Crystal Bridges: Part 5 Exhibits

"The Open Road" was the featured exhibit. It's an interesting display of photographs & video collected from road trips since the 50s. It was interactive at certain points. For instance, you can tweet a photo from your own road trip & it will show up on the map & in the slide show. What a perfect exhibit for us - we love road trips!!

So let's take a walk with Pinocchio to see some of the other works of art...

Even the museum hallways are artistic. There's a whole gallery showing how it was designed and built, including a drone flyover video to give you an aerial view.

There are galleries of classic, fine paintings from colonial to early 19th century, late 19th century, early 20th century & modern. While I appreciate, and am amazed at paintings, I really love modern & mixed media art.

This is called "The Big Red Lens."

"Night Zag Wall" a assemblage of wood united by painting it all black.

This was a rectangle on the floor of hard candy. It glistened like diamonds & emeralds. People were welcome to take a piece!

This man stood there for so long, he became part of the art, I think.

This heart hangs over the cafe. See how it picks up the curve of the ceiling and reshapes it.

These next two, I'm posting for a young friend. She has a warped sense of humor & will get a kick out of it. You know who you are.... :)

This is a big silver painted blob on the floor called "Eat Meat." Here's how it's explained (quote from the website): Eat Meat, a blob-like aluminum mass, looks like frozen liquid or oozing lava. Notice how the layers stack up, creating an organic record of her process. The title, Eat Meat, corresponds to the idea of consumption.

Aaaannnd....what does this look like? Or do I just have a naughty imagination?

Look closer.

Do you see the alphabet?

The next one is called "Car Horn."  It's a statement on American consumerism. There were several pieces that were supposedly statements (criticisms) on consumerism.

I have to pause here and make a statement of my own. While I respect & appreciate that museum guards have a job to do, they always make me feel like I'm in study hall. I had my gi-normous lens on the camera (photography is allowed but no flash). It weighs 3 lbs and gets heavy, so I had it tucked against my hip with my arm wrapped around it. I got stopped 3 times by excited guards warning me "no drinks allowed!"  One of them was like it was her first bust. Booyah! I started taking a smug pleasure in showing them it was a camera lens :)

In fairness, there was one older gentleman who was friendly & loved sharing information. (not the one above though; she was surely a high school librarian in a previous life).

And that concludes our tour of Crystal Bridges. I really encourage you to visit it.

One last picture...

A trip to Bentonville, Arkansas would not be complete without a visit to the Mother Ship! We also did a quick tour of the place where it all began for WalMart.