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
Crayon and watercolor
Fantasy and Transformation
Watercolor, graphite, and black conte crayon
German Modernism
Pen and ink
Landscape and Architecture
Graphite with fixative
c. 1780s
Black and brown and white chalk, gray wash
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.
Marker
Very Recent Arrivals
Gouache and ink
Collages of engravings and gold paper with gouache and gold paint with extensive inscriptions in pen and ink on buff backing paper
American Abstraction of the 1960s
Black and orange ink on rice paper
Image and Text in Contemporary Art
Graphite
Christian Piety
en and brown ink on vellum
Cartoon and Caricature
Pen and ink
There was also a nice exhibition Clouding: Shape and Sign in Asian Art which provided my necessary ceramics fix.
Stoneware with painted decoration
Stoneware with white and dark brown slip and colorless glaze
Porcelaneous stoneware
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!
Oil on canvas
Oil on canvas
Oil on panel
Oil and metal leaf on wood panel
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.
Oil on linen
Etching
Glass beads, textiles, and thread