Museum Monday - Norton Simon Museum, Pasadena

We drove home from LA on the 4th of July and were able to stop off at the Norton Simon Museum in Pasadena. As a special treat the museum offered free admission for the holiday. Neither of us had been there before and we were enchanted by the museum layout, the lovely grounds and the wonderful collection. They allowed non-flash photography and I was able to get some snaps of a few favourites.  The angles are a bit strange on some as I was avoiding reflection off the glass. We will definitely return to see more, a wonderful museum experience!

 Van Gogh - Portrait of the Artist's Mother

 Van Gogh -  The Mulberry Tree

 Van Gogh - Portrait of a Peasant  

Renoir - Young Woman in Black

 Rivera - The Flower Vendor

Wallace Berman -  Untitled

From the museum's website - The Norton Simon Museum is known around the world as one of the most remarkable private art collections ever assembled. Over a thirty-year period 20th-century industrialist Norton Simon (1907–1993) amassed an astonishing collection of European art from the Renaissance to the 20th century and a stellar collection of South and Southeast Asian art spanning 2,000 years. Among the most celebrated works he collected are Branchini Madonna, 1427, by Giovanni di Paolo; Madonna and Child with Book, c. 1502-03, by Raphael; Still Life with Lemons, Oranges and a Rose, 1633, by Francisco de Zurbarán; Portrait of a Boy, c. 1655-60, by Rembrandt van Rijn; Mulberry Tree, 1889, by Vincent van Gogh; Little Dancer Aged Fourteen, 1878-81, by Edgar Degas; and Woman with a Book, 1932, by Pablo Picasso. Highlights from the Asian collection include the bronze sculptures Buddha Shakyamuni, c. 550, India: Bihar, Gupta period, and Shiva as King of Dance, c. 1000, India: Tamil Nadu; and the gilt bronze Indra, 13th century, Nepal.

In 1974, Norton Simon and a reorganized Board of Trustees assumed control of the Pasadena Art Museum, taking up management of its building and incorporating its important collection of 20th-century European and American art with the outstanding collections of the Norton Simon foundations. Highlights from the PAM collection include the Galka Scheyer Blue Four Collection, a body of works by artists Lyonel Feininger, Paul Klee, Alexei Jawlensky, Vasily Kandinsky and others assembled by art dealer, scholar and muse Galka Scheyer; post-war American art, particularly from Southern California-based artists including John Altoon, Larry Bell, Wallace Berman, Bruce Conner, Richard Diebenkorn, Llyn Foulkes, Sam Francis, George Herms, Robert Irwin, and Ed Ruscha; and a photography collection comprised of works by Ansel Adams, Lewis Baltz, Manuel Alvarez Bravo, Imogen Cunningham, Frederick Sommer, Edward Weston, and Minor White, among others.

Approximately 1,000 works from the permanent collection of 12,000 objects are on view in the Norton Simon Museum’s galleries and sculpture garden throughout the year. There are two temporary exhibition spaces within the Museum; the curatorial department mounts three to five exhibitions centered on the collection, and one special masterpiece loan, per year. 

Museum Monday - Tate St. Ives

We had the pleasure of visiting the Tate St. Ives Museum on our trip to Cornwall in 2006. We walked up and up narrow streets and then suddenly came out to a view of the museum with the ocean sparkling with sun pennies beyond. In the fiction-induced world I live in I like to think that this museum is what followed the gallery Lawrence Stern and his fellow artists started in that time between the wars.  For all of us who have read Rosamunde Pilcher's The Shell Seekers, know that Porthkeriss is St Ives.  

The three-storey building, designed by architects Evans and Shalev, lies on the site of an old gas works, overlooking Porthmeor Beach. It was opened in 1993, the second regional gallery in the Tate Gallery network.

An extension to the gallery has been proposed in response to the large numbers of visitors the gallery attracts, with the aims of providing better education spaces and accommodating larger works of art. The plans have met with fierce objections from some parts of the local community. On 20 July 2010, Cornwall Council successfully bought the land for the proposed extension from the Penwith Housing Association which has pledged to use the money to build more homes for elderly people in the town.

Lawrence states that the new artists "will come to paint the warmth of the sun and the colour of the wind." It was a joy to wander through St. Ives and recognize so much from Pilcher's novels, and to sit in the museum and be surrounded by glorious art that fulfilled  his long-ago prophecy. 

Museum Monday - Bakelite

From the collection of the inimitable Iris Apfel 

One of my minor passions (because I don't have the wherewithal to indulge in it majorly) is Bakelite, especially Bakelite jewelry.  So imagine how much I loved discovering this site.

 Necklace

The Bakelite Museum is an online treasure trove of jewelry and objects produced in the first half of the 20th century.  Divided into different gallery sections, a store, and information on selling, the site is full of lovely images and info on all things Bakelite.

Clock

Museum founder Damion Dreher says "I have been actively been involved in collecting Bakelite over the last thirty five years. This site is primarily devoted to the visual and aesthetic aspects of the material, as opposed to technical qualities. It is the museum’s premise that Bakelite, which was hand made by many craftsmen who had no formal artistic training represents an aspect of american folk art. 

Colourful buttons

If one studies different examples of the same object made by different hands it is very apparent that many of the objects were created based on the individual craftsman’s concept of the piece and there is often a great difference seen in the same object made by different hands.In this country there has never been a comprehensive show of Bakelite in a major american museum. 

Striped bracelets

The purpose of this website is to essentially create an museum devoted to the presentation of the full scope of American Bakelite jewelry and objects."

A few pieces from my own collection

There is something so evocative about Bakelite, a look back to the '30s and '40's, a feeling of nostaglia for a time before most of us were born.  It's smoothness and colour, a passport to a by-gone era.

For more brilliant Bakelite check out my

 Pinterest board Cool Bakelite and Jewelry

Museum Monday - Musee de Cluny

This medieval museum in Paris is a gem hidden 

away in the Latin Quarter in the 5th arrondissment. 

 Originally constructed in 1334 as residence for the Abbots of Cluny, (atop the remains of Gallo-Roman baths) it had a long and varied history before being donated to the state for use as a museum.  It is one of the finest remaining examples of medieval Gothic architectural in Paris.

I've been lucky enough to visit twice and both times my favourite exhibit was the Unicorn tapestries, La Dame a la Licorne, called the Tapestry Cycle.

 A series of six Flemish tapestries depicting the senses, created  between 1484 and 1500.  They are housed in a low light circular room and are breath taking for their artistry, their age and their beauty.

The courtyard is a lovely spot to sit for awhile and journal 

and soak in the feel of another age.

Museum Monday - Polperro Heritage Museum of Smuggling and Fishing

 While visiting Polperro, a beautiful village on the southern coast of Cornwell, I spent a delightful afternoon at the local museum learning about the history of Polperro's fishermen and smugglers.

From the museum's website - Located in The Warren overlooking the harbour, the Polperro Heritage Museum of Smuggling and Fishing houses a remarkable collection of exhibits and 19th century photographs,

as well as many items of memorabilia dating from the 18th century 

when both smuggling and fishing thrived in Polperro.

 It vividly brings to life the story of this Cornish fishing 

village's extraordinary history and many of the

 people who featured in it. 

The museum often features various artwork from the local school  children based on fishing and historical themes.  The docents are well informed, friendly and love to talk about their village. We very much enjoyed the week we stayed in Polperro, a fishing village that now relies very heavily on tourism. This is also true of our own Morro Bay and we felt a deep kinship with this centuries old spot on the Cornish coast.

Museum Monday - Wyeth Brandywine

The Wyeth Museum in the magnificent Brandywine River valley of Pennsylvania contains not only a wonderful collection of art but has one of the most beautiful settings of any museum in America.

Best known for its collection of three generations of Wyeths - N.C., Andrew, and Jamie,the museum is also host to many other American painters.  An unspoiled rural setting, winding country roads and tree lined pastures surround the old mill that houses the museum.

Cover illustration - Treasure Island - N C Wyeth

From the museum's website - In the mid-1960s, Chadds Ford, Pennsylvania in the historic Brandywine Valley, faced possible massive industrial development.  The impact would have dramatically changed the character and future of a community that was then largely rural.  Appreciating the need for rapid action, a group of local residents bought endangered land and founded the Brandywine Conservancy in 1967.  The first conservation easements, protecting more than five and one-half miles along the Brandywine, were granted in 1969.  Today, the Conservancy holds more than 440 conservation easements and has protected more than 45,000 acres in Chester and Delaware counties, Pennsylvania, and in New Castle County, Delaware.

Winds from the Sea - Andrew Wyeth

In 1971, the Conservancy opened the Brandywine River Museum in the renovated Hoffman’s Mill, a former gristmill built in 1864 that was part of the Conservancy’s first preservation efforts.  The museum has an international reputation for its unparalleled collection and its dedication to American art with primary emphasis on the art of the Brandywine region, American illustration, still life and landscape painting, and the work of the Wyeth family. 

Jamie's Pig - Jamie Wyeth

Among the hundreds of artists represented are Howard Pyle, many students of Pyle who affected the course of American illustration, N. C. Wyeth, Andrew Wyeth, and Jamie Wyeth.  There is work by hundreds of famous illustrators.  Landscape, still life, portrait and genre painting includes work by Benjamin West, Gilbert Stuart, Asher Durand, W. T. Richards, William Harnett, John Haberle, J. D. Chalfant, Horace Pippin, and many others, while the major still life collection includes paintings by William Harnett, John Peto, George Cope, John Haberle, Horace Pippin, and many more artists.  Nearly 300 special exhibitions have been shown in the museum’s six galleries, along with constant installations of work from the collection.  A variety of educational programs is offered throughout the year.

On my visit there, the leaves were just beginning to turn and a tang of the coming autumn was in  the air. 

Museum Monday - Legion of Honor

                                             
The  Legion of Honor in San Francisco is one of jewels of the San Francisco museum crown. Spectacular views, fabulous exhibits and stunningly beautiful landscaped grounds have delighted visitors, provided movie settings and hosted innumerable weddings. 

High on the headlands above the Golden Gate—where the Pacific Ocean spills into San Francisco Bay—stands the California Palace of the Legion of Honor, the gift of Alma de Bretteville Spreckels to the city of San Francisco. Located in Lincoln Park, this unique art museum is one of the great treasures in a city that boasts many riches. The museum’s spectacular setting is made even more dramatic by the imposing French neoclassical building.

Entrance to the Legion of Honor

In 1915 Alma Spreckels fell in love with the French Pavilion at San Francisco’s Panama Pacific International Exposition. This pavilion was a replica of the Palais de la Légion d’Honneur in Paris, one of the distinguished 18th-century landmarks on the left bank of the Seine. 

Outside Arch

Alma Spreckels persuaded her husband, sugar magnate Adolph B. Spreckels, to recapture the beauty of the pavilion as a new art museum for San Francisco. At the close of the 1915 exposition, the French government granted them permission to construct a permanent replica, but World War I delayed the groundbreaking for this ambitious project until 1921. 

Parking Lot Art

Constructed on a remote site known as Land’s End—one of the most beautiful settings imaginable for any museum—the California Palace of the Legion of Honor was completed in 1924, and on Armistice Day of that year the doors opened to the public. In keeping with the wishes of the donors, to “honor the dead while serving the living,” it was accepted by the city of San Francisco as a museum of fine arts dedicated to the memory of the 3,600 California men who had lost their lives on the battlefields of France during World War I.

Kim Novak in Vertigo gazes at a

 painting in the Legion of Honor

Architect George Applegarth’s design for the California Palace of the Legion of Honor was a three-quarter-scaled adaption of the 18th-century Parisian original, incorporating the most advanced ideas in museum construction. An assessment performed in the 1980s showed that the landmark building needed to be made seismically secure. Between March 1992 and November 1995—its seventy-first anniversary—the Legion underwent a major renovation that included seismic strengthening, building systems upgrades, restoration of historic architectural features, and an underground expansion that added 35,000 square feet. Visitor services and program facilities increased, without altering the historic façade or adversely affecting the environmental integrity of the site. 

Rodin's The Thinker and Chihully Chandelier 

The 1995 renovation realized a 42 percent increase in square footage, including six additional special exhibition galleries set around the pyramid skylight visible in the Legion courtyard. The glass pyramid sits atop the Rosekrans Court and special exhibition galleries located below. It is a key second focal point in a formal courtyard otherwise focused solely on Auguste Rodin’s The Thinker, as well as a light and tensile counterpoint to the heavy stone materials of the Court of Honor, lending scale and interest. 

Museum Monday - Louvre, Paris

One could literally spend a lifetime visiting the Louvre.  Its extensive collections and multitude of galleries and exhibit space are legend.  We had a Wednesday morning in early May and went with a plan of the few things we most wanted to see and where to find them once we were inside.

Margot had been before, but this was my first time.  On this midweek morning, before tourist season geared up, the museum was delightfully uncrowded.

Our first goal was La Gioconda -  Mona Lisa.  We were incredibly blessed. When we reached the gallery where she waited on the end wall, no one else was there!  We actually were able to stand right in front of the panting and gaze our fill without being surrounded by jostling, noisy crowds.  Surprised by the relative smallness of the work, and awed to be in the presence  of this iconic image, it was wonderful to have the time to really see and study her.

Then to one of Margot's favourites The Winged Victory, standing tall and proud (and oh so impressive!) at the top of her staircase. Interestingly enough, I was overwhelmed by how big this piece was -definitively awe inspiring.

Margot loves this picture she took of me looking up at the Venus de Milo -two beauties she says, but then, we were on our honeymoon!

Marie Arrives at Marseilles

Our last stop of the morning was the Rubens gallery -
Baroque overload - opulent, colourful,

 over the top and wonderful.

I would love to visit again and again, and I know we'll be back the next time we get to travel to Paris. I envy Parisians many things - their macaroons, their sidewalk cafes, their flea markets and their daily access to one of the most amazing museums in the world.

Museum Monday - Santa Barbara Museum of Art

A scant 90 miles south of us the Santa Barbara Museum of Art is a must see whenever we are down that way. Margot loves their extensive Asian section and I'm thrilled that they have Schwitters and Kandinsky in their permanent collection.  The exhibitions are always great and they have a very good museum gift shop.

From their website - The Santa Barbara Museum of Art opened to the public on June 5, 1941, in a building that was at one time the Santa Barbara Post Office (1914–1932). Chicago architect David Adler simplified the building’s façade and created the Museum’s galleries, most notably Ludington Court which offers a dramatic sense of arrival for museum visitors. The newly renovated Park Wing Entrance and Luria Activities Center open in June 2006.

Over its history the Museum has expanded with the addition of the Stanley R. McCormick Gallery in 1942 and the Sterling and Preston Morton Galleries in 1963. Significant expansions came when the Alice Keck Park Wing opened to the public in 1985 and the Jean and Austin H. Peck, Jr. Wing in 1998. The Ridley-Tree Education Center at McCormick House, a center for art education activities, was established in 1991.

1941 -Brand new art museum takes over old post office building.

Today, the Museum’s 60,000 square feet include exhibition galleries, a Museum Store, Cafe, a 154-seat auditorium, a library containing 50,000 books and 55,000 slides, a children’s gallery dedicated to participatory interactive programming and an 11,500-square-foot off-site facility, the Ridley-Tree Education Center at McCormick House.

The Museum is overseen by a 30-member Board of Trustees and administered by a staff of over 90 full and part-time employees. SBMA has 4,400 members and more than 325 volunteers serving as Trustees, Docents, members of the Museum’s Women’s Board and leaders of our advisory committees and art interest groups.

The Museum’s collection of the arts of Asia, Europe, and the Americas includes paintings, sculpture, prints, drawings, photographs, ceramics, glass, jades, bronzes, lacquer, and textiles. The broad areas in which SBMA holds a significant number of works of exceptional quality include international antiquities from China, India, Greece, Rome, Egypt, and the Near East and 19th-, 20th-, and 21st-century art from Asia, Europe, and the Americas. Particular strengths of the collection are 19th- and 20th-century American and European art, contemporary American painting, photography, and the arts of Asia, especially China.

 Woman in Grey on Board Ship Gazing at the Sea  - Ernest Ange Duez

Margot's favourite painting in their permanent collection.

Villas a Bordighaera - Claude Monet

and mine!