Museums you've visited (or want to see)

[JBS]

Would love to visit that museum! 

PD

The Uffizi was quite different from the other museums when I saw it: a long cavalcade of statues and busts in the galleries, no attempt to keep people away even by a few inches from the exhibits: the only painting I remember with any distinctness is Michelangelo's Holy Family (and vague glimmerings of Botticelli). But that was in 1993, 31 years ago.
The most vivid memory I have from Florence is the Medici Chapel, with Michelangelo's tomb sculptures.

[pjme]

I was recently in the Van Abbe museum in Eindhoven and in De Pont / Tilburg.

https://vanabbemuseum.nl/en

Interesting: "With over 25 multi-sensory tools, including texts in Braille, scent interpretations, tactile drawings and soundscapes, Delinking and Relinking represents the first, fully multi-sensory collection display in the Netherlands. Besides enriching the museum experience for everyone, the exhibition is accessible to a wide audience, including visually or hearing-impaired visitors and wheelchair users."

https://depont.nl/en/now-on-view

Laure Prouvost :" " Prouvost confronts the visitor with the consequences of global warming and the migration of people and birds – while at the same time, inviting us to float freely above the clouds and shatter the boundaries that limit us.  "

I enjoyed being immersed in Prouvost world. Even if it isn't a pleasant one. Quircky humor softens the hard edges. It will not change or save the world however...

[mahler10th]

I just went through this interesting thread because something I've decided to do is visit as many Museums as I can in the UK dedicated to Composers and other musical notaries.  Do Social Media for each wee trip.  Something like that.  So I wasn't going to comment...but I just had to...it is just jaw-dropping some of the Museums people in GMG go to.  I so admire that particular spirit of celebration that makes one visit any Museum...some of the places and venues and exhibitions themselves (all above, all the way back)...what a journey and what amazing things to be seen!  Just had to comment at such wonder. 

[Cato]

I just went through this interesting thread because something I've decided to do is visit as many Museums as I can in the UK dedicated to Composers and other musical notaries.  Do Social Media for each wee trip.  Something like that.  So I wasn't going to comment...but I just had to...it is just jaw-dropping some of the Museums people in GMG go to.  I so admire that particular spirit of celebration that makes one visit any Museum...some of the places and venues and exhibitions themselves (all above, all the way back)...what a journey and what amazing things to be seen!  Just had to comment at such wonder. 

An excellent quest!

Here is a curiosity which we could not fit into our schedule some years ago, when we were in London:


https://handelhendrix.org/

(The Georg Friedrich) Handel and (Jimi) Hendrix House. This includes the stunning Georgian rooms of Handel's house, the Hendrix flat, exhibitions and the immersive Messiah experience in Handel's Drawing Room.

Apparently Hendrix lived "next door" to where Georg Friedrich had lived, "separated only by a wall and two hundred years."   

[pjme]

The relief 'The Dance' by the Jewish-French  artist Ossip Zadkine (1888-1967) will be on display again in 2025 - after decades of oblivion - at the Jewish Museum of Belgium in Brussels. The low relief, 12 meters long and 3.5 meters high, was hidden for decades in the storage space of the Zara store in Brussels' Nieuwstraat, the former Cinéma Métropole.
Zadkine made the relief ( ca 1930-1932) at the request of Cinéma Métropole architect Adrien Blomme for the opening of the luxurious art deco cinema in Brussels.

[Pohjolas Daughter]

The relief 'The Dance' by the Jewish-French visual artist Ossip Zadkine (1888-1967) will be on display again in 2025 - after decades of oblivion - at the Jewish Museum of Belgium in Brussels. The low relief, 12 meters long and 3.5 meters high, was hidden for decades in the storage space of the Zara store in Brussels' Nieuwstraat, the former Cinéma Métropole.
Zadkine made the relief ( ca 1930-1932) at the request of Cinéma Métropole architect Adrien Blomme for the opening of the luxurious art deco cinema in Brussels.

A new-to-me artist.  Do you know of a complete picture of the work?  I'm having trouble finding one.

PD

[pjme]

dear Pd, we'll have to wait untill 2025  - as you can see this frieze is now "hidden" in the storage rooms of a shop. No better photos are currently available.

Zadkine is widely famous , especially for his 1951 sculpture "Verwoeste stad " - Destroyed city - in Rotterdam. 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ossip_Zadkine



According to Ossip Zadkine, the destroyed city was created when he entered Rotterdam, battered by war, by train in 1946. In his own words it is: 'A cry of horror against the inhuman cruelty of this executioner's act' [1].

The statue depicts a distressed figure, head and arms raised to heaven. Zadkine has the arms, legs and hands point in different directions, making the image appear particularly dynamic. The figure is leaning against a tree stump; The six-metre-high colossus thus has extra support to maintain its physical balance. Particularly striking is the hole in the middle of the hull: Rotterdam recognizes its city center, which was destroyed on May 14, 1940. The sculpture brings together important features of Zadkine's sculpture: the human figure, a cubist visual language and the intense expression of emotion.

The destroyed city has become the symbol for the bombed city center of Rotterdam and also one of the best-known war monuments in Western Europe. Every year the destruction of Rotterdam is commemorated here, as well as dramatic events elsewhere in the world.

[pjme]

New material on Zadkine's frieze resurfaced:



Zadkine at work in 1932

The situation now



"The relief will be dismantled into the same fifteen blocks that arrived here in 1932. That will be a difficult operation, because the work weighs almost two tons. Art historians from the KIK established during their study that it is in good condition.
It is made of plaster and painted over with bronze-colored paint. Origin's heritage architects will transport it to the Jewish Museum and restore it on site."

That operation will cost approximately 200,000 euros. The fundraiser Prométhéa is looking for private money for this - the Jewish Museum hopes to be able to call on some of its donors.
 "The relief is separate from our renovation," says director Barbara Cuglietta. "The new museum will be ready in 2028. The relief will already be installed this year so that it can be seen in 2025 during the art deco year. It will be located behind our current courtyard, where we now do our temporary exhibitions. There is a long wall of about 15 meters. The relief is almost made for this."

[ritter]

On my recent trip to NYC, I had the chance to visit two museums.

Returning to the MoMA was a must. Our hotel was half a block away from the museum, we got there at 10:30 (the time it opens) on a Tuesday, and it was already packed!

Seeing, among many marvels, Picasso's Les demoiselles d'Avignon and Three Musicians, Matisse's The Piano Lesson, Mondrian's Broadway Boogie-Woogie, the  Braque and Léger paintings, etc. was fantastic. What a collection!

Of particular interest was seeing Pavel Tchelitchew's Hide and Seek. Not that this is the kind of art I find most enjoyable, but this huge painting had an iconic status for some years (even if the artist has now lapsed into semi-obscurity), and seeing it "in the flesh" was certainly an experience.



New to me was Ronald Lauder's Neue Galerie, housed in a patrician town house on 5th and 86th street. A friend invited us to breakfast at the Café Sabarsky in the same building, and procured highly sought-after tickets to an exhibition of wonderful Klimt landscapes that was in its last days.

But the highlight was seeing Klimt's famous Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer I (aka The Woman in Gold). The impact that work makes when seen in the original (not least because of the texture the gold paint has) far surpasses the effect when seen in reproduction.

[Pohjolas Daughter]

On my recent trip to NYC, I had the chance to visit two museums.

Returning to the MoMA was a must. Our hotel was half a block away from the museum, we got there at 10:30 (the time it opens) on a Tuesday, and it was already packed!

Seeing, among many marvels, Picasso's Les demoiselles d'Avignon and Three Musicians, Matisse's The Piano Lesson, Mondrian's Broadway Boogie-Woogie, the  Braque and Léger paintings, etc. was fantastic. What a collection!

Of particular interest was seeing Pavel Tchelitchew's Hide and Seek. Not that this is the kind of art I find most enjoyable, but this huge painting had an iconic status for some years (even if the artist has now lapsed into semi-obscurity), and seeing it "in the flesh" was certainly an experience.



New to me was Ronald Lauder's Neue Galerie, housed in a patrician town house on 5th and 86th street. A friend invited us to breakfast at the Café Sabarsky in the same building, and procured highly sought-after tickets to an exhibition of wonderful Klimt landscapes that was in its last days.

But the highlight was seeing Klimt's famous Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer I (aka The Woman in Gold). The impact that work makes when seen in the original (not least because of the texture the gold paint has) far surpasses the effect when seen in reproduction.

Oh, good for you Ritter!  I'm happy for you.   

Fascinated by Klimt's work in particular and have wondered how he created those iridescent/metallic effects.

PD

[VonStupp]

I was downtown for Mahler 2 this weekend, but we arrived early, so we stopped into the Art Institute of Chicago across the street.

There wasn't a lot of time, and since I had my daughter with me, we just focused on Georges Seurat, Van Gogh, Picasso, Monet (and many other Impressionists), Munch, Dali, plus Edward Hopper and Grant Wood, instead of rushing through the many buildings.

Also, while my wife looked at the Narcissa Thorne miniatures gallery, I wandered into the Medieval arms and armory exhibit. I would have liked to venture into the Tiffany Window collection, but time wasn't on our side.
VS

[Todd]

This past weekend as I got out to see various sights and sounds in the middle of summer, I first attended a 50s themed car show in the state's capitol and then visited the Pacific Northwest Truck Museum.  The museum has ~90 operational work trucks dating from between 1916 and 2017.  It was cool enough in itself, but while there, imagine my surprise when I learned that the museum is one of fourteen on the campus of Powerland Heritage Park.  The museums cover cars, Caterpillars (!), trolleys, ancient steam-powered tractors, stand-alone industrial engines (!!), and so forth.  And then I learned that the next two weekends comprise The Great Oregon Steam-Up, where all fourteen museums are open and they fire up many of the otherwise idle displays.  I'm a lifelong resident of the state and I had never heard of any of this.  One of the museum volunteers said that almost all visitors, most of whom are from the state, fall into the same category.  At least one upcoming weekend schedule is now full.  Who doesn't want to see a steam-powered tractor in action?

[Christo]

Last week I saw not only all of Oxford, from its beginnings as a small Saxon port & mound on the river Thames to 50+ colleges and dozens of churches, but also one of the finest museums I know: Ashmolean. With a collection similar to that of the British Museum, but doable. A a feast for the senses https://www.ashmolean.org

[JBS]

This past weekend as I got out to see various sights and sounds in the middle of summer, I first attended a 50s themed car show in the state's capitol and then visited the Pacific Northwest Truck Museum.  The museum has ~90 operational work trucks dating from between 1916 and 2017.  It was cool enough in itself, but while there, imagine my surprise when I learned that the museum is one of fourteen on the campus of Powerland Heritage Park.  The museums cover cars, Caterpillars (!), trolleys, ancient steam-powered tractors, stand-alone industrial engines (!!), and so forth.  And then I learned that the next two weekends comprise The Great Oregon Steam-Up, where all fourteen museums are open and they fire up many of the otherwise idle displays.  I'm a lifelong resident of the state and I had never heard of any of this.  One of the museum volunteers said that almost all visitors, most of whom are from the state, fall into the same category.  At least one upcoming weekend schedule is now full.  Who doesn't want to see a steam-powered tractor in action?

I can't say I would be enthused--Fort Lauderdale has an antique car museum I've never been to--much less a trip across the entire breadth of the country--but I do know a couple of people who will now have a reason to see the PNW.

[Spotted Horses]

Who doesn't want to see a steam-powered tractor in action?

The Heritage Park in Calgary, Alberta, Canada has a working, full size steam engine (that runs on real steam). There is no one shoveling coal into the firebox, however. Steam is generated by a natural gas burner, I believe.

[Todd]

I managed to squeeze in two visits to two museums in one long day yesterday.  First was the Appelo Archive Center and Logging Museum in tiny Naselle which hosted half of a Finnish Festival, the other half being at an old Lutheran Church.  That region of Washington and the far northwestern portion of Oregon have notable Finnish populations, as these things go, as does wind surfing hot spot Hood River.  The historical items were of varying interest, as was finding someone who knew exactly how to spell by surname after I stated it aloud.  One of the nerdy highlights was finding an intellectual work that is perhaps the most esoteric and narrow I have personally encountered, and that after perusing my college library all those years ago: "Finnish Radicals in Astoria, Oregon, 1904-1940: A Study in Immigrant Socialism" by Paul George Hummasti.  It was a first edition hardback in perfect condition.

The other was the Columbia River Quarantine Station, aka, the Knappton Cove Heritage Center.  It has artifacts from the original station and the era, including, ahem, wall mounted metal enema cans.  (Yes, that's right.)  It also had a preserved historical ad for something called asthma cigarettes.

[VonStupp]

We traveled to the National Mississippi River Museum this weekend. While the girls like the hands-on aquatic life exhibits, the crowning part of the trip for me is walking around the William Black, a steam-powered dredge ship active 1934-1973.

Plus, we visited the headwaters of the Mississippi River earlier this summer, where you could cross the mighty river simply by taking a few steps over a short log and some stones. It was neat for the girls to remember that again, but further down the line.

Additionally, it is always fun driving around the Unglaciated part of the United States.
VS

[Wanderer]

Another good year for museum visits. Temporary exhibitions in parentheseis:


Berlin, June 2024
Gemäldegalerie
Alte Nationalgalerie (Caspar David Friedrich: Unendliche Landschaften)*
St. Matthäus Kirche (Berta Fischer: Fulimidron)

Dresden, June 2024
Gemäldegalerie alte Meister
Albertinum*
Kunsthalle im Lipsius-Bau (Fragmente der Erinnerung: Der Schatz des Prager Veitsdoms im Dialog mit Edmund de Waal, Joseph Koudelka und Julian Rosefeldt)

Hamburg, June 2024
Hamburger Kunsthalle (Kathleen Ryan, The Ephemeral Lake)*

Munich, June 2024
Alte Pinakothek*
Glyptothek
Staatliche Antikensammlungen

Potsdam, June 2024
Bildergalerie, Schloß Sanssouci

Vienna, June 2024
Kunsthistorisches Museum (Holbein - Burgkmair - Dürer: Renaissance im Norden)
Naturhistorisches Museum (Arktis: Polare Welt im Wandel)
Wien Museum (newly opened after extensive renovations)

Rome, February 2024
Musei Vaticani (The Three Pietà of Michelangelo)
Galleria nazionale d'arte moderna e contemporanea (TOLKIEN. Uomo, Professore, Autore)
Museo nazionale Etrusco di Villa Giulia
Oratorio di Sant'Andrea al Celio (mostra fotografica di Danilo Mauro Malatesta)
Real Academia de España en Roma (Michelangelo Pistoletto)
Museo Barracco di Scultura Antica
San Luigi dei Francesi

Florence, February 2024
Gallerie degli Uffizi (Baccio Bandinelli)
Museo Archaeologico nazionale di Firenze
Cappelle Medicee (La "stanza segreta" di Michelangelo)
Basilica di San Miniato al Monte

Ravenna, February 2024
Mausoleo di Galla Placidia
Basilica di San Vitale
Basilica di Sant'Apollinare Nuovo
Basilica di Sant'Apollinare in Classe
Cappella di Sant'Andrea
Battistero degli Ariani
Battistero Neoniano
Basilica di San Francesco
Museo nazionale di Ravenna
Museo Arcivescovile di Ravenna

Vienna, January 2024
Albertina ( Michelangelo und die Folgen, Katharina Grosse: Warum Drei Töne Kein Dreieck Bilden, Gottfried Helnwein: Realität und Fiktion)
Oberes Belvedere*
Alserkirche
Österreichisches Parlament (fresh after extensive renovations)

Naples & Campania, December 2023
Museo archaeologico nazionale di Napoli (Magna Grecia)
Palazzo Reale di Napoli (Paladino: I 104 disegni di Pulcinella)
Reggia di Caserta
Parco archaeologico di Pompeii
Parco archaeologico di Paestum
Museo archaeologico nazionale di Paestum

Rome, December 2023
Galleria Borghese (Il tocco di Pigmalione: Rubens e la scultura a Roma)
Musei Capitolini (Fidia, Tintoretto's Deposition from the Gallerie dell'Academia in Venice)
Palazzo del Quirinale (I Bronzi di San Casciano)
Castel Sant'Angelo
Pantheon
San Luigi dei Francesi
Sant'Agostino
Basilica di Sant'Agnese fuori le Mura
Mausoleo di Santa Costanza

Greece
Museum of Prehistoric Thera, Santorini
Archaeological Museum of Olympia
National Archaeological Museum, Athens
B. & E. Goulandris Foundation Gallery (Neo-Impressionism in the Colours of the Mediterranean)

*: Caspar David Friedrich paintings

[Kalevala]

I just ran across this article about this very cool-sounding new museum in Egypt.  I'd love to visit it (and Egypt in general).

https://www.cnn.com/2024/10/16/travel/grand-egyptian-museum-opens-trial-run/index.html

K