June is here! Hard to believe, since I’ve spent just as much time in the last few weeks piling on layers of clothing and scarves as I normally due during the spring chill of March and April… but here’s hoping that summer makes an appearance soon. ’til then – I’ve got a few dream destinations to think about for my Dream Month June 2013.
Tel Aviv
Tel Aviv Museum of Art
Deganit Berest: The Conspiracy of Nature, Works, 1973–2013
until September 28th
One of the things I like the most about creating my Dream Month posts is that I end up discovering so many new artists in the process. A leader of the feminist movement in art, Israeli artist Deganit Berest’s body of work from the past four decades is being showcased at the Tel Aviv Museum of Art. Her images are varied – bold colours one moment, darker and subdued hues the next. This month, I’d love to spend a few hours getting lost in Berest’s work.
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Washington D.C.
National Portrait Gallery
Outwin Boochever Portrait Competition Finalists, 2013
Until February 23, 2014
Although I’m drawn to many different genres of art, there’s one common thread in my favourite pieces – they’re portraits, rather than landscapes. Yes, there’s something lovely about a Turner landscape, but I’d take a Cezanne portrait over a Cezanne landscape any day of the week. The talent of the finalists in the Outwin Boochever Portrait Competition is astounding – the range of media used, and the variety of emotions evoked surpasses what I’ve seen elsewhere. This month, I dream of travelling to D.C. to meet these characters in the flesh – so to speak.
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Chicago
The Art Institute
Artist and the Poet
until June 2nd
Oh! I’m cutting it close on this one! The Artist and the Poet exhibit at the Art Institute speaks to both my love of art and of literature. That artists draw inspiration from the written word, and writers in turn find muses in the visual arts makes for a compelling interplay between the mediums. Lesley Dill’s work above, ‘A Word Made Flesh…Throat’ features the photography of Dill and the words of Emily Dickinson – and it gives me chills. If you’re in Chicago, please run and check out this exhibition and report back.
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Kansas City, MO
The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art
The Feminine Mystique: Portraits of and by Women
until August 11th
As I’ve finished pulling together my Dream Month for June…a theme has emerged. Portraiture. And in the pursuit of exploring that theme, my Dream Month brings me to Kansas City, Missouri, where the Nelson-Atkins Museum has curated a tribute to Betty Friedan’s work, The Feminine Mystique. I read the book in my early 20s…and am curious to see what I’d think of it a decade later. If my trip to Kansas City became a reality, that’s the book I’d bring along.
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Where does your Dream Month June 2013 take you? Interested in tagging along to any of these exhibits?
Filed under: Dream Month Tagged: art, Chicago, Creative, Dagenit Berest, Kansas City, Kathe Kollwitz, Kumi Yamashita, Lesley Dill, Outwin Boochever, Tel Aviv, Washington D.C.
