Boston Museum of Fine Arts

During our trip to Massachusetts for Ben & Carolyn's wedding, Alex and I stole a day and a half in Boston for ourselves. Unfortunately, the weather was cold and blustery, which precluded most outdoor touring. But it was perfect for spending a few hours at the Boston Museum of Fine Arts. It is so expansive that, during our fours hours there, we saw only a fraction of its collections. Knowing our time was limited, we concentrated on just a few areas, photographing our favorites. 

Here are the highlights of our excursion:

Ganesh with his consorts, Northern India, early 11th century, sandstone.

A contemporary Japanese basket/sculpture.

Nabil Nahas, Untitled, 2009, collaged paper on printed paper.

Jeff Perrott, RW 13 (Fair Game), 2010, oil on canvas. "Perrott uses a 'chance system' to create his paintings. His Random Walk (RW) series starts with a single brushstroke. Then he uses a spinner like those found in board games to determine which way the next stroke goes. If the stroke runs off the edge, Perrott continues it from the other side. Then he changes to a new color and spins again. And so on. In his words, 'It's a negotiation between the chance-driven movement of the line and the intuitive movement of the paint stroke.'"

Richard Artschwager, Exclamation Point, 2006, rubberized horsehair and paint on Masonite.

Gerhard Richter, Vase, 1984, oil on canvas.

El Anatsui (Ghanian), Black River, 2009, aluminum bottle labels, bottle caps, and copper wire.

detail

Van Gogh

detail of a Jackson Pollock painting

Andy Warhol, Oxidation Painting, 1978, urine on metallic pigment in acrylic pigment on canvas. "During the late '70s, Warhol enlisted friends and studio assistants to urinate over canvases freshly coated with copper paint. The uric acid oxidized the copper, creating a range of green drips and patterns -- a handsome visual effect that countered an almost farcical means of production. The allover composition mimics Jackson Pollock's mid-century action paintings, while the use of urine recalls Marcel Duchamps famous appropriation of a mass-produced urinal as a work of art in the 1920s."

Robert Motherwell, Open in Ochre, 1967-70, acrylic on canvas.

Note: I am having a heck of a time composing my posts on Blogger. It's not working like the earlier version of Blogger's compose-interface. Hence the caption-sized font under each image and the lack of space between images. Very annoying. I'll keep working on it.