I’m in Chapel Hill this weekend for a wedding, and spent the day exploring the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill. Not only was it fun to see college students out and about, but I never miss an art museum at a university. The Ackland Art Museum was a real treat.

Drawing Attention was a wonderful exhibition, and I particularly liked how it was arranged. The over 70 European and American drawings were presented in thematic groupings. Below are my favorites from each group.

Varieties of Portraiture

Fantasy and Transformation

German Modernism

Landscape and Architecture

I had not heard of Henry Speller before my recent visit to Minneapolis. You might recall seeing his wife Georgia Speller’s work in my post In the Presence of Our Ancestors. It was fun to recognize this artist’s work, as I had also seen some of his in Minneapolis.

Very Recent Arrivals

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American Abstraction of the 1960s

Image and Text in Contemporary Art

Christian Piety

Cartoon and Caricature

There was also a nice exhibition Clouding: Shape and Sign in Asian Art which provided my necessary ceramics fix.

The following images are works that I particularly enjoyed from the Auckland’s permanent collection.

I absolutely adore British crime drama, and as I was looking for a new show to watch while I work in my studio, I came across a French crime drama called The Art of Crime where they solve high profile art crimes in the heart of Paris. Crime drama, art, and Paris. Talk about dreamy! In season two, an episode involved the paintings of Gustav Courbet. Not easy to watch while I worked, as it was subtitled, but I quickly got hooked and started watching it while riding the Peloton. I am a true multi-tasker!

My brother is a huge Sean Scully fan. As soon as I saw it, I texted him a picture of the the large, wall-sized, Scully painting below. He of course immediately replied “my favorite!” I liked it too.