Frist Things First

Wrapping up the Nashville notes, or trying to, so we can get to current drama, of which there is some...
I will be brief on the Frist Gallery of Visual Art, though my visit was not. Located in a spiffily-refurbished post office designed in art-deco style, the building is a jewel, to coin a cliche. The collection? They don't have one. It's my understanding that the Frist just exhibits and does not collect. I like that. I was delighted when the volunteer at the admissions desk, who perhaps was overly generous with information (heck, she was chatty) told me the exhibit was "Color As Field," because those artists are old favorites of mine from back in the '70s: Robert Motherwell, Helen Frankenthaler, Mark Rothko, Jules Olitski, et. al. Just a few points here: I was happy to see that Frankenthaler had a primary place in the exhibit, because back then she was sometimes just "Motherwell's wife." As for Motherwell, himself, I always associate him with black & white, because of an old museum show of that name, and here there was some real nice color. Best of all, it is not always the case in museum shows with a thesis like this one that we get to see more than one canvas of any individual painter; here you got several, and it helps. Oh, and of course, it is good to see really BIG canvases. I focused on the dates of the works and this show draws from the the '50s, '60s, and early '70s. That is a long time, and the curator's point about influence does not really hold up. Some of the later artists in the show, especially Kenneth Noland, are what I would call "geometrists," and they have a wholly different sensibility and technique from the color field painters. They use masking tape, for example.

Upstairs was an exhibit on Tiffany, and I had trouble concentrating; all I could say was "Antiques Roadshow, Antiques Roadshow." But I learned a bit, esp. about a collector of Tiffany who single-handedly made this stuff acceptable---Philip Johnson had called it "bric-a-brac." This guy collected hordes of the stuff, and when Tiffany & Co. went out of business (I did not know that), he bought up 5,000 crates of glass. One room explained the issue of replica, reproduction, and fake/counterfeit, which was a good move. One my comment card I wrote, "I believe I noticed several more fakes in this exhibit. Recommend you double-check everything."

The community gallery showed works by local, disabled artists. It made an impression. You would first think the works would be amateurish, but many/most of them had something of interest, and you got the sense both of intense focus and of playfulness. There was a moving video in which three distressed women just talk about their very difficult lives.

On the way out I asked a simple question of the volunteer which led to a lengthy discussion of many things, including cats, hers and ours. She was nice, and I have felt lately that I should try to talk to people more when we travel. But then I assume a persona, which is weird. Looking back I see I was not as brief as I had intended to be on the Frist. Perhaps I should tell you about my difficult time at Shoney's.