I really liked Cincinnati – I am a sucker for slightly gritty midwest cities but Cincinnati had a really good feel to it. Beyond my wonderful studio visit with Denise Burge (the museum’s first artist-in-residence this August, more on that soon), I also had some time to see some art and take in some sites.
I will also say that GPS navigators are the best invention since, well, maybe even a compass. My rental car had a GPS thing in it and I quickly gave up any technological trust issues and let the nice British woman navigate my way around the city. I made a stop at the Cincinnati Art Museum:
(Sol Lewitt’s collection of art up top, but not Sol Lewitt’s car on bottom)
(one of Cincinnati’s “dueling divas” of pottery)
(nice Arthur Dove painting)
(a small Louise Nevelson on the wall)
I think part of the charm of this museum was that it didn’t seem to be trying too hard – it was just doing what it did and did it pretty well. I enjoy these smaller city museums because they usually have the greatest hits, but lesser-known pieces. Less obvious and for me, more enjoyable. For instance the Louise Nevelson wall piece was almost intimate in scale – maybe 20 inches tall by 12 inches wide – which I found to be a better piece than the typical large floor sculptures on display at MoMA or the Art Institute. Even the wall labels looked nice – printed on vinyl squares a shade darker than the wall. The museum had nice signage, too. Just stuff I tend to notice.
I even enjoyed the Cincinnati ceramics show, which was surprising for me too. Perhaps it was because of the way they framed the “dueling divas” story of two woman in the late 19th century ripping off each other’s clay ideas and techniques, making it a more interesting (albeit scandalous) story.
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The Contemporary Arts Center was unfortunately disappointing. Zaha Hadid designed the building and it seemed a little pretentious. I’m not much into the current “let’s build crazy angled buildings for the sake of crazy angles!” Further, only one exhibition floor was open and it featured, guess what, a Liebeskind exhibition of 5 or 6 of his past “crazy angle” buildings. By the way the Denver Art Museum’s crazy angles are supposed to reflect Denver’s mountainous landscape…
I can’t wait to see that in person some day.
There was a companion show of Lewitt’s work on the same floor, but my tolerance was already growing thin in there. I stopped up on the 6th floor to see the “Unmuseum” aka the kids area. The best thing on view in the entire building was easily Simparch’s trailer made from old billboards that would roll back in forth when you get inside and move around:
I love Simparch. They constructed a huge, elevated half pipe (a functional one) in the Renaissance Center at the University of Chicago in 2000. When you walked into the gallery you couldn’t see what was going on inside the giant swimming-pool shape, you could only hear it. You had to walk up the stairs to get a glimpse of the skateboarders. They also made a radio antenna out of a huge pile of lawn chairs at DePauw in 2007. They walk a line of architecture, site-specific installation and sculpture, twisted in with some social practice, but they always seem to pull it off. It was a nice surprise to see one of their pieces in person – so the lesson is don’t skip out on the kids area in a contemporary art center – it may just be the most interesting thing you’ll see.
I also had some time to explore the city – Northside was a great neighborhood offering more of the things I miss: a good music store and slightly overpriced but mostly worth it shoe stores. I spent a few hours in my new hipster sunglasses strolling Northside with an iced coffee. It was 80 degrees out. I was smiling.
The last image is a view from behind the Cincinnati Art Museum, which sits on top of a pretty big hill overlooking the city. Guess what I saw out on the horizon next to some type of sports facility? Another crazy angled building! By guess who?
