Is art what others see? My husband and I took a vacation to Florida last week. We traveled to Florida in the past, but never in February. It was warm, sunny and wonderful. Our favorite part was watching the sunset every evening over the horizon.
While there, we visited the Ringling art museum.
If you haven’t heard of this museum before, don’t be surprised. It’s quite a gem.
From Wikipedia:
The John and Mable Ringling Museum of Art is the state art museum of Florida, located in Sarasota, Florida.[1] It was established in 1927 as the legacy of Mable and John Ringling for the people of Florida. Florida State University assumed governance of the Museum in 2000.
Designated as the official state art museum for Florida, the institution offers twenty-one galleries of European paintings as well as Cypriot antiquities and Asian, American, and contemporary art. The museum’s art collection currently consists of more than 10,000 objects that include a variety of paintings, sculpture, drawings, prints, photographs, and decorative arts from ancient through contemporary periods and from around the world. The most celebrated items in the museum are 16th–20th-century European paintings, including a world-renowned collection of Peter Paul Rubens paintings.[4] Other famous artists represented include Benjamin West, Marcel Duchamp, Diego Velázquez, Paolo Veronese, Rosa Bonheur, Gianlorenzo Bernini, Giuliano Finelli, Lucas Cranach the Elder, Frans Hals, Nicolas Poussin, Joseph Wright of Derby, Thomas Gainsborough, Eugène Boudin, and Benedetto Pagni.
I enjoy listening to people as they take in the art. Everyone notices something different. For me, I noticed the use of light and shadow by some of the Masters. I learned from an art teacher to get as close as you can to the art piece to see the brush strokes and techniques the artist used. Just imagine, you are actually looking at the brush strokes by Ruben. Wow!
That’s art for you. It’s incredibly personal. All of us have lived different lives filled with different experiences and while viewing art, those memories color our perception of the art. Isn’t that interesting?
Contact me at dhcbaldwin@gmail.com or DeborahBaldwin.net