Conversations About Art

Summer                                    Waning Grandchildren Moon

The kids from Washington Technical College did not find this tour very interesting.  Not sure why, didn’t connect with them.  A few, yes, but there were wanderers, heading off to other objects.  The age range was wide, from 15 to 7 or 8.  That was part of it.  They perked up at the Han horse, the jade mountain (which I hadn’t planned to show them) and the Zhou and Shang bronze swords, spears.  Finally, I went with the kid who said he wanted to see samurai stuff and ended the tour in Japan.  Not a bad tour, not a great one.  Although, one of the women, whom I recognized from last year, said, “You gave us a great tour last year!”  Nice.

Wandered over to the new MCAD show and spent fifteen minutes or so talking with Aldo Moroni.  He’s an interesting, affable guy.  We have a shared interest in history and especially the classics.  The work under way at MCAD is set in fantasy mountains high above the earth, modeled after Chinese landscape paintings in the MIA collection.  I told him I’d just a tour of Chinese art so we talked a bit about Taoism.