Discarded........art by Anthony Hernandez

 I enjoyed a Saturday wandering the various art museums in the Fort Worth Cultural District.  The Amon Carter has a huge photography collection and also features special exhibits

 Anthony Hernandez took some bleak photos from the 2008 housing collapse. California  had huge swaths of land set for development - they turned into a vast wasteland.

His photos are disturbing and bleak. They ask questions about the environment, about the economy, and about art. Is their hope for the future, or is the Discarded exhibit a statement without an answer.......

This exhibit is sad and provokes an emotion.......and sometimes art ain't pretty.

Fort Worth Treats

A glorious Saturday in Fort Worth's Cultural District. Here is a sneak peak at the new Renzo Piano Pavillion. It sits opposite the Louis Kahn designed Kimbell Art Museum.  The Pavilion will house the library, auditorium, education rooms, and has underground parking. It is understated and yet elegant, and adds to the Kimbell campus. I'm looking forward to taking a tour.

 Meanwhile, at the Kimbell, there is a huge exhibit called The Age of Picasso and Matisse courtesy of the Art Institute of Chicago. The show features not only Picasso and Matisse but other radicals in their day - Brancusi, Duchamp, Kandinsky, plus Dali and Miro.  Cubism and Surrealism are not my favorites, but I can appreciate the history and influence in these master works.

 Over at the Amon Carter, this Color! exhibit on American Photography is really worthwhile. At the time, serious photographers sneered at the advent of color. However, in viewing the growth and experimentation, one can see how "color can simultaneously describe objects and stand apart from these objects as pure hue." (Amon Carter program).

One final small but fascinating exhibit is Hotel Texas: Art Exhibit for President and Mrs.JFK.  The Kennedy's spent the night in Fort Worth prior to the eventful day in Dallas fifty years ago. For their stay, sixteen famous works of art were used to decorate Suite 850 of the Hotel Texas. Thirteen of these works are now on display at the Amon Carter. Apparently Mrs. Kennedy was quite "amazed by the beauty of the works, and truly appreciated the effort." The keynote piece was Thomas Eakins "Swimming".

The Fort Worth Cultural District is a treat on a lovely fall day.