Casting A Long Shadow (part II)

CASTING A LONG SHADOW

(part II)

Il Duomo ( in progress)

James Aponovich

pencil on panel, 12" x 17"

To: Aponovich 43

Re: Piano Criticism

Ref # : Blog #19

Q.  I am troubled by your last posting concerning Renzo Piano's stunning completion of the Fogg Museum at Harvard. Renzo has managed ( brilliantly) to unite the Crimson Trinity of The Busch-Reisinger and The Sackler Collections into the original (faded) Fogg to create an ethereal, unified masterpiece. I have admired his achievements at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston as well as The Pierpont Morgan here in New York. He is truly a genius of our age and he has my imprimatur.
    To my surprise, I have discovered that your work is in the collections of quite a few museums, or as you so glibly refer to them as"zoos." You are not a critic and have not had any such training. Should't you just stick to your dabbling and leave the critical analysis to professionals?           
                                                                               -Trevor F., Manhattan

A.   I seem to recall that once upon a time, many, many years ago, Apollodorus of Damascus and Hadrian had a similar conversation, it led to unpleasantries. So, all right, lets leave Renzo The Magnificent behind, but allow me one more shot. This time with a guy from The Land of the Rising Sun in the Berkshire Hills of Massachusetts at...

                                                     

THE STERLING and FRANCINE CLARK INSTITUTE

If you drive west from Peterborough along The Mohawk Trail ( Route 2) you will eventually come to Williamstown, Massachusetts, the home of the Clark Institute ( Museum). Again, we with with our friends, Bob and Sylvia. Williamstown seems to be a serene New England college town and was endowed with a considerable personal art collection that was amassed during the early part of the Twentieth Century by the Clark's ( Singer sewing machine fortune). 

The original building is some fifty years old and starting to show it's age ( who's not?). So the Trustees raised a whole bunch of money and commissioned the Japanese Architect Tadao Ando to transform it and thusly us. The problem is............

After you park your car, it is not evident where in the world the entrance is... maybe it's a Japanese thing. What you do see are 'art mark' walls of granite extending in various directions, although, by following one I did manage to find a bathroom. After some exploring, we finally entered the admissions building, a large airy space with glass walls that contained one desk, the admission desk and the architects gift shop. Stairs led down to 'the special exhibitions space', ubiquitous cafe and bookshop. To me I felt like I was in the basement, which I was.

BETTER LIGHT CONTROL I THOUGHT

or

MAYBE JUST AN AFTERTHOUGHT 

The Weight of Water

But, step outside to the utter tranquility. Two enormous but shallow pools reflect one another and are harmoniously set into the landscape ( Landscape Architect, Reed Hilderbrand), rounded stones cover the bottom, the sky is reflected on the surface, talk about 'in situ'! Sylvia mentioned that the people on the far side looked like figures in an architectural drawing......I replied,"Believe me, they are."

It all makes you almost forget why you are here........the art!

Coming up next week:

The Outside May Be Pretty

But

It's Whats Inside That Counts.

{week 20}

Copyright 2015 James Aponovich