October 30, 2021 - Carnegie Art Museum

The Carnegie Museum of Art was founded in 1895 by the Pittsburgh-based industrialist Andrew Carnegie.  It was the first museum in the United States with a primary focus on contemporary art.  As instructed by its founder at the inception of the Carnegie International in 1896, the museum has been organizing many contemporary exhibitions that showcase the "Old Masters of tomorrow".

To paraphrase my good friend F(x) who is a better connoisseur of the arts that I'll ever be, the Carnegie Art Museum doesn't have depth in any one area, but has a wide range to choose from.  "If you like Monet, they have a Monet.  If you like Van Gogh, they have a Van Goh.  And so on."

But the Carnegie Art Museum does have a wide selection of modern art, to which they devote quite a bit of space.

Modern art interests me, primarily because I am amazed at what is considered art.

I thought this piece was interesting, in that it ha dirty rags hanging from it.
   
Now compare the skill required to produce a Monet, as compared to producing this.
   
What's the deal with this sculpture?
   
I actually thought this one was pretty, in an oriental sort of way.
   
So the obvious question is, what's so special about February 29, 1988.  Could it be 1988 was a leap year?  From Wikipedia, on February 29, a Nazi document implicated Kurt Waldheim in World War II deportations.  Inquiring minds want to know.
   
OK, I have to say it.  Anybody could do this.
   
A steel pipe leaning against the corner.
   
A solid blue rectangle leaning against the wall.
   
We have a winner!   A completely blank white canvas.  How do you top this?
   
Now for some real art.  Monet's Water Lilies.
   
Another Monet:  Waterlook Bridge in London between 1899 and 1904.
   
A Renoir.  The Garden in the Rue Cortot, Montmartre.  1876.
   

This historical paintings are my favorite.  This one is Edwin Austin Abbey, "The Penance of Eleanor, Duchess of Gloucester", painted in 1900.

This subject comes from Shakespeare's Henry VI.  Eleanor, having vainly urged her husband to usurp the throne, has committed treason by consulting sorcerers about the length of the king's life.  For this crime, she has been comdemmed to walk barefoot through the streets of London for three days .  Here she turns to address her husband:  "Come you, my lord, to see my open shame?  Now thou dost penance too.  Look how they gaze!  See how the giddy multitude do point, And nod their heads, and throw their eyes on thee!"
   
Farralon Island, 1887 by American Albert Bierstadt.
   
The Iceberg, 1891, by American Frederic Edwin Church.
   
Pittsburgh has had numerous fires in its early days.  Here is a painting of one.
   
And the aftermath of another.
   
Ah, one last look at Modern Art.  What the heck?
   
 
   
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