Last Friday, Shannon and I had a date night, and I took her to the Frist Center in downtown Nashville. Frist Center is the major art museum in Nashville. I think I went to an art museum once in high school, but I barely recall it.
We toured two exhibits: Tiffany leaded glass lamps and the Color Field exhibits. I appreciated the Tiffany lamps, but I was very impressed by the Color Field works. The Color Field artists came around in the 50s and 60s and involved artists whose vision used power color displays on large canvas to exploit the various emotions we have from color. Seeing it up close you really are moved.
My favorite of the artists was Morris Louis. You can see some of his paintings here, but you can't really appreciate the brilliance of it from a small image file like this. He works were on huge 20x20 foot canvas, and the colors were so vivid and striking.
You can see the traces of their work in modern design shows where the designers routinely use small paintings, some they do themselves, of contrasting colors. But back in the 50s, this was ground breaking work.
Shannon and I both really enjoyed it, more than I thought we would. We got year memberships so we will go back again when some new exhibits come in.
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