Day 7: Philadelphia

Day 7: Philadelphia

QOTD:

Mike Schmidt:  Pete Rose is the most likable arrogant person I've ever met

Pete Rose:  Mike Schmidt is the best player in the National League today.

Weather: Overcast, with intermittent light rain in afternoon, temps in high 50s to low 60s

Pics: Palomar, The Barnes, Marketta in the Barnes, Snyderman Works, more Ani Kasten work, Hap Sakwa wooden bowl (similar in shape to one THB and DB own), view from Brian’s roof on a very clear Philly at dusk, Talula’s Garden and Jughead by Hank Adams

FitCtr and a waffle with plain yogurt, huckleberries and walnuts in Palomar Square 1682 restaurant.

The biggie: a return to the Barnes Collection, this time in its new downtown location. The Barnes has a long backstory which THB will relate here in short form: doc sells faux medicine and becomes a millionaire with a grudge, buys tons of great impressionist and post-impressionists paintings, creates “teaching” school and leaves will saying nothing can be touched or sold and gives to small black college in Philadelphia. Many years later, head of board, governor and mayor break the will and move the collection and now many more people can see the work and the college got a lot of state aid. Watch the Art of the Steal for more details.

If you like Matisse, Renoir, Soutine or to a lesser extent Picasso and few other of the big names and a number of the not-so-big names, all crammed together with African tribal figures, hinges, Native American rugs and pottery, and some odds and ends of furniture, this is your place.  Since THB is a huge Matisse fan, this is a real treasure. Our guide does a very good job of explaining the logic behind some of the grouping of pictures (for the teaching purposes of Doc Barnes), Highly Recommended, and buy your tix way in advance.

A lousy lunch at the Water Works Restaurant (a lot of the Philly trip is out of the hands of the leaders/planners because a local organization arranges access; the local guide provided, Marketta, is terrific).

After lunch, a visit to the Old City part of Philly which contains lots of galleries and a visit to a local collector, Brian Harding, who has the most amazing two-story loft (yes, THB has loft-envy), complete with steel panels on top of huge pull-out drawers, lots of steel and brick, and great views of the city from his roof deck. Oh, and he also collects Ani Kasten and other quiet “potters” and fabric guy named Collingwood (British, like Brian).

This is followed by another collector visit, to Jill and Sheldon Bonvitz’ house, whose primary focus is outsider (untrained) artists. THB had seen a big chunk of the collection (and the old Barnes) with OMCA group in 2009 at Sheldon’s law firm. Fascinating to see it in their home, mixed in with a few of Jill’s own work and a couple of other “trained” artists.

Dinner with E&J (of Japan fame) and Hank Adams (a glass artist and long-time friend of E&J’s as well as one of the artists in THB and DB’s collection) at Talula’s Garden. Share a cheese plate (they have quite a few different compositions to choose from), THB has cucumber and radish salad (big portion) and boneless pork chop with kuri squash and crispy confit of spare rib (yes, sort of a dried and crunchy piece of bacon without any fat…great!), shared dessert of PB&J donuts (very good and very rich), beer, drinks, zinfandel, $80pp (and the four of us pick up Hank’s portion).

Day 6: Pittsburgh to Philadelphia

Day 6:  Pittsburgh to Philadelphia

QOTD: The wheels on the bus really go round and round and round

Weather: Balmy! 60s

Pics: Gluten free toaster, on the way to Bob P’s collection, Ani Kasten and piece we bought elsewhere

Note: OMCA no longer allows pictures to be taken at private collectors’ houses (unfortunately, the privilege was abused, so even if the collector allows picture taking, it is better to just have a total ban)

The usual start: FitCtr and toast (not in the gluten free toaster, people were watching) and yogurt and fruit. And, we’re off to Philadelphia with a stop in Lancaster to see Bob Pfannebecker’s (mostly craft) collection. And it is wall-to-wall, floor to ceiling, in four different buildings on his 40 acres in the midst of PA farmland (and Amish horse and buggies).

Bob knew the pedigree of every artist in his collection (100s…a 1,000?): school, who was in school at the same time, where he/she went after school, where they are now, who they know now. Very impressive, and mostly (so it seemed to THB) early work by many of the artists that was not always iconic. Most of the tour thought: OVERLOAD! OBSESSION! THB thought it was fun to see so much craft and find the gems.

Back on the bus to arrive at the Hotel Palomar in downtown Philly (THB and DB have often stayed in the HP in Westwood, part of the Kimpton chain. Unpack, freshen up, and off to the opening night of the 37^th annual Philadelphia Museum of Art Craft show (this was definitely a craft day).

Buffet dinner and visits to many a booth. Introduce ourselves to a young artist, Ani Kasten, because we bought several pieces of hers when chasing down Masamichi Yoshikawa’s work in, of all places, Concord MA. Ani is very exuberant, and makes great ceramic pieces. We also met her mom, who was justifiably proud!

Back to hotel to start resting up for tomorrow’s big event: a tour of the new Barnes (if you haven’t seen it, watch the documentary on the Barnes move: The Art of the Steal, highly recommended).

Day 5: Pittsburgh

Day 5: Pittsburgh  

QOTD:  I'm afraid that if you look at a thing long enough, it loses all of its meaning. Andy Warhol. The good news for holders of Warhol work, the longer you own it, the more valuable it becomes regardless of how long you’ve looked at it..

Weather: Cool to downright pleasant, early evening in the high 50s

Pics: Carnegie International, lunch, Thad Mosely, Warhol museum and bridge

Dept of Clarification: Yesterday, the price for the Duquesne Incline ride was $5 for a round trip, free for seniors. There were only two members of the tour that were not yet seniors (hint: their initials are THB and DB, DB the youngest by over 3 months).

A late start today, plenty of time for the FitCtr and a leisurely breakfast (same as it ever was: toast, yogurt and fruit). As it turns out, unfortunately, the start is even later when two of the group are 10-15 minutes late due to a misunderstanding of the departure time (which is printed right on our handy-dandy itinerary, initials are NOT THB and DB).

A bit of a tragedy, because it cuts into our time at the Carnegie International, new art by 35 artists blended in and among the art and architecture of the Carnegie Museum and one terrific show (if you live near Pittsburgh, make this your first stop). We’re led by one of the three curators responsible for selecting the artists, and he’s terrific as well, and he projects well (aside: THB would like to see headsets used more often on these tours, it helps when the group can spread out and listen while watching something such as on Mt Washington with Tracey or in a museum; it also adds more expense to the trips and more work for the leaders!).

At noon, we board the bus for a ride back downtown to the Habitat restaurant in the Fairmont Hotel.  Lunch is excellent: tuna burger (a “real” burger, not a slab of tuna) with sweet potato fries, arnold palmer, mini-crème brulee.

Then a studio visit with Thad Mosely who appears to have locked up the “quirky artist of the trip” award: 87, long retired postal worker, self-taught, full of quips, lively sense of humor, demo’d his style of carving (he sculpts objects out of huge logs of walnut) and made no attempt to sell anything in his crowded studio. A great post-lunch pick-me-up spot. No headsets required here!

From Thad to Andy (Warhol) made for some compare and contrast moments. The first part of the visit to the Warhol museum is a tour led by the Deputy Director, and THB and DB pick up info that we didn’t glean from our prior visit (on our own) several years ago. Andy is a magician: a great forward-thinking artist who pretty much turned any painting or object into $$$$. And, turned out some of the dullest video ever (and yet, somehow can be mesmerizing in short bursts), and sparked a revolution in the art world as well as influencing the music world (feeding Patti Smith, promoting Lou Reed and Velvet Underground). All this from a good Catholic boy that went to Mass every day and put his mother to work on his art projects.

Transfer through the early evening gloom to a collectors’ house in the burbs for an hour of roaming their McMansion looking at a very eclectic collection. A few pieces intrigue THB, most do not. And, it’s great to see what people assemble. THB’s fave quote: our friends have no idea what we’re doing (a common sentiment among art collectors).

Finally, back to the hotel on schedule, just enough time for THB to freshen up and we join three others for a dinner at Lidia’s. THB has been (very successfully) cooking from one of Lidia’s many cookbooks this year; clearly, they have not been using the same recipes at the restaurant! Plus, the service is awful: mixing up the orders for each person at every course, food delivered that wasn’t ordered, big portions (well, that is the same as the cookbook, actually). Something makes THB think that the local trend towards large portions and lack of finesse has moved the restaurant away from Lidia’s original intentions.