I visited the Arkansas Art Gallery in Little Rock. Though I knew of its location as I have been to the MacArthur museum next door, it was the first time I had visited the gallery itself. Before I made the trip, I checked their website online to see if I might find a particular artist that I may want to see. According to their website I would find Picasso, Renoir, and Van Gogh amongst their artwork, which had me excited and more willing to go to this particular art gallery.
As I walked through their doors, it felt inviting with its spacious entrance. To my left was a set of doors, leading to the sketched portraits. Next to it, a set of doors, standing open, leading to their gift shop and diner. I continued to walk straight, stopping at the desk to pick up a few brochures, then continued walking all the way to the back, where I was greeted by two sets of doors. One set in front of me, which held one particular collection of artwork owned by someone who had loaned his pieces to the gallery. Then there was a set of doors to my right, leading to the main gallery. I took the doors to my right.
When I walked through a small room and into another something caught my eye. It was a sculpture done by Judy Onofrio. I found it beautiful, colorful, bright, different, and it also had my attention. I love mosaics. I found myself staring at it, looking it over closely for more than a half hour. A lady that worked there as one of the security personnel saw me staring at the piece came over to point out a few items she’s found in it herself. We talked about it for a few minutes, before I asked if I could snap a few pictures of it, so that I could look at it carefully at home. She told me I could, but there are other parts of the gallery where photography was not allowed and that I would find signs posted, warning me.
I had a notebook with me and decided to write down some of the things that I found in the sculpture, broken china teacups and saucers, marbles, broken mirror, bottle caps, sea shells, springs, safety pins, door latches and hooks, old perfume bottle tops, tourist momento from Mount Rushmore, keys, and a thermometer. Those were a few items that really caught my eye, but the list could go on and on. The sculpture was title “Things I’ve Found” and what a great title for it too. I’ve often wanted to do something like this, but for items that I’ve found on the beach; litter and things that has washed up on shore.
I decided to leave the sculpture and continue on into the gallery where I found myself joining a tour. I looked around me to see who all was listening in on the tour and felt slightly out of place. Even though I’m often picked on for looking younger than my thirty-five years of age, this time I felt it as I was surrounded by a group of senior citizens. I continued on with the tour, listening to the tour guide talk about the Mark Rothko exhibit. She was very informative in the artist life and his work. She would point out to certain paintings and talk about what it symbolized and its meaning. As we walked through the exhibit, I took a closer look at some of the paintings. Some of these were not done by Mark Rothko himself, but by someone else. Two paintings that I was staring at looked oddly familiar; they were drawn by Jackson Pollock. I smiled as I knew of Jackson Pollock, but these weren’t his famous drip paintings, these were a few of his earlier paintings.
Mark Rothko was similar to Jackson Pollock when it came to his work. Both of their styles of painting changed throughout the decades, it was very noticeable. Pollock’s work was actual paintings of figures, animals or people in his earlier work. Being from Wyoming he would paint western or Native American themes. He then changed his style to his more famous drip painting; he would drip and smear paint onto the canvas. Rothko started out painting figures, though they were mostly paintings of mythological creatures. He later transformed his work into mere paint smudges on canvas, where colors often merged together from dry brushing or adding globs of paint here and there, then later scraping it off. His final work was broad lines of color, layered onto the canvas. Both artist lives ending tragically, but their work continues to draw attention.
I am hoping to make another trip back to the Arkansas Art Center. I did enjoy my time there, though I was interested in seeing a Picasso and a Van Gogh in person. Neither paintings were up, but I was told that as soon as the Rothko exhibit was taken down, there would be a possibility that Picasso and Van Gogh would be placed back into the gallery for all to see again.
Found In Arkansas 