The collection is not the world's best, and it contains very few "star" pieces. But it is broad and well-curated.
We had been there for about two hours when we decided to rest on a bench in front of two Monets -- one of his studies of shifting light on the façade of the cathedral at Rouen, and his Houses of Parliament, Sunset. It gave us a good opportunity of how 19th century scientific theories of light directly influenced the impressionists. Monet's Rouen studies are one of the best examples of art and science coalescing.
While we were talking, a young woman and her mother, from Queens I would have guessed by their accents, stopped in front of the Rouen. At a glance, the mother declared: "Oh. I don't like this. It's all washed out."
They quickly moved on to the Parliament. "Now, this I like. It would go well with my couch."
Yesterday I attended my friend Ed Gilliam's art show. Mexico has always influenced his work, but I can now say he is a Mexican artist after earning his Mexican voter ID card and passport.
The house with no name is filled with Ed's works (the good life). When I moved into the house five years ago, the builder-architect, who had lived here, had left a few pieces of furniture -- nothing I wanted to use in the long-term.
Rather than running out to buy furniture and then accessorizing it with Mexican-themed wall hangings, I decided to buy art that would be the center of each room. The furniture would complement the art, rather than the other way around.
So far, I have plenty of good art from the hands of Ed, but I still have not bought new furniture. Not even a couch.
I thought of that yesterday when I was at Ed's show. Almost all of the pieces I have acquired from Ed are abstract expressionism. It has long been one of my favorite periods of American art. Ed is an expert at capturing the period's core nonrepresenational form.
During the last two years, especially since he and Roxane returned from Italy, his emphasis has turned to faces. He does not care for the baggage that comes with the label "portrait." That is fair.
His faces are far more than mere portraits. Even though they are representational on their face, the paintings are fundamentally abstract forms combined in a deceptively organized format.
I arrived late in the show. Had it been a musical, one of the characters would have been in the midst of the 11 o'clock number. Ed was good enough to sit with me for a quick chat. We briefly handled some social business by setting a dinner date, and then moved on to art.
We shared dueling art quotation quips (When a critic asked the dadaist painter René Magritte what was behind his paintings, he responded: "The wall.") and moved on to Italian Futurism with its emphasis on modernity and technology -- and its association with Mussolini.
A lot of recent arrivals from the north have been complaining about our weather. To a degree, they have a point. The days have been unseasonably warm. But, they are certainly far more pleasant than our summers.
Even though the days have been warm, our afternoons and evenings have been quite pleasant. I have not used the air conditioning in my bedroom since I returned from Oregon last Saturday.
Both Ed and I commented on how refreshing it was to sit in his garden beside the fountain. A soft breeze made me feel as if there was nowhere else in the world I would rather be at that moment.
Even though I am not extremely fond of representational art, one of Ed's recent paintings caught my attention. That is it at the top of this essay. When I told Ed, he confessed he agreed; he found her quite "direct."
Me: "That is a good word. There is a lot of Mary Crawley in her. But that is not what I like about her."
Ed: "What do you like?"
Me: "She would look good over my couch."
Ed simply gave me a characteristic sidelong glance -- and smirked.
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