Yesterday I started knocking some items off my Dallas bucket list and went to the Dallas Museum of Art. I had decided to try out one of their free jazz nights and go down a little early to check out the museum. The museum is definitely much bigger than I expected. We were not able to make it through all of the sections since we only had a couple of hours before the jazz started. As far as free entertainment goes, I would recommend the Dallas Museum of Art. Admission into the museum is completely free (unless you want to see one of the special exhibits). And attending the jazz night in the atrium is free as well. The only thing I had to pay for was parking–$10. If I do it again, I plan to take the DART, it’s just $5.
We really didn’t have a plan of attack, nor were we concerned with seeing anything in particular or even seeing the entire museum, and so we started in the Chosil Kil exhibit, which closes August 2nd. This particular exhibit featured abstract art. Since my friend had just purchased supplies to begin painting again herself, we were interested in the mediums that each artist used. Many of the artists used oil, which is what she wants to use, and so we spent much of our time deciding which paintings we could recreate ourselves. Even I, with no artistic ability whatsoever, would be capable of creating some of the paintings being deemed art. It doesn’t seem all that hard to me to draw lines and boxes on a canvas and make up some mumbo jumbo so that it sounds deep and artsy. Am I right? There were also some rooms where artists had set of various scenes. It was in one of these rooms that we witnessed a girl touch one of the paintings. They don’t even like you being close enough to breathe on the paintings, much less touch them. I was pretty amazed that this girl didn’t have the common sense to know not to do such a thing.
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What is this?!!
After determining that I could create this abstract art but that I didn’t get it, we made our way to the European Art section. This was definitely more my speed; the paintings at least resembled something real. One of my favorites was Robert Delaunay’s Eiffel Tower. There were a lot of portraits in this section. At one point we ran into quite a few paintings with religious themes—depictions of the crucifixion, Isaac and Abraham, and Adam and Eve. We also appreciated Francois-Auguste Biard’s painting, Seasickness on an English Corvette, largely because of some of the funny faces peering out at you. There was also some Ancient Greek gold located in this part of the museum. It’s pretty amazing that the gold has held up that long and still looks like you could wear it. I was a fan of a lot of the bracelets and earrings with snakes and lions on them. I’d say it’s pretty edgy if you’re wearing a snake around your wrist.
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One of my favorite pieces–Delauney’s “Eiffel Tower.”
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Biard’s “Seasickness on an English Corvette.”
We made our way to the decorative arts section next. I did not realize that items you decorate your home with can be classified as art, not the kind of art that can be displayed in a museum anyways. We looked at some chairs and a vacuum cleaner. I liked the toilet service sets (boxes, bottles, brushes, and things that go on your dresser). They were fancy and the fact that they’re called toilet sets amused me in a 13 year old boy kind of way. Then we made our way over to the Wendy and Emery Reves Collection. This collection is a duplication of the Reves’ home in the French Rivera, which they bought from Coco Chanel. They had the dining room, sitting room, study, and bedroom replicated. While some of the items were duplicated, a good chunk of them were the originals that the Reves collected.
Our last stop was an exhibit called “Between Action and the Unknown,” featuring the art of Kazuo Shiraga and Sadamasa Motonaga. I liked the paintings in this section largely because of the textures. The artists used oils and they would come off the canvas—it looked like little mountains or rocks. I learned as we were leaving the section that Shiraga apparently painted with his feet–more proof that I could do this art thing too.
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Modeling how I would create the textures in the “Between Action and the Unknown” exhibit.
The Jazz in the Atrium was a bit of a bust. We trekked down to the bottom of the museum at 6 to see the Latin jazz band but we were a bit disappointed (I think Latin jazz just wasn’t our thing so we might go back to try out some other bands). The music was not nearly as upbeat as we had hoped. So we listened for a few minutes and decided to go find ourselves some better music.
We made our way over to Deep Ellum (I had been wanting to go for a while). We went to The Free Man, which is a Cajun place. We ate some excellent food before enjoying a New Orleans Jazz band, The Three Quarters Fast Jazz Band. They play at The Free Man every Thursday starting at 7PM and it seemed that a lot of people in the place came just to see the band. As they should, they were good and we plan to go back.
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The Cornbread Brisket Sliders–they were awesome.
Until next time,
Jen
Image may be NSFW.
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Image may be NSFW.Clik here to view.
