Return to Crystal Bridges

Hiram Powers, Proserpine, c. 1840, marble.

Tim Liddy, The Horror, 2014, enamel and oil on copper. On loan for State of the Art: Discovering American Art Now.

Leo Villareal, Buckyball, 2012, aluminum tubing clad with LED lights atop aluminum plinth. Loaned courtesy of the Madison Square Park Conservancy, Gering and Lopez Gallery, and Leo Villareal

Jeila Gueramian, IT'S YOU (detail), 2014; crocheted quilting, batting, and LED lights. On loan for State of the Art: Discovering American Art Now.

Henry Kirke Brown, The Choosing of the Arrow, 1849, bronze.

Jamie Adams, niagaradown from the series Niagara, 2013, oil on linen. On loan for State of the Art: Discovering American Art Now.

Randolf Rogers, Atala and Chactas, 1864, marble.

Adam Belt, Through the Looking Glass (James Webb Telescope Mirror), 2011; two-way mirror, mirror, wood, and LED lights. On loan for State of the Art: Discovering American Art Now.

Hiromi Mizugai Moneyhun; Moths 1, 5, and 7; 2013; hand-cut paper. On loan for State of the Art: Discovering American Art Now.

Gabriel Dawe, Plexus No. 27, 2014; thread, wood, and hooks. On loan for State of the Art: Discovering American Art Now.

Miki Baird, swatch...the weft and warp of red walker, 2010–12, 1/2" x 1/4" archival pigment prints. On loan for State of the Art: Discovering American Art Now.

Crystal Bridges Museum cafeteria with Jeff Koons, Hanging Heart (Gold/Magenta), 1994–2006, high chromium stainless steel with transparent color coating and yellow brass.

Jenny Holzer, Venice Installation: Gallery D (Second Antechamber) (detail), 1990, Italian marble tiles. 

Elie Nadelman, Woman's Head, before 1915, bronze. Alfred Stieglitz Collection.

Arthur Garfield Dove, Red Tree and Sun, 1929, oil on canvas. Alfred Stieglitz Collection.

Hamilton Poe, Stack, 2013; box fans, sombreros, and weighted plastic eggs. On loan for State of the Art: Discovering American Art Now.

Peter Glenn Oakley, Stack (2011) and Cassette Stack (2014), marble. Collections of North Carolina Museum of Art and Allen Thomas, Jr., on loan for State of the Art: Discovering American Art Now.

Museum exterior.

Richard Estes, Reflections of the Woolworth Building, 2006, oil on board.

John James Audubon, Osprey and Weakfish, 1829, oil on canvas on hardboard. Collection of the National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., on loan for John James Audubon and the Artist as Naturalist.

Laurel Roth Hope, Biodiversity Suits for Urban Pigeons: Dodo II (foreground) and Biodiversity Suits for Urban Pigeons: Passenger Pigeon II (background); yarn, polyurethane, pewter, glass, epoxy, and walnut. On loan for State of the Art: Discovering American Art Now.

Museum exterior. 

Norman Rockwell, Rosie the Riveter, 1943, oil on canvas.

Emma Marie Cadwalader-Guild, Free, c. 1876, basswood.

Dan Webb, Destroyer, 2012, carved fir. Private collection, on loan for State of the Art: Discovering American Art Now.

Jonathan Schipper, Slow Room, 2014; household objects and furniture, cables, pulley, and electric motor. On loan for State of the Art: Discovering American Art Now.

Charles Bird King, Wai-Kee-Chai, Crouching Eagle, c. 1824, oil on panel.

Jeila Gueramian, IT'S YOU (detail), 2014; crocheted quilting, batting, and LED lights. On loan for State of the Art: Discovering American Art Now.

Michael Menchaca, Index of Figural Archetypes and Recurring Pattern Ornamentation, 2013, digital prints. On loan for State of the Art: Discovering American Art Now.

Zoë Charlton, Dreamers and Builders from the series Festoon, 2012, collage and gouache on paper. On loan for State of the Art: Discovering American Art Now.

Museum exterior, with view of café.

All photos by Renée DeVoe Mertz. November 27–28, 2014.

Pink Elephant on Highway 55

Photos by Renée DeVoe Mertz, November 30, 2014.

Leo Villareal’s "Buckyball"

Leo Villareal, Buckyball, 2012

Aluminum tubing clad with LED lights atop aluminum plinth

30 ft. x 144 in. x 144 in. (914.4 x 365.8 x 365.8 cm)

Installed at Crystal Bridges Museum, Bentonville, AR 

Loaned courtesy of the Madison Square Park Conservancy, Gering & Lopez Gallery, and Leo Villareal 

All photos by Renée DeVoe Mertz, November 28, 2014.

St. Michan's Church, Dublin, Dublin County, Republic of Ireland

Our guide at a crypt entrance, St. Michan's Church.

Surrounded by apartments and industrial buildings north of the Liffey, the modest exterior of St. Michan's Parish Church belies the historical interest and ghoulish appeal of its more hidden features.

Standing on the site of a late 11th-century Hiberno-Viking church, the current structure mostly dates to 1685. Without the ornate stonework found in cathedrals like St. Patrick's and Christ Church, the interior decoration is almost exclusively determined by the floral patterns in the plaster ceiling and stained glass windows. This relative austerity serves to highlight, through contrast, the baroque 18th-century organ that dominates one end of the nave. According to the church's oral history, this is the instrument on which Handel first played his Messiah. 

Charming as the nave may be, most travelers visit St. Michan's for the contents of its vaults. Sealed behind heavy iron doors, past precarious, narrow stone steps, lie the mummified remains of some of Dublin's most privileged and notorious citizens. Spilling out of their wooden coffins, St. Michan's long-term residents have been drawing in visitors since the Victorian era, including Dracula author Bram Stoker. Consistent with Church policy, most of the subterranean occupants are off-limits to public view, and three of the five vaults are closed completely. However, limited public access is permissible—under the supervision of the caretaker—in cases where the caskets have decayed and broken naturally, and where the bodies are either unidentified or no longer have family to care for them. 

The most exposed and accessible mummies all lie in the same room and have been dubbed the Unknown Woman, the Nun, the Thief, and the Crusader. Of these, probably only the "Unknown Woman" is accurately named. The "Crusader"—whose remains post-date the Crusades by several hundred years—was over six-and-a-half feet tall and therefore exceptionally large for his time. Too big for his coffin, his legs have been broken and folded over to get him to fit. Visitors were once encouraged to shake his hand for luck, and are still invited to gently touch his extended finger, now smoothly polished from over a hundred years of strangers' light caresses. 

Mummies in St. Michan's crypt. The Crusader lies in the coffin against the wall behind the Nun, Thief, and Unknown Woman.
Image courtesy St. Michan's Church: http://www.stmichans.com/index.php/the-crypts/about.

Photos by Renée DeVoe Mertz, May 30, 2013, unless otherwise indicated. 

Saint Patrick's Cathedral, Dublin, Dublin County, Republic of Ireland

One of Saint Patrick Cathedral's many stony inhabitants.

Now the largest church in Ireland, Saint Patrick's Cathedral began as a small wooden chapel beside the well where, according to tradition, its namesake baptized early converts to Christianity in the 5th century. The first stone structure on the site was erected in the late 12th century, and much of the current church dates to work done between 1220 and 1270. The building has undergone several waves of reconstruction and restoration since then, but the most extensive modern-era renovations occurred in the 1860s with funding provided by Sir Benjamin Guinness (1798–1868) of the Guinness brewing dynasty. Neo-Gothic flying buttresses on the exterior date from this time. Today, the church is the National Cathedral of the Church of Ireland. 

Several impressive tomb monuments commemorate notable Dubliners, including Jonathan Swift, buried within the cathedral. Of particular note is the 17th century Boyle family tomb, which possesses an enormous, elaborate, and colorful facade that dominates the west end of the church. 

In addition to the funereal monuments, the church's interior is punctuated throughout by more purely decorative stonework. Compared to the carvings of the nearby Christ Church, Saint Patrick's sculptural details feel heavier and less fully integrated into an overall decorative design. But what the cathedral's scheme lacks in unity it makes up for in personality. The animal and (mostly male) human heads adorning the interior tend to be roughly life-size, deeply carved, and highly individualized, often with surprisingly expressive facial hair. Comic realism is juxtaposed with archaic abstraction, and the overall effect is one of a community of individuals in which each member demands its own scrutiny and appreciation. 

All photos by Renée DeVoe Mertz, May 30, 2013.