Two Yale Museums

The stairwell in the Yale Museum of British Art is encased in a bold concrete cylinder,

which provided a good background for this woman studying the artwork.

At the Yale Art Museum across the street, an exhibition shows Andean textiles.

The Yale Art Museum mixes contemporary art and traditional art.

To Yale or Bust

Yale's Museum of British Art in New Haven has wonderful artwork in a recently renovated modern building by noted American architect, Louis Kahn.  And, a lot of busts.

Litchfield

On a beautiful day, I drove out to Litchfield, a postcard-pretty town an hour west of Hartford.

Within half a mile of the Litchfield Green, there are more beautiful buildings than I can show.

This is the historical society.  It was closed, so I couldn't see the exhibits.

This handsome Victorian home is on a steep road into town.

Eighteenth century houses are almost a dime a dozen in Litchfield.

This might be my favorite, another Victorian building.

And a stone Episcopal church is five or six buildings off the green.

Three Women

Wadsworth Atheneum.

(On the cover of Look magazine, "Eve was framed.")

Kehinde Wiley

I first saw works by Kehinde Wiley in 2007 at the Columbus (Ohio) Museum of Art, where I was on the board of trustees.

Wiley is an artist from Los Angeles who got an MFA from Yale's art school.  His over-sized portrait paintings are highly realistic and colorful.  Wiley finds young black men on the streets, invites them to pick a classic painting that appeals to them, and poses them in the manner of the classical artwork.  Some of his paintings are modeled after portraits by Titian, Reynolds and Gainsborough.

The Wadsworth Atheneum shows a Wiley portrait based on Christ's pose in a 14th century Balkan painting, King in Glory.  The background is inspired by a 19th century textile by William Morris.


If a museum near you ever mounts a Kehinde Wiley exhibition, go.

Looking at Paintings

Wadsworth Atheneum.

Psi Upsilon

A red tree in front of the stately Psi Upsilon fraternity house on the Trinity campus caught my eye.