Yale Art Gallery Visit

Yale Art Gallery

The Yale University Art Gallery was founded in 1892 by Colonel John Trumbull a patriot and artist. The Gallery is the oldest college art museum in North America. Over the years the Collection has grown to more than 185,000 objects.
Upon entering the museum I walked through the lobby and smiled at the gentleman sitting patiently in a chair by the elevator as I passed by snapping pictures. I quickly passed by to enter the first Gallery to view Embodied: Black Identities in American Art showed works that ranged from paintings, sculpture, decorative arts, prints, drawings and photos that portray meanings to African Americans throughout history.

Reading the guide I was a women on a mission to find Hopper’s, Rooms by the Sea. I entered the elevator and got out on the second floor. Okay, no Hopper, but interesting African and Asian Art. After doing a quick tour I headed for the elevator.

I exited the elevator on the third floor and entered into the world of European and American Art from 1200 t the Present. The first painting I see is Samuel F. B. Morse’s, Gallery of the Louvre. Nice painting I thought with no idea it was one of the most important American paintings of the early nineteenth century. Morse considered Gallery of the Louvre as a giant art lesson showing on one canvas in an imaginary arrangement the paintings he considered to be the greatest at the Louvre. Although praised by the art community it was rejected by the public. He sold the painting and abandoned his art career and moved on to his experiments with the telegraph. I loved this painting on first sight. I could only imagine myself as the young girl in the painting surrounded by magnificent works of art. Believing it to be part of Yale’s permanent collection I quickly snapped a picture. Immediately the nice man from the lobby came up to me and said that I couldn’t do that. A security guard quickly came up behind me. Looking up startled I quickly assured him that I didn’t have my flash on. He shook his head and told me the painting was on loan from the Terra Foundation and shouldn’t be photographed. I apologized for my error as he pointed to the very small print of the card, which didn’t say do not photograph, but listed the name Terra Foundation. I thanked him and walked away quickly like I had secret contraband in my possession.

I was aware that the security guard quietly followed behind me as I made sure to check each painting that I photographed. I did find the Hopper painting and enjoyed his use of color, shadow and light to bring you into a surreal room that through a door with no stairs that invites you directly into the sea. The great masters, Seurat, Van Gogh, Monet, Degas, and West were right alongside the contemporary works of West, Kelly, Rothko, Noland, Davis and Warhol and the advant guard, Marclay’s video, Telephones, and Rupperberg’s, Poems & Placements, exhibit. What I enjoyed most was finding the traditional of Morris’s, Gallery of the Louvre right across from the contemporary of Stella’s, Battle of lights, and Davis’s Combination work. Each work is important in its own right.

As I exited the building the same gentlemen who quietly reprimanded me for taking the picture asked me when I would I be coming back to visit the museum. I noticed he had a curator badge on his jacket, chagrined, I smiled and again apologized for taking the picture. I explained that I hoped to be back soon and that my visit was part of a museum experience for class where I had to submit a photo essay. Smiling I said, “How could I not write about the Gallery of the Louvre in my essay along with the other wonderful works of art.” I shared that The Yale Art Gallery for me in its exhibits showed a combination of the Wadsworth, New Britain Museum, Met and MoMA with a little bit of the Whitney in one place right at home and I hoped to be back soon. He smiled, and said, “I do hope you come back soon.”

By Kim Zarra

Photo Links: http://www1.snapfish.com/snapfish/thumbnailshare/AlbumID=4193659015/a=141417625_141417625/otsc=SHR/otsi=SALBlink/COBRAND_NAME=snapfish/

References:
http://artgallery.yale.edu/ Yale Art Gallery