Looking at Art

If I have a favorite way to spend an afternoon, looking at art would rank high. I especially like roaming the galleries in the Kinder building which houses much of the the Museum of Fine Arts Houston’s collection of contemporary art.

The building itself is like a piece of sculpture that draws one in as soon as the space is entered.

Speaking of sculpture, Anthony Caro’s piece immediately caught my eye. It was he who said that sculpture did not have to be limited to bronze or stone but could be made of anything. Here he used scraps of steel painted and assembled into a graceful form.

Looking at Pablo Picasso’s creation of painted steel, it appears that he bought into the notion of non traditional as well.

Here, Brazilian artist Iole de Freitas has used polycarbonate sheets and steel tubes to create an architectural sculpture that seems to float weightlessly. No matter where I stood its elegance did not escape me.

Constructions are among my favorite creations. In some of his work, Jean Tinguely puts elements together in ways that remind me of a painting. Though stationary in this exhibit due to frailty of parts, his work is typically full of movement.

I call constructions things made out of things as evidenced by Gonzalo Fonseca’s work.

Julio Alpuy’s piece is constructed of painted wood and strikes me as almost sculptural.

As I look at a variety of work made of found objects and interesting materials, I find a desire to create rising in my heart. Yes, the desire is there, yet the follow through is lacking!

Seeing these figures by Karon Davis causes me to leave the museum with a smile on my face. They are plaster and plaster soaked cloth strips laid over a steel armature. They pay homage to vaudeville comedian Bert Williams, a popular African American entertainer early last century.

Time spent wandering a museum’s galleries is time well spent as it exposes one to so many ways of creating.