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On a recent trip to visit friends in Cape Cod, I decided to stop and visit the Rhode Island School of Design Museum, which is a stone's throw from I-95 in Providence. The last time I visited the museum was when I was a student close to sixty years ago. I remembered it as being good, but I was blown away on seeing it again. Talk about a nice little oasis to relieve the stress of I-95, I'm not sure that I can tell you everything that I saw without sounding like a semi-informative guidebook. The museum needs more time than I gave it, which was about an hour and a half. I read recently that most people give the average artwork an extraordinarily short amount of time--I believe it was 10-15 seconds, but I may be wrong. (I can't find where I saw that information.) The fact is, that was me on this rather quick trip through the various floors of the R.I.S.D. Museum, I am sad to say.
However, I want to mention a few of the highlights that I saw which, I have to admit, reflect my art education and preferences. There is a wonderful Henri Matisse of a green pumpkin which should be an inspiration to anyone who wants to paint still lifes. The painting feels in the moment, one criteria that I use in choosing to like a painting. There is also a late Cezanne, an unfinished work where it appears that he is struggling just a bit--something I like seeing as it shows that all artists have moments of indecision. This is my interpretation, of course, and I could be all wrong, but the painting engaged me and that is what matters. There are other good impressionists, some really lovely Monets that were definitely worth the price of admission, ($17 for seniors).
The Impressionists are a small part of the Museum. There were Greek vases, which I love to look at for their line drawings, an Egyptian ibis, Roman wall paintings, the largest carved wooden Buddha in America that is Japanese, Indian bronze sculptures and, lo and behold, a bunch of American period furniture rooms filled with a mishmash of things, some of it quite exceptional. There are also European paintings from the 17th and 18th centuries and a really lovely watery Winslow Homer, And unfortunately, as I was wandering rapidly, I really didn't have much of a chance to commune with anything. Among the first things that caught my eye was a self portrait and drawings by Esther Pressoir, an artist I didn't know, who is a RISD graduate from the 1920's. She is interesting, not necessarily as interesting as the other parts of the museum, but someone who I will keep an eye out for. This is the fun, of course, of going to a good small museum which RISD most certainly is--I can assure you that you won't be disappointed.
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