The Blanton Museum

Ian and I are delving into art appreciation. Now granted, my game plan is to introduce him to the art in whatever time frame we're covering in Story of the World. Sadly though, there isn't an awful lot of art available in Austin, TX from Ancient Egypt at this time! I do know there is a big King Tut exhibit up in Dallas that I'm hoping to take him to in the next couple of months.

But, I figured yesterday was as good of a day as any to take a field trip to the Blanton Museum of Art down on the UT campus. In the 6 years I've lived here, I've never been. I thought it would be nice to gauge where he's at as far as being able to appreciate art. I was pleasantly surprised at how open he was to it! The Blanton has permanent exhibits that include European Art ranging from the late 1500's to the 1800's, as well as some sculpture, pottery, and a wonderful contemporary and modern art wing, not to mention the temporary exhibit called "Reimagining Space".

I fully expected him to think European art was a bore. I mean really, it's mostly a bunch of portraits and paintings of people and places that he doesn't know. But I tried to approach it with more of a focus on color and line. He was able to pick up how dreary the dark paintings looked and how happy people looked in the more colorful paintings and we discussed the clothing and the landscapes and how different they are from things we see today.

I allowed him to take a little notebook. The museum is divided into many rooms, so I had him choose his favorite piece in every room. He then wrote the artist's name so we could find him or her online and see if there are other works, where the artist was from and a brief history. I was always quite surprised at his choices. It is strange how art affects each individual, what speaks to one person and not another. Following is a number of his faves and the explanation behind them...
"Flora" by Sebastiano Ricci
He liked the bright colors and pretty lady. He also thought the little, naked cherubs were cute.


"Saint Agatha" by Orazio Riminaldi
This was a hard one for me. He loved the painting because he said she had pretty face and beautiful eyes and her clothes were so nice. She also had a platter of cupcakes. Uh, yeah. Unfortunately, the boy is literate and can read the cards next to the paintings without much problem and although he didn't get it 100% he knew that this painting was about something bad. So I sat on the fence, weighing whether to discuss it or not, opting in the end, that I should always be up front and honest. So we read the gruesome poem that accompanied this piece and I explained that there was a man that wanted to have Agatha, but she resisted him and that he was so angry he tortured her and mutilated her body. I also explained that the "cupcakes" were her breasts. He looked a bit like a deer in headlights and he asked why the man would do that. I explained that he was a bad and crazy man. I told him that a good man would have accepted her wishes and carried on with his life, wishing her nothing but happiness. He seemed to be OK with that explanation. Maybe I shouldn't have delved quite so far, but I won't always be able to shield him from the darkness of the world and unfortunately, art depicts ALOT of that darkness.

"Vase of Flowers" by Bartolome Perez
He just liked the flowers and the colors and I think was just plain glad to see a painting of something other than people he didn't know!

One of the "Geometrico" paintings by Kazuya Sakai
He liked the bright colors and the spiral lines. Turns out modern art is VERY good in getting the point across about line and color!


Not only did he enjoy the paintings, but he loved the sculpture. He found it funny that all of the nudes had leaves covering their "pee-pees"! I told him it was a way to maintain modesty, kind of like underwear, but I think that explanation led him to believe that men back in the day walked around holding fig leaves over their parts!

It was a great afternoon and I was so thrilled with his response to this. He actually asked if we could come back and if there were anymore art museums we could visit. So maybe, just maybe I lit a little fire and I look forward to accompanying him on his journey into the love of art!

And as a side note, the Piggy did very well. No meltdowns, but she did just happen to touch one of the paintings as the docent walked into the room, getting us in trouble! But after that, she made friends with every docent in every gallery and several of the patrons. This child knows no strangers. And she just charms with every inch of her being!