We knew today was going to be a full one! We got an early start and headed up to Cleveland to the Cleveland Museum of Art. There were no big exhibits to see, which was fine with me, because I really wanted to spend time showing Sean the museum itself.
There were two small exhibits drawn from the permanent collection that I was particularly interested in though - Nature Sublime, which was a gathering of landscapes from the 19th century. My favorite work was the unexpected inclusion of a Munch woodcut masterpiece, Melancholy (Evening) 1896 , which Sean and I shared a moment of silence in front of to honor its missing brethen. We were considering a sit-in until the stolen two works were returned, but thought better of it.
The other exhibit was Trophies of the Hunt: Capturing Nature as Art. Many of these images were photographs of dead or dismembered animals, and in the case of a Joel-Peter Witkin photo, a dead baby that had been autopsied. Sean was disturbed by this exhibit. Not fond of it at all. For myself, I was very taken with Barbara Bosworth's black and white picture of a jar of fireflies. It was magnificent.
Anyway, we had a great time, and Sean was impressed with the size of the museum and the collections there. Our only complaint was that we both neglected to bring a sweater or a jacket and we were freezing inside - outside, of course it was sweltering.
Sean said she had not seen an El Greco before in person, and the museum has two on display What is amazing about El Greco's Christ on the Cross, which is not apparent in the picture, is the vivid, numerous drops and splashes of blood falling down from the cross. Very modern, unsettling and disturbing.
We spent a lot of time in the Dutch rooms. The manner in which those painters captured light is phenomenal! We also visited the new prize of the museum, the bronzestatue of the Apollo Sauroktonos attributed to Praxiteles. A patron was mesmerized by this statue, and I was mesmerized because he was shooting with a CONTAX G1, my prized rangefinder camera from my Seattle days. I commended his good taste in equipment.
We decided to go to Sergio's for lunch (see review in September posts). It was a tremendously wonderful meal. Nothing beats sitting outside on a beautiful day with excellent food and wine and company. And the Brazilian presspot coffee...one of my favorite things in the world!
Walking back to the museum, as we had spent four hours there already but had to see the Asian and South American art, we passed the Cleveland Botanical Gardens, and Sean really wanted to see them. Never having been there, it sounded like an excellent adventure.
The gardens feature a glass house, which houses two disparate ecosystems, the spiny desert of Madagascar and a cloud forest from Costa Rica. After watching the introductory films, Sean and I had the phrase "spiny desert" stuck in our heads. The narrator had an odd English accent, and every time she repeated that phrase, we just had to mimic her.
Anyway, the desert was very, very spiny indeed. Everything had protective thorns. And big ones at that. We also were visited by a tortoise.
The cloudforest was great because it was home to 20 species of free-flying butterflies. After walking under a waterfall, we ascended 25 feet up to the top of a Strangler Fig tree, and looked down upon the canopy of the forest. Orchids were in bloom everywhere. There was also a telescope that you could use to watch an army of leaf cutter ants at work. That was really amazing. Sean was effervescent with ideas to use in the classroom from this experience.
We went outside where they have a wonderful water garden of lotus, waterlily and other water plants, then walked about through the woodland garden and the Japanese Gan Ryuu Tei garden (Dry Rock Stream), which was beautiful.
Sean liked the Western Reserve Herb Society Garden most of all, enjoying the aromas from all of the plants.
We then left and attempted the final two rooms of the museum, but we both discovered we were suffering from visual stimulus overload and we simply couldn't look at anything anymore.
Happily, it was time to stop in at Bossa Nova, a lounge in Woodmere that was offering complimentary massages and manicures, and $3 cosmopolitans. We settled in and had a few drinks - I had a massage and Sean had the manicure.
Thus relaxed, we headed home to watch one of my favorite films, Croupier. Sean had seen part of it and wanted to see the end, and was thrilled to find it in my cabinet.
A little snack of left-over potstickers, a fine film...a great end to a long but wonderful day.
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