Tuesday, Joy and I visited the Grand Rapids Art Museum. Grand Rapids art scene is best known for a statue by Alexander Calder, a famous artist. Calder sculptures are mostly geometric swirls in bright colors. It is a huge orange structure which looks like a cross between a steel bridge and a traffic accident. In honor of the Calder's fortieth anniversary there was an exhibit of Calder's work. In addition there was also an abstract artist named Ellis, who was being feted.
As you walk into the art museum, one is greeted by a magnificent example of Ellis' work. The painting is, a ten foot representation of (get ready for this) a triangle! A purple triangle.
The note by the painting explained more deeply the subtlety of the painting. The artist, it said, sought to divide art from the restrictions of realism or emotion. (He succeeded) Furthermore, it explained that it was no mere triangle. One side was two inches shorter than the other two. Furthermore, while to the untrained eye it merely looked like a purple triangle, all the sides are a bowed a fraction of an inch. This is not apparent to the eye, but it makes it art.
Throughout the museum we saw other example of this stunning artists work. We saw purple circles, green ovals, red triangles, red triangles with yellow triangles, multiple many colored squares in a row, and (this was his masterpiece) an orange rectangle sitting cattycornered over a white triangle.
There were other masterpieces in the museum as well-- Picassos, Gaugins, Rembrandts, and Monets. But I will always remember the stunning beauty of a purple triangle on a white wall. It moved me to cry out in astonishment.
I paid eight bucks for this?
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