To encourage literature and the arts is a duty which every good citizen owes to his country.

-George Washington

Hi all, I recently had the opportunity to visit the High Museum of Art in Atlanta, where I was able to snap a few pictures that I thought I’d share with my fellow art lovers. But….it comes with a story, I can’t just show the pics without a bit of running dialogue thrown in for color.

First of all, the Museum was in an area of down I hadn’t been in before and was a little difficult to locate, but luckily, the whole area was under heavy road construction so even after I found the place I had to drive back and forth past it a few times to try and determine how to actually get to it without inadvertently flattening a bunch of migrating traffic cones or even the occasional pedestrian. YAY!!!

Note to any potential visitors, make sure you notice which floor of the parking garage you park on, as the 30 minute game of “up, down, & run out of the elevator and see if this was where we had parked”, that we played when we left, wasn’t as fun as it sounds. I’d also not recommend bringing a 3 year old, unless he’s sedated and tied to something with wheels on it. Ask me how I know.

Anyway, the museum is divided across a few different buildings, each with multiple floors. I’m not going to try and break everything down in this post, as you can click the link at the bottom and get better info on that than I’m likely to remember anyway. So here we go.

One of the first pieces I saw in the European art area was the carved piece on the left above. The detail on the piece just really blew me away. I’ll apologize in advance for knowing almost none of the artists responsible for the pieces I’m about to show. Also, I would have taken more pictures, but there was security eyeballing me on EVERY floor and following me around to every exhibit area. It may have been due to the aforementioned 3 year old, but I wasn’t taking chances by taking pictures in front of them. Regardless, the pic on the right above is of an Albrecht Durer print. I’ve always been amazed by the details of his engravings, but seeing one in person was a real treat. Sorry for the bluriness of the image, but the lighting was very low and I didn’t bring my tripod.

Next we have pics of some of the hundreds of gorgeous sculptures that were arranged in pretty much any available space all over the European and American art floors. (oddly there were none in the modern art areas, I think it’s because it would make the modern art jealous). The pic on the left is of the goddess Diana. She was a favorite of the European artists as I saw more than one sculpt of her and at least one painting. I can’t remember any details of the image on the right, I just remember liking the moment of relaxed movement that it captured.

The two above were my personal favorites of all the scuptures. The one on the left was of a goddess coming up out of the water, and the detail was amazing. Somehow the artist managed to capture the effect of wet clothing draping a body with a million folds. I also dig this one because the subject is a little “hippy” if you know what I’m saying. It’s how I likes ‘em. Anyway, the little girl on the right intrigued me because if you notice, she’s only got one sock on. It’s like she just woke up and lost a sock in the night. Just a cool little moment captured in time.

The American artists were housed in the same building but on a different floor. There were many famous works here, including a Wyeth, and a Maxfield Parrish. I didn’t take pics of those, because they were pretty famous images, but the two above really sparked my interest. The portait one the left was by Samuel Morse, inventor of the telegraph. Turns out he was a portrait painter, which I never knew. The image is a portrait of his family. What really drew me to it though was the little details. Check out the baby reaching for the bubbles it’s sister is blowing, it’s also got one foot out like it’s trying to run and just barely being held back by Mom. Cute stuff. You may recognize the Rockwell painting on the right, but I had never seen it before and I’m a big Rockwell fan. It’s kind of interesting to see someone so famous for their clean, wholesome prosaic imagery, paint something like this. A dirty grungy pirate, with a bared sword, a pistol in his sash and Skull and Bones tattoo. The little details are amazing too as this is the first time I think I’ve ever seen exactly how a peg leg is attached. This painting is better reference for your next Halloween pirate costume than all the viewings of Pirates of the Caribbean: Curse of the Dead Man at World’s End that you can stand. (that’s like 1 viewing for me, those flicks always put me to sleep, EVERY TIME, seriously)

The pics above are from one area that housed I’m not sure what I should call it? Functional art, I guess. There were loads of chairs and radios and desk sets and they all had this awesome retro-cool look. I’d kill, or at least maim for a chair like that one on the left for my very own. I’d only resort to violence as a last resort though, if someone wanted to give me one, I’d take it without a fight.

Hold on now, we’re in the home stretch. 4 more pictures and about 20 or 30 random thoughts to go. The pics above are oddities. They don’t inspire me or anything, they just make me have weird thoughts. Like the one on the left. It makes me think of Eric, if he was African-American and carved out of wood. And the one on the right makes me think of Jesus, if he was a midget ( I mean little person) and wore a lambskin loincloth. Yeah, I know, I’m weird, and I’m bringing you with me on the ride.

Lastly, we’ve got the ceiling of the modern art building. It’s hundreds of individual skylights which give the room a great natural glow. Sadly this was the most interesting thing there to me. After walking through hundreds of years of amazing 2D and 3D artistry, seeing someone paint a circle of plywood bright green and hanging it on the wall just doesn’t do it for me. Sorry, I’m sure I’m a barbarian or something, but whatever…Crom laughs at your four winds and your 15 panes of glass that you leaned against a wall and called art. Anyway, the piece on the right was one of the few in this area that I liked. It’s a self-portait of some artist whose name I forgot.* I really should have taken notes.

Well that’s about it for me. They did have an area of ancient art, Egyptian, Greek and Roman stuff. It was beautiful stuff as well, but the gang was all bored and hungry so opted to rush through and get to some food lest I have a mutiny on my hands. They also had some great photography exhibits, but taking pictures of pictures seemed kinda weird. Anyway, I hope you enjoyed the mini tour and be sure to check out the High Museum of Art in Atlanta, if you get up that way. Go to the link below to get a better idea of all the exhibits that they have.

*the artist’s name is Chuck Close, thanks loyal reader

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