Wadsworth Athenaeum

I went to the Wadsworth Athenaeum (WA) Thursday evening in a driving rain thinking the whole way I must be crazy. By the time I got there, my nerves were so frazzled and I was sure my car was not parked in a valid spot and would be towed or ticketed by the time I got back to it. Neither one happened and my sister and I congratulated ourselves on the great parallel parking job and that it was free! We were let into the museum by a guard named Helen that had the most wonderful sense of humor. The WA is not simply a place to go to experience art. On the first Thursday of every month, they offer Phoenix Art After Hours. This month the theme was "a mischievous evening of masquerade and mystique". It was a type of happy hour with a DJ and everyone was in some sort of costume. You could bring your own or they would supply you with one. The 70's disco music was blaring, people were mingling and dancing and my sister and I wondered how in the world the museum could be so blase about so many people eating and drinking around all those paintings. We were unable to see very much on the first floor due to the crush of people and the makeshift bar and buffet line set up so we headed straight to the second floor.

This museum was so different from the Yale British Art Center (YBAC). They have a mystery you can solve as you walk around the different exhibits. It's called To Catch a Thief. There are clues scattered throughout the paintings and you must solve a riddle. You will start in the Art and Curiosity Cabinets gallery and then proceed to the Baroque Art gallery. Next is the Art in the Netherlands gallery, The Age of Pleasure and Enlightenment, the Neoclassical and Romantic Era and finally ending up in the Art of the Renaissance gallery. I wish I had more time because I would have loved to have put on my Inspector Closseau hat and see if I could find out who was the thief of the Wadsworth Athenaeum.

There is also an exhibit currently going on entitled "What Lies Beneath? Revealing Painters' Secrets". This exhibit of 10 paintings claims the artists have hidden secrets within their paintings. Modern technology (X-rays and infrared reflectography) has been used to reveal images not seen with the naked eye that are underneath the paint layers.

Other current exhibits include a Gustav Stickley furniture exhibition and a quilt exhibition (Who was Anna Tuels?). For both of these exhibits no pictures were allowed. As a matter of fact, before I could get past the information desk, I had to fill out a form and receive a PHOTOGRAPHY badge.

The WA did not seem as strict as the YBAC. We only saw two guards the entire evening. Everything seemed to also be laid out in a better order than the YBAC. I found that I took more pictures of sculptures and collections than I did of paintings. I was drawn to the walls, ceilings and decorative pieces. My favorite was a door that belonged to Luman Reed (1785-1836). It had paintings within the door done by Thomas Cole (1801-1848). I am attaching some pictures I took but they do not do it justice. There was also a piece by Eliza Trask called Parlor Memorial (1870). It was created in honor of her husband, a Civil War infantryman from Maine. I am afraid I will run out of space for all the pictures so I will end this blog now and post more of my pictures to a second WA blog.