Museum Tour 2011: Museum 3: Minneapolis Institute of Arts Titian Exhibit

So, I have to start off by admitting, my goal is to go to one museum each month. And I'm two days late for March. Bad planning on my part. Oh well, I am counting my visit to the Minneapolis Institute of Arts, where I saw the special exhibit, "Titian and the Golden and Age of Venetian Painting" as my March museum stop. I also plan to visit a second museum later this month.

This month, my sister was my museum tour buddy. (Our wanting to go together and both having busy schedules is one of the reasons I missed my March deadline. I'm a little hung up on that, unnecessarily. Anyway...) We both loved the exhibit and would highly recommend it.

On the MIA's website, the exhibit is described as:

Catch this rare opportunity to see the cream of the Venetian paintings collection of the National Galleries of Scotland, here for the first time ever. Two ravishing pendants by Titian, Diana and Actaeon and Diana and Callisto, make this a must-see for painting lovers.

Acclaimed as the most poetic creations of the Italian Renaissance, these luminous sixteenth-century paintings are the two most significant works by Titian outside of Italy and Spain. Originally painted for King Philip II of Spain, they entered the Bridgewater/Sutherland collection at the end of the eighteenth century and have been on loan to the National Gallery since 1945.

The exhibition also includes Titian's famous Venus Rising From the Sea (formerly a Bridgewater picture) and masterpieces by Lorenzo Lotto, Jacopo Tintoretto, Jacopo Bassano, Paris Bordon, Giovanni Cariani, and Paolo Veronese. A companion exhibition, "Venice on Paper," will present a selection of stunning Venetian drawings by Venetian Renaissance masters.

While it is a small exhibit, I was overwhelmed as soon as I walked in the room. I learned a lot about Titian, and his Venetian roots. The exhibit of course featured several other Venetian

artists from the period, as well as some beautiful maps drawn of the city of Venice.

One thing I found really interesting was a map Titian drew of the city of Venice, which is considered to be history's first copyrighted work. (See below.)

I actually found a review of this exhibit from its tour at the High Museum in London online that gives a nice overview of what you'll find. The article describes Titian's work as a mix of humor, eroticism and mythology-- and its true, you'll find that in several of the paintings on display at the exhibit.

My favorite piece was a Madonna and child (below).

I did not pick this as my favorite because of the subject matter (I think we've all seen more than enough interpretations of the Madonna and child from Renaissance artists), but because of the bright, beautiful paint used. I love the way she is posed, too. The Madonna has slight gesture away from the saint who has a tear in his cloak (which shows a location of one of Christ's wounds). There is an unknown female saint in the background leaning near her, and two mysterious men in the background going about their work. This particular painting caught my attention more than any others I saw today. It was just beautiful and rich.

I'd really encourage anyone who appreciates art to see this exhibit. It goes through May 6, 2011 and is well worth the mere $8/ticket (non-member price).

Also, Art in Bloom starts later in April. While I don't plan to count a second visit to the MIA among my tour, I may come back the weekend of April 28-May 1 to see this exhibit. I went last year and it was beautiful and well worth the visit.

For those who aren't familiar, Art in Bloom features fresh floral arrangements placed throughout the museum that are meant to be an interpretation of the piece that they are arranged near. According to the MIA's website, more than 150 floral artists will be featured. It's a great event and a fun and interesting way to look at art and think spring! Again, highly recommended!

As a final note, I also checked into the MIA today on Four Square and earned a badge. I'm not an avid Four Square user so I'm up to a solid two badges. (Woot!) But thanks to the History Channel, I can now proudly say I have a "historian badge. " I guess this museum tour idea is worth something!

Twins Baseball!

Soon it will be baseball season. Friday, April 1 marks the official start of Major League Baseball. I'll loyally be cheering on the Twins again all season. I can't wait! My parents have tickets for the Twins home opener on April 8. I'm quite jealous, but am glad they are generous and will share many of their season tickets with me (as they always do).

Highlights of the start of the year include:

• Justin Morneau is back and hopefully will remain concussion free!
• Joe Nathan is back and again will be our closer. (Last season was a little rough.)
• I feel like we are still in the honeymoon stage with Target Field.
• I will again do my damnedest to get on the jumbotron, one of my goals in life.
• Kramzcuks's polish sausage and brats are a main food attraction
• Beautiful, sunny weather out at the ballpark!
• Outdoor baseball! Outdoor baseball! Outdoor baseball!
• Summer baseball road trip with Jillian in the works!

Baseball season! Best six months of the year!Happy baseball season!!!

Book Review: The Story of Edgar Sawtelle

Book: The Story of Edgar Sawtelle

Author: David Wroblewski

My rating: 3 out of 5 stars

Brief synopsis:

I picked this book up off the bargain rack at Borders. It had great reviews on the back (but then again don't all books?) I was particularly compelled by Stephen King's review. He loved the book. I knew it had been a best-seller and while, not always a selling point for me, it had been in Oprah's Book Club. So, I gave it a try.

Here's a brief synopsis:

Born mute, speaking only in sign, Edgar Sawtelle leads an idyllic life with his parents on their farm in remote northern Wisconsin. For generations, the Sawtelles have raised and trained a fictional breed of dog whose thoughtful companionship is epitomized by Almondine, Edgar's lifelong friend and ally. But with the unexpected return of Claude, Edgar's paternal uncle, turmoil consumes the Sawtelles' once peaceful home. When Edgar's father dies suddenly, Claude insinuates himself into the life of the farm--and into Edgar's mother's affections.

Grief-stricken and bewildered, Edgar tries to prove Claude played a role in his father's death, but his plan backfires--spectacularly. Forced to flee into the vast wilderness lying beyond the farm, Edgar comes of age in the wild, fighting for his survival and that of the three yearling dogs who follow him. But his need to face his father's murderer and his devotion to the Sawtelle dogs turn Edgar ever homeward.

It was a good book, but too long for me, and in the end, too tragic and ambiguous. There was good and bad about this book for me. I will say the writing was rich and the story was intriguing, but I found it too be far too long in the middle. By reading the jacket (above), I expected the bulk of the tale to be the story of Edgar coming of age in the woods and the adventures he and the dogs would have. This didn't even happen until 300 pages into the book. It also told basically an overarching synopsis of basically the whole book, no real shock factor as to where the plot lines went. Although, I will say, the events of the end of the book were not what I expected at all.

What was done extraordinarily well in this book was capturing the relationship between Edgar and the dogs. Dog lovers will appreciate this relationship. That really was what kept me going in this book, especially when I felt like how am I going to ever finish this super long book and felt frustrated that the plot line was moving slowly for me. (It did pick up a lot once Edgar ran away.)

The book broke the story into five sections. I think it could have been four sections, with the second and third combined into one (or both significantly shorter) and more focus on the fourth section.

I will say, I was honestly quite disappointed in the end. It was just too ambiguous and melancholy for me, especially after having invested 566 pages into the book. While not every book can have a happy ending, I at least expect an ending that is not ambiguous. I found the ending to the case in this book and walked away feeling frustrated like the author had written for so, so long and had just deflated at the end.

So, would I recommend this book? Maybe. But only to those who are okay with writers who have a need to write long and prove they have a rich vocabulary. Wroblewski does. It's a good story, I liked the plot. But I did often find my mind wandering, and that was disappointing because I'd have to go back and re-read sections to remember where I was at in the book.

I guess, maybe listen to Stephen King, not me, if you want to read it. King says:

"I flat-out loved The Story of Edgar Sawtelle, and spent twelve happy evenings immersed in the world David Wroblewski has created. As I neared the end, I kept finding excuses to put the book aside for a little, not because I didn't like it, but because I liked it too much; I didn't want it to end. Dog-lovers in particular will find themselves riveted by this story, because the canine world has never been explored with such imagination and emotional resonance. Yet in the end, this isn't a novel about dogs or heartland America--although it is a deeply American work of literature. It's a novel about the human heart, and the mysteries that live there, understood but impossible to articulate. Yet in the person of Edgar Sawtelle, a mute boy who takes three of his dogs on a brave and dangerous odyssey, Wroblewski does articulate them, and splendidly. I closed the book with that regret readers feel only after experiencing the best stories: It's over, you think, and I won't read another one this good for a long, long time.

In truth, there's never been a book quite like The Story of Edgar Sawtelle. I thought of Hamlet when I was reading it, and Watership Down, and The Night of the Hunter, and The Life of Pi--but halfway through, I put all comparisons aside and let it just be itself.

I'm pretty sure this book is going to be a bestseller, but unlike some, it deserves to be. It's also going to be the subject of a great many reading groups, and when the members take up Edgar, I think they will be apt to stick to the book and forget the neighborhood gossip.

Wonderful, mysterious, long and satisfying: readers who pick up this novel are going to enter a richer world. I envy them the trip. I don't re-read many books, because life is too short. I will be re-reading this one."