, French 1840-1917

"Matinee de printemps, Pontoise," 1874 by Camille Pissarro, French 1830-1903

"The Penitent Saint Peter," 1590-95 by El Greco (Domenikos Theotokopoulos) born Crete, lived and worked in Toledo, Spain, 1541-1617

"Saint Jerome," 1640-45 by Francisco de Zurboran, Spanish, 1598-1664

"Madonna and Child with the infant Saint John the Baptist," 1658 by Francisco de Zurbaran

"Saint Francis in Prayer in a Grotto," 1650-55 by Francisco de Zurbaran

"Agnus Dei (The Lamb of God)," 1635-40 by Francisco de Zurbaran

"Henrietta Maria, Queen of England," 1636 by Anthony van Dyck, Flemish 1599-1641

"Portrait of a Venetian," 1550 by Tintoretto (Jacopo Robusti) Italian, 1518-1594

"The Young Sheperdess," 1885 by Wiliiam-Aldolphe Bouguereau, French 1825-1906. He was a realist painter of ideal rural life.

"Etretat," 1890 by Eugene Louis Boudin, French 1824-1898. Boudin was a major influence on Claude Monet, painting out of doors on the coastal areas of his native Normandy.

"Haystacks at Chailly," 1865 by Claude Monet, French 1840-1926. This painting is a forerunner of the famous series of haystacks that Monet would paint in the 1890's.

On Saturday we visited the Museum of Contemporary Art, San Diego, in La Jolla. It was a beautiful day and it was fun to see the interesting contemporary art. They had a special exhibit called "Laugh-In, Art, Comedy, Performance. Twenty artists featured in the exhibit make use of the strategies of stand-up comedy. The program states that stand-up offers a model of audience engagement, one that not only captures attention and entertains, but that also opens onto a more direct and perhaps intimate conversation. Most of these works were on video so I can not represent them here.

I also took pictures from their permanent exhibit. Here is a sample of what I saw: