A Day in the Chrysler

By the title you may think we were outside enjoying Saturday's 60 degree weather in a car, but we were in fact inside the Chrysler Museum of Art . We are fortunate to have an art museum in Norfolk that is on par with with cities that far exceed our size. The original museum was very "old school" and had a little of this and a little of that, but in 1971 Walter P. Chrysler, Jr. left the bulk of his art collection to the museum. He was an heir to the Chrysler automotive fortune his father had built and Junior's wife happened to be a Norfolk native. My how the mighty trust funds have fallen. The Chrysler is known for many things, but perhaps they are most famous for their glass collection. A good portion of it is not my cup of tea, but there are a few things I really enjoy like the Tiffany lamp collection (it was too dark to take pictures) and the contemporary glass.

Click to enlarge the picture of Chess Set by Gianni Toso. The white side is made of up Catholic figures and the black side are orthodox Jewish figures. Wouldn't it be fun if Toso also had a radical Muslim, extremist Hindu or an ultra fundamentalist evangelical set. They could play each other at chess instead of killing each other for real. Another part of the glass collection is this ghostly glass dress (Dress VIII, Karen LaMonte) which is the perfect size for a small girl. Although they have art from all eras, I tend to gravitate towards the more contemporary art (Bedroom Painting #2315, Tom Wesselmann). Music, Philip Evergood
This is my son's favorite piece. You can never go wrong with a robot made out of TVs (Hamlet Robot, Nam June Paiks).
I am very fond of Edward Hopper, and this is his New York Pavements.
This is one of my favorite paintings in the museum, The Neophyte by Gustav Dore. He has that 'what have I gotten myself into" look on his face.
I am also drawn to this (Une Japonaise, Jules Joseph Lefevre).
The following two pieces face each other across the hall, (Orestes Pursued by the Furies, Adolphe William Bouguereau)...
... and this, a collage made from pictures of junk and scrap, both are nearly floor to ceiling.
Pre-Columbian happy couple...
... and more recently (Portrait of Marcelle and Pierre Monnin, Alfred Leslie).
This is the symbol of the city's authority, the Norfolk Mace. It was created in London and presented to the city in 1753 just as Norfolk was becoming a municipality. During the Revolution it was buried in a Kempsville yard to keep it from the British. Decades later, a Confederate Colonel concealed it behind the stairs in his home which was occupied by Union troops, but the mace was not discovered. It is the only American mace that still belongs to the city for which it was created.
You know I could not leave without a few shots of the museum garden. There were a couple of magnificent Live Oaks and a nice European style courtyard. I will visit again during Dogwood or Hydrangea season.