Crystal Bridges Museum Of American Art: Inside, 1

It's a month later, at least, and the passage of time will diminish my post on Crystal Bridges. Perhaps I'll come back later and edit-in some more material. The museum's collection is already noteworthy, and it is only in its infancy. With the financial backing it has received, one can hope for much more. Our tour began with a special exhibition on dance in American painting and then proceeded to the more general collection.

George Caleb Bingham, The Jolly Flatboatmen, 1846

William Holbrook Beard, The Bear Dance, 1870; an old
favorite of ours, a banner of which hung over our house in
Montana; the bears liked it

John Singer Sargent, Capri Girls Dancing on the Roof

Mary Cassatt, Bacchante, 1872

Arthur Frank Matthews, Youth, 1917

Robert Henri, Salome Dancer

Frank Myers, The Charleston, 1926

Thomas Hart Benton, Burlesque, 1930

Everett Shinn, The Green Ballet, 1943

Anne Estelle Rice, The Egyptian Dancers, 1910

Diego Rivera, study for the ballet H. P. (Horsepower)

Arthur Bowen Davies, Dances

David Shore, Terpishore and Euterpe

Crystal Bridges Museum Of American Art: Outside

Our stint in DC ended. Rachel and Will returned to find Daphne, Peter, and Bianca alive and well, and still in captivity, and other things in order, except perhaps the somewhat depleted supply of wine and spirits. We moved our act back to Knoxville, to reclaim Le Sport and to spend a few more days with Marie and Norm and Stacey and the boys. The usual threatening weather (December now) forced us on to Fayetteville and old-time friends Tawana and Wes. They were our upstairs neighbors in married student housing at Florida State in the late 60s. We have stayed in touch all these years, watched each others' children grow up, and visited whenever we could. They figure in quite a few previous episodes of this blog. Anyhow, we had been wanting to see Bentonville's Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, and Tawana was happy to oblige.

Crystal Bridges is a purpose-built museum, quite new, the complex designed to complement its natural setting. The buildings and exterior are worth a post by themselves.

Google Earth view

Has a sister in Bilbao

Overview

Restaurant

Assorted buildings; the complex has everything you'd want in
a contemporary museum, library, research center, auditorium,
special exhibits areas, etc.

Bridge over Crystal Creek

Panning around the assortment of buildings ranged around the
pond

One of the exterior highlights is a Frank Lloyd Wright
USONIAN house moved to Crystal Bridges from its original
setting in New Jersey; here, a helpful model

Thus

No fotos inside

But the guided tour was great

Helpful info

About this point, Tawana astutely noted the similiarity between
the buildings' roofs and

The local delicacy, armadillo...art indeed imitates nature

Beautiful place, and that's just the outside

National Portrait Gallery/Smithsonian

A customs agent in the Ronald Reagan building urged us to visit the NPG, observing that it was much more than just portraits. Indeed, it was. Although close to Rachel's, it had been closed for renovations for many years, and thus we'd not seen it. We finally made it and enjoyed the NPG greatly, both the great old building (originally the US Patent Office) and the Smithsonian and other collections.

Rosa Parks...

MLK

The last photo of Lincoln

Automotive Industry, Marvin Beerbohm

First great American inventor

Morse, who was originally a portrait painter (seriously)

Among the many Caitlins

Headless horseman

Part of the interior at the NPG

70s art, Nam June Paik's Electronic Superhighway

Grant and His Generals

A gigantic Moran Yellowstone, done originally for a Chicago
world fair

More contemporary video art (gimme that old-time...art)

Thomas Hart Benton, Achelous and Hercules

Edward Shinn...easily mistaken for you know who

Nice stained glass, John Le Farge's Peacocks
and Peonies

GW, before his...

Apotheosis...a study for the Capitol dome

Take a picture of this, she said

First four female Justices

Captain Sam

Hideous portrait of Clinton

Among James Hampton's works at the NPG

I've seen these quite a bit recently

Fellow Miamian Purvis Young's The Struggle

In the gift store, thinking very evil thoughts

Another great place