Category: united states

Impressions from the House on the Rock

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Whether you’re into automata; infinity rooms; female grotesques; pan-Asian decorative arts; antique guns; circuses; scrimshaw; sea monsters; stained glass; heavily carpeted surfaces; discordant music; winged, semi-nude mannequins; pseudo-Victorian street scenes; or carousels of dolls riding bug-eyed ponies, the House on the Rock has something for you. Dark, convoluted, and often flat-out creepy, the three-part complex located in the forests of southwestern Wisconsin is a call to imagination, a celebration of fakery, and a product of the extreme “eccentricity” of its designer, Alex Jordan, Jr. (1914–1989). Making one’s way past the indiscriminate jumbles of stuff that fill the multitude of tiny nooks and massive, elaborately constructed vignettes can feel like a journey through the mind of a mad man, but one that is as fascinating and surprising as it is exhausting and disturbing.

Jordan opened the original house in 1959 and built the more carnivalesque second and third sections over the next three decades before selling the complex in the late 1980s. The newer owners have continued to expand on the original site, adding an aviation exhibit and, in 2008, opening a welcome center and museum dedicated to Jordan’s life.

I owe particular thanks to Joshua Albers for this post, whose camera and low-light photography skills did laps around mine. Whenever possible, I’ve used his photos from our visit and supplemented the group with my own. All videos are his.

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Bonus Videos:

International Museum of Surgical Science, Chicago, IL

Discreetly located north of downtown in an elegant lakeside townhouse, the International Museum of Surgical Science is one of Chicago’s more hidden attractions. Although the Gold Coast mansion itself may be enough to draw the casual attention of commuters and tourists making their way along Lake Shore Drive, no large signs or neighborhood flags will alert passersby to the structure’s varied (and variably disturbing) contents. Yet, for those with an interest in medical history, Chicago architecture, museology, or the drily macabre, the museum is worth seeking out.

As befitting its subject matter, the exhibits tend to be object-based, low-tech, and straightforwardly displayed in ways that make clever use of the pre-existing historic space, often utilizing art for both illustrative and dramatic purposes. It’s a fun—or at least fun-ish—destination for a half-day visit, even if the entrance fee ($15 at the time of writing, no AAM membership accepted) felt a little steep.

Current admissions information can be found here.

All photos by Renée DeVoe Mertz, June 25, 2015.

Return to Crystal Bridges

Hiram Powers, Proserpine, c. 1840, marble.
Tim Liddy, The Horror, 2014, enamel and oil on copper. On loan for State of the Art: Discovering American Art Now.
Leo Villareal, Buckyball, 2012, aluminum tubing clad with LED lights atop aluminum plinth. Loaned courtesy of the Madison Square Park Conservancy, Gering and Lopez Gallery, and Leo Villareal.
Jeila Gueramian, IT’S YOU (detail), 2014; crocheted quilting, batting, and LED lights. On loan for State of the Art: Discovering American Art Now.
Henry Kirke Brown, The Choosing of the Arrow, 1849, bronze.
Jamie Adams, niagaradown from the series, Niagara, 2013, oil on linen. On loan for State of the Art: Discovering American Art Now.
Randolf Rogers, Atala and Chactas, 1864, marble.
Adam Belt, Through the Looking Glass (James Webb Telescope Mirror), 2011; two-way mirror, mirror, wood, and LED lights. On loan for State of the Art: Discovering American Art Now.
Hiromi Mizugai Moneyhun; Moths 1, 5, and 7; 2013; hand-cut paper. On loan for State of the Art: Discovering American Art Now.
Gabriel Dawe, Plexus No. 27, 2014; thread, wood, and hooks. On loan for State of the Art: Discovering American Art Now.
Miki Baird, swatch…the weft and warp of red walker, 2010–12, 1/2″ x 1/4″ archival pigment prints. On loan for State of the Art: Discovering American Art Now.
Crystal Bridges Museum cafeteria with Jeff Koons, Hanging Heart (Gold/Magenta), 1994–2006, high chromium stainless steel with transparent color coating and yellow brass.
Jenny Holzer, Venice Installation: Gallery D (Second Antechamber) (detail), 1990, Italian marble tiles.
Elie Nadelman, Woman’s Head, before 1915, bronze. Alfred Stieglitz Collection.
Arthur Garfield Dove, Red Tree and Sun, 1929, oil on canvas. Alfred Stieglitz Collection.
Hamilton Poe, Stack, 2013; box fans, sombreros, and weighted plastic eggs. On loan for State of the Art: Discovering American Art Now.
Peter Glenn Oakley, Stack (2011) and Cassette Stack (2014), marble. Collections of North Carolina Museum of Art and Allen Thomas, Jr., on loan for State of the Art: Discovering American Art Now.
Museum exterior
Richard Estes, Reflections of the Woolworth Building, 2006, oil on board.
John James Audubon, Osprey and Weakfish, 1829, oil on canvas on hardboard. Collection of the National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., on loan for John James Audubon and the Artist as Naturalist.
Laurel Roth Hope, Biodiversity Suits for Urban Pigeons: Dodo II (foreground) and Biodiversity Suits for Urban Pigeons: Passenger Pigeon II (background); yarn, polyurethane, pewter, glass, epoxy, and walnut. On loan for State of the Art: Discovering American Art Now.
Museum exterior.
Norman Rockwell, Rosie the Riveter, 1943, oil on canvas.
Emma Marie Cadwalader-Guild, Free, c. 1876, basswood.
Dan Webb, Destroyer, 2012, carved fir. Private collection, on loan for State of the Art: Discovering American Art Now.
Jonathan Schipper, Slow Room, 2014; household objects and furniture, cables, pulley, and electric motor. On loan for State of the Art: Discovering American Art Now.
Charles Bird King, Wai-Kee-Chai, Crouching Eagle, c. 1824, oil on panel.
Jeila Gueramian, IT’S YOU (detail), 2014; crocheted quilting, batting, and LED lights. On loan for State of the Art: Discovering American Art Now.
Michael Menchaca, Index of Figural Archetypes and Recurring Pattern Ornamentation, 2013, digital prints. On loan for State of the Art: Discovering American Art Now.
Zoë Charlton, Dreamers and Builders from the series Festoon, 2012, collage and gouache on paper. On loan for State of the Art: Discovering American Art Now.
Museum exterior, with view of café.
All photos by Renée DeVoe Mertz. November 27–28, 2014.

Swoon: Submerged Motherlands at the Brooklyn Museum of Art

Fusing the aesthetics of an art-school education with the environmental immediacy of street art, Swoon has come to fame in the last few years for her large, intricate, wheat-pasted prints, urban interventions, and community-based projects. Submerged Motherlands brings her practice indoors in order to create a new, immersive environment within the Brooklyn Museum’s 5th floor rotunda gallery. Look up, look down, stand back, plunge in—the installation encourages a thorough investigation of its many nooks and crannies, and rewards the viewer at every angle.

Swoon: Submerged Motherlands will be on view until August 24, 2014. For more information, visit the Brooklyn Museum’s website.

All photos by Renée DeVoe Mertz, May 4, 2014.

New York, May 2014

Zoe Leonard (b. 1961). 945 Madison Avenue, 2014. Lens and darkened room (camera obscura). Whitney Biennial; Curator: Anthony Elms.
Kiki Smith (b. 1954). Lilith, 1994, United States. Bronze with glass eyes. Metropolitan Museum of Art.
Jean de Liège (d. 1381). Tomb Effigy Bust of Marie of France, c. 1381, from the Chapel of Notre-Dame-la-Blanche, Royal Abbey of Saint-Denis, Ile-de-France, France. Marble with lead inlays. Metropolitan Museum of Art.
Miljohn Ruperto (b. 1971); animated by Aimee de Jongh (b. 1988). Janus, 2014. Digital video, color, sound. 3:30 min. Whitney Biennial; Curator: Stuart Comer.
Dan Graham (b. 1942) with Günther Vogt (b. 1957). Roof Garden Commission, 2014, United States. Ivy, steel, mirrored glass. Metropolitan Museum of Art.
Ai Weiwei (b. 1957). Moon Chest, 2008. 7 chests in huali wood. Brooklyn Museum of Art.
Alma Allen (b. 1970). Three Untitled sculptures, 2013. Marble on walnut and walnut on aluminum. Whitney Biennial; Curator: Michelle Grabner.
Ai Weiwei (b. 1957). Coca-Cola Vase, 2007. Neolithic vase (5000–3000 BCE) and paint. Brooklyn Museum of Art.
Circle of Conrad Meit of Worms (1480s–1550/51). Lucretia, 1500–15, Flanders. Boxwood. Metropolitan Museum of Art.
View across the roof of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, May 2, 2014.
Ai Weiwei (b. 1957). He Xie, 2010. 3,200 porcelain crabs. Brooklyn Museum of Art.
Jean-Joseph Carriès (1855–94). Le Grenouillard, c. 1891, France. Stoneware. Metropolitan Museum of Art.
Riccio (Andrea Briosco, 1470–1532). Striding Satyr with Vase Inkwell and Shell Lamp, ca. 1507, Padua. Bronze. (Metropolitan Museum of Art)
Swoon (Caledonia Dance Curry, b. 1978). Swoon: Submerged Motherlands, 2014. Mixed media installation with the boats, Alice and Maria, from a former 2008 performance. Brooklyn Museum of Art.
Lucas Samaras (b. 1936). Untitled, A, 1966, United States. Graphite and incised lines on paper. Metropolitan Museum of Art.
Charlemagne Palestine (b. 1945). hauntteddd!! nhuntteddd!! n daunttlesss!! n shuntteddd!!, 2013. Stairwell installation with toys, speakers, sound. Whitney Biennial; Curator: Anthony Elms.
Bjarne Melgaard (b. 1967). 2014 installation with mixed media and video. Whitney Biennial; Curator: Stuart Comer.
Pierre-Adrien Dalpayrat (1844–1910) and Alphonse Voisin-Delacroix (1857–1893). Vase with Face, 1892–93, France. Stoneware. Metropolitan Museum of Art.
Ai Weiwei (b. 1957). Ruyi, 2012. Porcelain. Brooklyn Museum of Art.
Swoon (Caledonia Dance Curry, b. 1978). Swoon: Submerged Motherlands, 2014. Mixed media installation with the boats, Alice and Maria, from a former 2008 performance. Brooklyn Museum of Art.
Ai Weiwei (b. 1957). Brooklyn Museum of Art.
Swoon (Caledonia Dance Curry, b. 1978). Swoon: Submerged Motherlands, 2014. Mixed media installation with the boats, Alice and Maria, from a former 2008 performance. Brooklyn Museum of Art.
Ai Weiwei (b. 1957). Bowls of Pearls, 2006. Porcelain bowls and freshwater pearls. Brooklyn Museum of Art.
Saint Elzéar, c. 1370–73, from the Franciscan church, Apt, Provence, France. Alabaster. Metropolitan Museum of Art.

All photos by Renée DeVoe Mertz, May 2–4, 2014.