The Broad Museum (09/26/2019) - Part 10 Glenn Ligon & Robert Longo

Thanks for checkin' out the Bsombin' blog! This is the last part of our pre-pandemic tour of the Broad museum. The museum reopened last week and has a whole bunch of new work on display. So this will be the last part of this tour. But, there will be another tour of the museum, soon, now that is is reopened.

This last part of this tour takes us through a small section where one of Glenn Ligon's pieces is found. It's a neon sign titled Double America 2. I took a few pictures of it, since it was flashing and changing as it flashed. I also included a shot of all the people that were surrounding the piece. It was a pretty popular section of the museum. 

The last section of the museum that we saw was the Robert Longo section. I was blown away by this man's drawings! His ability to draw hyper-realistic images is insane! My aunt was with me, when I went to the museum. And we were both unsure about what we were looking at. We thought were looking at photos, at first. Even then, we were impressed. But, when I check the name plaques to see what the titles were, I saw they were charcoal drawings.

The way Longo created the effect of light, the perfect proportions and contrast, the intricate details, the masterful shading, and scale of the images all left us speechless. My aunt and I just looked at each other in disbelief, once we realized these were all drawings. The pictures don't do these pieces an ounce of justice, though. And the glare from the glass takes a lot away from the images. These pieces really need to be see in person to be fully appreciated. The pieces Untitled (Black Pussy Hat at Woman's March) and Untitled (Ferguson Police, August 13, 2014) left me in awe. I loved everything about these piece. But the technical skill and mastery of charcoal and graphite was hard for me to get over. My aunt and I were trippin' on these pieces all the way home from the museum. It was a great way to end our tour and an afternoon in downtown.

That's it for this tour of the Broad. Next we'll be going to a few cruises that I went to over the past weekend, before we look at some of Michael Angelo's art at the Crystal Cathedral! I'm probably going to slip a few poems and a couple of other surprises in, between the lowriding and museum tours, too. So check back soon for more Bsombin'! 

The Broad Museum (09/26/2019) - Part 9 Takashi Murakami

 Thanks for stoppin' by and checkin' out the Bsombin' blog! We're nearing the end of our tour of the pre-pandemic Broad museum. There are just a few sections left to see, before we leave the museum and go out cruising. I have a ton of lowrider pictures to get to, among other things. But, first, we're going to check out my favorite section of the Broad...

The first time I went to the Broad, Takashi Murakami's work was being featured in the main section of the museum. That was one of my main reasons for going, then. I had just learned about Murakami's work and was really interested in seeing it in person. Seeing his work in person was breathtaking! The scale of his larger works and the amount of detail that every piece had left me confused. It was too much to process. There was so much to see in every piece. I could't understand how one person could do so much. I later found out that it was actually a whole team of people working under Murakami's direction that produced these pieces. His creative process is more like a production, because it's usually in such a large scale and involves so many elements and people. The products of these production are some of the most fun, colorful, and detailed pieces of art that I have ever seen.

When we got to the Murakami section, my aunt was speechless. I was pretty quite myself. I love this man's work for so many reasons. It makes me feel like a little kid watching Saturday morning cartoons, with all the colorfully animated characters. We stayed in this section for a while just quietly staring into the fantastic worlds that Murakami created in his works. I'm including some close ups to give you a better idea of just how insane the detail in his work is. In doing so, I got a little lost in those fantastic worlds and forgot to take pictures of two of the pieces' name plaques. So I'll just list them here in the order that I have them showing below.

1.) My arms and legs rot off though my blood rushes forth, the tranquility of my heart shall be prized above all. (Red blood, black blood, blood that is not blood)

2.) Tan Tan Bo a.k.a Gerotan: Scorched by the Blaze in the Purgatory of Knowledge

3.) Of Chinese Lions, Peonies, Skulls, And Fountains

4.) Hustle'n'Punch By Kaikai Kiki

 

The Broad Museum (09/26/2019) - Part 8 Jean-Michel Basquiat & Jenny Saville

 Thanks for stoppin' by and checkin' out the blog! We've been going through old pictures I took on a trip to the Broad museum back in 2019. I took my aunt Brenda who was visiting from Guatemala. And I took pictures of most of the art there so I could share it here. I've divided all the images up into the different sections that made up the museum, since there is so much to see. So far we've gone through about two-thirds of the sections in the museum and have seen work from artist like Andy Warhol, Jasper Johns, Edward Ruscha, Yayoi Kusama, Jeff Koons, and Mark Tansey.

The next section we went to look at was Jean-Michel Basquiat's. My aunt was excited to see his work in person. The Broad had a lot of it for her to see, too. I feel like his work isn't something that pictures can do justice, though. It wasn't until I stood in front of his work that I developed an appreciation for it. It's almost like you can feel it, when you see it I person. His work is filled with so much emotion and energy that you can feel it radiating off the work and filling the room. Almost like he painted them with some kind of radioactive paint. We took our time in this section and found so many things in his work to talk about. From the footprints on Eggs and Eyes, to the way he created depth with the layers on the Untitled "skull", Basquiat did a lot of things that made me think and wonder about his thoughts, feelings, and the  processes for creating his art.

Basquiat's work filled most of this section. But there was one other artist's work in the section, too. On one wall was a giant work that was made up of three giant canvases. It was painted by Jenny Saville. I don't know much about Saville. But I did like her work. It was obvious that it wasn't Basquiat's work. But, in an odd way, it fit in with Basquiat's. 

Saville had one more drawing on display. But thats part of the 10% of the museum's work that I didn't get pictures of (for whatever reason).

The Broad Museum (09/26/2019) - Part 7 Jeff Koons & Mark Tansey

Thank's for stoppin' by and checkin' out the Bsombin' blog! Continuing our tour of the Broad museum, we basically skipped a room. I think it might have been because I had to go to the bathroom. My aunt kept on going through the section without me, while I went. So, by the time I got back, she had moved on to the next section and I just went and caught up with her there. 

The only pictures I took in this section were of Jeff Koons' sculptures. I love the Balloon Dog (Blue) sculpture. The color, it's perfect finish, the giant scale, and the way everything in the room is reflects in it are hypnotic. I could stare at it all day. But the Rabbit sculpture is the one that impressed me the most. It was crazy to think that it was worth $91,000,000.00. That's how much it sold for back in the beginning of 2019. The dog and the rabbit, together, were worth about $150,000,000.00. Jeff Koons is currently the second highest paid artist in the world. From the sale of just these two pieces, I can see why. 

I caught up with my aunt in the next section. This section had the work of Mark Tansey in it. I loved this section. Tansey's work was amazing to my aunt and I. The way he brought out so much detail and contrast with a monochromatic style. Painting images in a single color with more detail than you would think you could get without using multiple colors. Tansey also had hidden images in his paintings. We stood looking at Wake for about 5 minutes, trying to find all the hidden images in it. We found a bunch of faces in the water and in the clouds, together with my aunt. Tansey's color choices, for all the paintings there, were also interesting. They gave scenes that were full of action a calm and serene feeling, to me, somehow.

Next up on the tour is the Jean-Michel Basquiat section of the museum! This is a big one too. The Broad had a large body of his work on display and it was very impressive! So check back soon for Basquiat and a lot more art!