Thoughts in Random Patterns

Contemporary Dallas II

We finished our Dallas art extravaganza with two more private collections in contemporary homes, both of which confirmed for me that I want to build a fantastic contemporary house of my own.  The first house we saw belongs to Deedie and Rusty Rose and was designed by Antoine Predock.  I had been fortunate enough to see the house once before when Deedie Rose was kind enough to guide me through the process of choosing an architect.  The current art in the house is primarily by emerging artists, particularly from South America, although the Sol LeWitt in the entry is pretty recognizable.

The second house and collection we saw was designed by Bill Booziotis as guest house and gallery for Marguerite Hoffman and her late husband, Robert.  They have what I would call a seriously important collection, including multiple works by Cy Twombly, Gerhard Richter, Robert Ryman, Ellsworth Kelly, Philip Guston, Joseph Cornell, Agnes Martin, Vija Celmins and other major post-World War II artists.  I think the only thing I would want to add is a Rothko.  Since we only saw the guest house, perhaps they have one or two in their living room.

After being completely satiated with art and architecture, we headed to New York for more. 

Contemporary Dallas

We're in Dallas for a Wellesley art trip with our in-laws and yesterday had access to two extraordinary homes designed by contemporary architects and filled with amazing art.  We first went to the collection of Howard and Cindy Rachofsky, whose home was designed by Richard Meier as basically a one bedroom museum.  The current selections from their collection are all created between the years of 2004-2007 by emerging artists.  It was great to see major collectors supporting the work of living artists.  The second home we visited was designed by Steven Holl for Jessie and Charles Price, whose collection includes works by Joan Mitchell, Ed Ruscha, old master drawings, Brice Marden, and my favorite, a Robert Irwin light installation. 

In the afternoon we skipped the curated tour of the Turner exhibit at the Dallas Museum of Art, dashed through the Nasher sculpture museum with its terrific design by Renzo Piano, and went back to the hotel for a nice long nap.

We had dinner at Stephan Pyles Restaurant, where the food was lovely (a selection of 4 iced gazpacho was wonderful), but the waiter was very agressive and intrusive. 

Today we're off to Ft. Worth to see the Tadao Ando designed museum as well as the Art of the American Snapshot exhibit at the Amon Carter. 

Museums and more Museums

Today we went to the Louvre bright and early.  We wandered into some galleries I'd never seen before, which was terrific.  Morgan and I got to stand in front of the crown jewels without any other people there for about a minute, which was also terrific and quite rare.  We saw the Mona Lisa, of course, and lots of Egyptian artifacts and many many many paintings of dead religious people.  The Napoleonic apartments are always amazing with the huge rooms and the tiny bed.  Morgan really liked the Feast at Cana, which is a massive painting in the same room as the Mona Lisa.  We had lunch at Cafe Marly and got to have the truly French experience of it taking 45 minutes to pay the bill.  We did go to L'Orangerie with only a 20 minute wait in line.  The Monet murals were sublime, and the private collection downstairs was surprisingly extensive and probably satisfied my need to see French impressionist paintings.

Tomorrow we will go to the Picasso Museum and wander around the Marais and the Place des Vosges, then go to Notre Dame cathedral and maybe take another afternoon nap.

We take the TGV to Provence on Sunday and start riding horses through the countryside on Monday.  It's still quite gray and gloomy here.  I'm glad I brought an umbrella!