Roses

Passing through West Hartford last Friday, I came across rose murals painted by Ben Keller, whose work I have featured here before.  They are in a shopping center, where two buildings almost meet. 

 

Linked to Monday Murals.

Church of the Assumption

Westport's Church of the Assumption stood out on a day with a gloriously blue sky.

The Catholic congregation dates to 1866, this building was dedicated in 1900. 

A.C.T. of Connecticut

 A.C.T. (A Contemporary Theater) of Connecticut is concluding its eighth season in Ridgefield with a performance of Dear Evan Hansen.

I attended recently.  Shame that I hadn't been to a performance before.  It was excellent!

Attendees reach the theater by walking through long corridors with large photos from past shows. 

The theater isn't big, but it has good seating and a professional stage.  

The actors are professionals and members of Actors' Equity.

Dear Evan Hansen is about a socially awkward high school student who invents a relationship with another loner student who dies.  One thing leads to another and builds toward the inevitable collapse.  The play is thought provoking.  I will be buying tickets for future A.C.T. performances.

Mansplaining

I have been guilty of this on occasion . . . 

This is at Wadsworth Atheneum in Hartford.  If you will pardon my own mansplaining, the nearest bust is of Daniel Wadsworth, a Hartford amateur artist and architect in the middle of the 19th century.  He was from a well off Connecticut family.  He funded the creation of the Wadsworth Atheneum in 1842.

Two circles

 Entering the Wadsworth Atheneum's Gengras Court in Hartford, I encountered two circles.  

In the foreground, we face dissident Chinese artist Al Weiwei's "Grapes," formed from 26 traditional three-legged stools.  On the wall behind it is one of American artist Frank Stella's so-called "Protractor" works, named for its careful creation with a protractor and compass. 

Wadsworth Atheneum and The Travelers Tower

 

The nearer building is Hartford's Wadsworth Atheneum, an excellent art museum that I visit often when I am in Hartford.  Behind it is the Travelers Tower, headquarters of the Travelers Insurance Company.

Peony Season

 

My peonies are in bloom, too, but they are no match for these gorgeous peonies in West Hartford's Elizabeth Park.

A Mural in Process

 I was recently in West Hartford.  BlueBack Square is a mixed commercial and residential development just off West Hartford Center.  

An artist was at work on the second level above the Noah Webster House and West Hartford Historical Society.  I didn't recognize the artist nor did I understand what is being portrayed at this early stage,  But, I go back to West Hartford often and will check it out later.

I wonder if Monday Murals accepts partially completed and unexplained murals . . . 

Antioch Baptist Church

 

Originally a Methodist church, this facility in Bedford Hills, New York, was purchased in 1975 by Antioch Baptist Church, a Black congregation.  The congregation dates back to 1887 and occupied several other facilities before acquiring and holding services in this one.

Modern Farmhouse

 

On a recent walk, I passed this handsome home.  The main facade is stone, with very appealing windows, The roof has a pair of dormers and a central turret.  The roof covers a deep front porch.   The house calls to mind a farmhouse, though it is relatively new and is entirely residential. 

Weir Farm

 Weir Farm is the former home of the American impressionist painter J. Alden Weir.  It is now a National Historic Park, straddling Ridgefield and Wilton, Connecticut.

I have visited Weir Farm two or three times before, and I have toured the inside of the main house, shown above.  I posted about my tours in 2021 and again in 2023.  This week I visited on Tuesday, only to learn that it was not open for visitors.  

So long as I was there, I walked the main part of the property.  A carpenter was repairing the stairs on Weir's studio, so I didn't photograph it.  But, I walked around the barn and its corral.

This is the view looking back from the end of the corral to the barn and the rear of the Weir house. 

There are some very good walking trails on the property, but I wasn't dressed for a hike, so I left.

Flipping Creative

 Flipping Creative is a "mindful market" in Ridgefield.  The owner describes it as a marketplace showcasing ethically sourced products from skilled craftspeople and partnering with responsible brands.

It feels like I walked into a hippy store from 50 years ago.

It is a visual feast, in perhaps eight rooms, but I swear I can't figure out how they pay the rent.

Art Lover

 

A young girl sat patiently on a bench in Wadsworth Atheneum's Avery Court in Hartford, studying the 16th century statue of Venus with a Nymph and Satyr and Andy Warhol's ten Marilyn Monroe prints.

Varian Fry

Journalist and scholar Varian Fry and his wife Annette lived in Ridgefield at this house on Olmstead Lane in the 1950s and 60s. While here, he taught Latin classes at Ridgefield High School.  Fry died in Easton, a town half an hour east of Ridgefield, at the age of 59.

 In 1940, Fry went to Marseille for the Emergency Rescue Committee,  Fry set up a network that smuggled more than 1,000 Jewish intellectuals out of Nazi-held Europe, including writer Hanna Arendt, painter Marc Chagall, painter-poet Max Ernst and sculptor Jacques Lipchitz.

After World War II ended, Fry was honored for his work. A street in Berlin bears his name, and high schools in Germany and France are named in his honor. In 1994 Fry was awarded the title of Righteous Among the Nations by the Holocaust Martyrs’ and Heroes’ Remembrance Authority in Israel.

Danbury Fair Mall

The Danbury State Fair was a big deal for more that a century, but by 1981 it had run its course.  The land had become more valuable than the fair.  The owner sold the property as the site for a huge regional shopping mall, the Danbury Fair Mall.  

A mural near one of the mall's entrances honors the property's origin as a racetrack and fairground.  

This post is linked to Monday Murals.

 

I was at the mall last week to pick up sunglasses.  The optician hadn't arrived, so I looked around.  The many columns and exposed architectural elements above the retail areas caught my eye.

At a time when many malls are failing, the Danbury Fair Mall is still very busy and apparently successful.   

Saugatuck Congregational Church

 

We know where this church in Westport, Connecticut, stands.

Amistad

 Next to New Haven city hall there is a three-sided statue honoring the Amistad defendants.

An inscription on the base reads in part "On this site, the Amistad Africans were jailed awaiting trial for piracy and murder.  To aid their struggle for freedom, the Amistad Committee formed counting in its number ministers Simeon locelyn, Joshua Leavitt and James Pennington; merchant Lewis Tappan; professor Josiah Gibbs: and lawyer Roger Baldwin.

"The Africans were tried twice prior to their ultimate triumph before the United States Supreme Court, where former President John Quincy Adams courageously defended them. Sengbe Pieh and his fellows were declared Free Persons. Then they returned to Sierra Leone."

Sandler Portraits II

 Here is a second set of portraits by August Sander currently on view at the Yale Art Gallery.  I could keep going, but I just wanted to show a sampling.

The gentleman on the right is a composer.

Say hello to the prominent composer, Richard Strauss.

I didn't take good notes about these.  Sander's exhibition is organized around such things as professions, types (such as women and workers) and classes (middle class children, below).

Sander Portraits I

 Here is a sampling of the 600 portraits by August Sander currently on view at the Yale Art Gallery.

On the left we have a portrait of a Nazi SS Captain.  On the right is a diplomat.

A pharmacist.

On the left,  an Industrial Magnate.  On the right, a bricklayer from Cologne.

A master shoemaker.

A painter couple.

The director of a wax museum.

Aren't these brilliant?  More tomorrow.

August Sander at the Yale Art Gallery

 Why so many New Haven photos recently?  I went to the Yale Art Gallery to see an exhibition of more than 600 black and white portrait photographs by German photographer, August Sander, from the first half of the 20th century.  It is a brilliant exhibition and Sander was a brilliant portrait photographer.

Sander called his exhibition People of the 20th Century.  He grouped them by classes, occupations, and backgrounds, arranging them into groups like "The Farmer" "The Skilled Tradesman," "The Woman" and "Classes and Professions."

Today I am showing some walls of portraits.  In the next couple of days, I will show a few close-ups.

New Haven Superior Court

 

This is a color photograph, not black and white.

Sky

The June theme for City Daily Photo participants is "Sky."  This is a theme made for me.  When clouds in a rich blue sky make beautiful patterns, I can't look away.

Puffs above a palm tree in Naples.

Lovely low cumulus clouds at a Sanibel beach with wispy clouds higher.

Two sky views from the golf course in Naples.

And a morning view from my Naples home.