AGO

My friend Mary and her husband Craig are visiting from Calgary.  Yesterday we met up with them for a nice brunch at the Sunset Grill.  Then, on a whim, I joined them and their friend Sarah for a trip to the AGO.  Mike had some marking to do but I didn't have anything pressing planned for the afternoon.

I've actually never been to the AGO before.  The new architecture was interesting but I'd seen it so many times in the news and in the paper when it was first completed that I was less than awestruck.  The exhibits were actually pretty good.  Being a non-arty person, I have to say it was much more enjoyable to tour the gallery with Mary, who is an honest-to-goodness artist. 

I saw this really crappy painting of a houseplant by some famous artist (I forget who now... Renoir? Matisse?  Meh...) and it was Mary that explained to me that a lot of still-life is just practice for bigger pieces.  She said that you'll find a lot of fabric in still-life because it's really difficult to capture the shading and drape, so artists will practice over and over again before they draw clothing on any subjects.  I think I drew that exact same houseplant when my AGI buddy Sarah was first trying to teach me how to paint.  Mary also showed me a painting that had a very odd, non-uniform texture to it.  She said that sometimes artists would take an old painting, scrape back the paint and sand it down in order to re-use the canvas for a new painting.  She also showed me how some frames were built by putting plaster forms on top of wood to make ornate decorations.  Sometimes the wood is carved instead, but usually it's plaster which is cheaper but still has that expensive look.

The two things I liked most at the AGO was this one painting of a very big boulder in a very small room by Magritte, and the Hidden Life Within exhibit by Penone.  The Penone stuff was really cool... what he did was take a bunch of different pieces of wood... some planks, some actual tree trunks.  Then he carved back all the rings, leaving only the knots in order to recreate a younger version of the tree.  It's hard to explain but there are a few pictures of some planks here.  The AGO also has a full on tree trunk where Penone has carved almost a window through the tree.  It's the neatest thing I have ever seen.  It was something like a 200 year old tree trunk and he carved back the wood to maybe a 10-15 year old tree.  Where all the knots are turn into the branches of the baby tree. 

Anyway, I had a very good day with Mary, Craig and Sarah.  Art is cool.