We arrived in Bentonville, headquarters of Walmart, during rush hour. After checking into our hotel and enjoying a pour of Menage a Trois and some trail mix, we joined Alice Walton at Crystal Bridges. It's the first American art museum built since the one we saw in Fort Worth.
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| Silver Tree by Roxy Paine |
Who better than an icon to greet us?
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| "Rosie the Riveter" by Norman Rockwell |
Even museums in Arkansas are committed to greater representation.
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| "Ten Potawatomi Chiefs" by George Winter (ca 1837) |
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| "Florida Mexicana" by Alfred Ramos Martinez (ca 1936) |
Art on a shoe-string budget. Thom can relate to that!😀
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| "We the People (black version)" by Nari Ward (2015) |
Literally.
Selena had a gallery of her own. Latina or Latinx? Definitely the former!
This painting looked familiar. But it wasn't until I heard a guard claim that "it used to hang in the basement of the New York Public Library." Not true. It was on public display when I worked there in the late 70s and early 80s. In a controversial move, the trustees "de-accessioned" it for a cool $35 million. That's the most that Crystal Bridges ever has paid for a painting. Cast-off art!
It began to dawn on me that most of America's greatest art --or at least that which is already recognized as such--is already hanging in museums or owned by private collectors. Crystal Bridges, which opened only a decade ago, is at an extreme disadvantage, at least in terms of paintings and sculpture created before the 21st century.
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| Wild Turkey Cock, Hen & Young by John James Audubon (1826) |
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| "Rooster" by Gustav A. Dentzel (ca 1897) |
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| "Two Women" by George Bellows (1924) |
Guess where this used to be? A hotel in Denver!
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| Dandelion by Harry Bertoia (1961) |
That's not to say there's nothing of interest. What may once have been undervalued may now be in vogue.
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| "The Garbage Man" by John Biggers (1944) |
The Pines has been around even longer than I have! Although not much.
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| "Fences" by Paul Cadmus (1946) |
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| Self Portrait by Paul Cadmus (1935) |
According to the Times, White folk don't cure tobacco any longer.
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| "Tobacco Sorters" by Thomas Hart Benton (1942-1944) |
I wasn't surprised that a Dale Chihuly exhibit had attracted more people to Crystal Bridges than any other.
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| "Azure Icicle Chandelier" by Dale Chihuly (2016) |
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| "Walking to Boras" by Jim Dine (2006) |
Some art demands a selfie.
I erroneously told Thom that Maya Lin had designed the Oklahoma City National Memorial and Museum, so it was good to see her in the collection.
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| "Silver Upper White River" by Maya Lin (2015) |
A sharp curatorial eye may help Crystal Bridges assemble a first-rate collection of contemporary art although Alice Walton refuses to overpay. That probably explains why there's no Warhol.
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| "Superman Versus the Toilet Duck" by Peter Saul (1963) |
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| "Cow" by Alex Katz (2006) |
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| Close-up of Martha Graham Portrait by Marisol (1977) |
Julie Alpert's "Altars, Keepsakes, Squiggles, and Bows" (2021) looked as if it was the work of a very talented kindergarten class.
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| "Martin's Cincuentanera" by Shizu Saldamando (2018) |
Unbelievably, we had Yayoi Kusama's "Infinity Mirrored Room-My Heart Is Dancing into the Universe" (2018) entirely to ourselves.
Moshe Safdie's architecture really comes alive in the Seven restaurant and coffee shop, enclosed in cedar and glass and surrounded on both sides by water.
A Jeff Koons sculpture dangles from the middle.
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| "Hanging Heart" by Jeff Koons |
Looking out from the restaurant at the contemporary art gallery
Alice Walton was partying with donors in another area of the museum. More than once we heard people say "She's here!"
Still it can't have been cheap to import this Frank Lloyd Wright house from New Jersey.
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