Philadelphia Museum of Art (7/13/2019)

Saturday, July 13, 2019
Kyle and Katrina took advantage of Katrina having to come to Philadelphia on Thursday for work, to visit with us over the weekend. We met them in the city at the Philadelphia Museum of Art. With work affiliation at RISD and membership at the Cleveland Museum of Art, we were all able to to obtain free admission!

Cool art nouveau-like street lights and a
statue (1910, by J Otto Schweizer) of
Revolutionary War Major General Peter Muhlenberg

The NW entrance to the Museum of Art,
with a statue (1931, by William Wetmore Story)
of Chief Justice John Marshall

Great Stair Hall with Diana (1893, by
Augustus Saint-Gaudens), which first spent time
atop the Madison Square Garden Tower in NYC

There was a special exhibition on Tsukioka Yoshitoshi, considered the last great master of the ukiyo-e genre of woodblock printing and painting in Japan. It is said that his use of color and expression served as inspiration for today's manga and anime.

Portrait (1892, by Gotō Toshikage) of Yoshitoshi

Masakiyo's Difficult Battle (1866) has amazing detail in the
woodblock carving, and more amazing is that multiple prints
(one for each color) always stayed in perfect registration

Flowers of Edo: Children's Games (Firemen's Parade)
(1858) is from the Edo Period

Apparently one of Yoshitoshi's masterpieces, The Heian Poet
Yasumasa Playing the Flute by Moonlight, Subduing the
Bandit Yasusuke with His Music (1883)

Philadelphia Museum of Art NE wing
with color-glazed figures in the pediment (1932)

A view down the steps made famous in the movie, Rocky;
with part of the Philadelphia skyline

Looking back up the "Rocky" steps

Statue (1980, by A Thomas Schomberg) of Rocky,
was created for the movie, Rocky III

There is a line of people waiting to have their photos taken by the statue of Rocky.

Nearby stands The Charioteer of Delphi (1977
bronze replica of a Greek sculpture uncovered
in 1896, minus his L arm), which was a gift
from Greece to the city of Philadelphia

"From the cradle of democracy in the ancient world to the cradle of democracy in the new world."

Katrina, Kyle, and Kent with the Gamekeeper's Night Dog
(1989, by Victoria Davila), which is the world's only publicly-
owned statue of a bullmastiff in a public park

We were headed to another venue of the Philadelphia Museum of Art in the Perelman Building. Located here were two special exhibitions. The first was Souls Grown Deep featuring quilts, mixed media paintings, and found-object sculptures that reflect the painful history of the American South.

Protecting Myself the Best I Can (1994,
by Lonnie Holley); the items were actually
collected by the artist's neighbor

Blocks and Strips Quilt (2003, by Irene Williams)

Strip Quilt (1960-1969, by Irene Williams)
repurposed basketball jerseys

H Variation Quilt: "Milky Way" (1971,
by Nettie Young) takes commercial standardized
pieces and incorporates them into a personal quilt (KSS)

Nettie Young was co-manager of the Freedom Quilting Bee that was contracted to make commercial quilts for stores such as Bloomingdale's.

Gallery Hunt: A kid-friendly scavenger hunt

The second exhibition was The Art of Collage and Assemblage, using as examples works for the Museums collections.

Man's "Diamond Sis" Coat (1978-1984,
by Charles Logan

A photo of the artist wearing the jacket

From or By Marcel Duchamp or Rrose Sélavy (Box in a Valise) (1935-1941,
contents 1963-1965, Series F 1966 edition, by Marcel Duchamp)

Painting (1934, by Joan Miró)

Musical Forms (1918, by Charles Braque)

Untitled #829 (Halo) (1996, by Petah Coyne), the
artist is known for large-scale hanging sculptures,
often dipped in a specially formulated white wax

Glass of Absinthe (1914, by Pablo Picasso)

My Heart Belongs to Marcel (1963, by Niki de Saint Phalle); we have
seen this artist before in conjunction with the kinetic artist Jean Tinguely

The Stein-Toklas Dollhouse of Judith Young-Mallin
(1980s-mid 2000s, by various artists) has many
miniature objects, most of the Surrealist genre

Dollhouse detail, with Stein to the L and Toklas in the back R

Perelman Building (1928, by designed by Zantzinger, Borie, and Medary
in Art Deco style as the HQ of Fidelity Mutual Life Insurance company),
was decorated by Lee Lawrie

Behind the entrance to the underground parking:
Three-Way Plug, Scale A (1970, by Claes Oldenburg)

We had dinner in Media at Nooddi, a Thai restaurant. Afterwards we walked along State Street, then back along Front Street. Kyle had heard about water ice, which along with cheesesteaks, is quintessentially Philadelphia.
"Legend has it that ancient Roman emperors sent fast runners into the mountains to bring back snow they would mix with fruit and honey. The best water ice today sticks closely to that original recipe: just fruit, sugar, and water. The texture - looser than Italian ice and smoother than shaved ice - is unique to Philadelphia producers. Chunks of fruit often signal a good product. And the pronunciation is always “wooder ice.” (From https://philly.eater.com/maps/best-philadelphia-water-ice.)
Apparently Rita's Italian Ice originated in South Philly in 1984.

We found water ice at O'Malley's Ice Cream Pub;
this flavor was something like "Monster Stripes"

A great day with Kyle and Katrina!