Indianapolis Museum of Art Blog

An on-going discussion during IMA Blog team meetings is how to sort or categorize content for our readers without stripping you of the right to stumble on to something unexpected.  The end result of that discussion is always the same…someone ends up saying, “anyone can already sort by category.”  Then we move on to other more pressing things, like how to make the blog feel flawlessly cohesive and spontaneous.  (BTW, how do you think we are doing on that one?)

IMA Blog Categories

So, instead of making an elaborate design-based effort that would no doubt involve too many hours of Matt Gipson’s time, we thought it might be useful to show you how you can already customize your blog reading experience and see how that goes.

Read the rest of this entry »

It’s been awhile since I’ve rambled on about some projects, so I felt like the time was right to do so.  Today.  I have a lot of favorite things I like, but occasionally, I’m able to nail that down to a specific numeron uno – like a favorite dinosaur, car, airline or tie knot.  So when considering the amount of social networking sites today, I always, always point to Flickr.  I love Flickr.

Danny Beyer, sporting the new IMA Blog t-shirt

Read the rest of this entry »

If you missed last Thursday’s talk by Modern Art Notes blogger Tyler Green at the Central Library, presented by iMOCA, we’ve got you covered. Overall the talk was insightful–intriguing to those outside the arts world and passion-evoking for those intimately involved in the arts. “We all agree too much. Maybe we’re afraid to say the wrong thing,” said Green at the opening of his talk.

The afternoon before speaking, Green spent some time wandering the galleries of the IMA. The following are Tweets from Green’s visit to the IMA. You can “follow” Green on Twitter by clicking here.

• At Indy Museum of Art. Sweet.
• Digging Emile Bernard. Color, composition, his way of eliminating depth.
• Denis’ The Breton Dance from 1891 shows how important he would be to Bonnard and Vuillard and how they showed foliage/landscape.
• Rembrandt 20something self-portrait is fantastic and weird. Light. Diagonal of cap. Open mouth.
• Early Titian (20ish) portrait is creepy and soothing. Something odd about the eyes. And fur trim on coat is more painterly than hair.
• Fine Prints for Five Dollars at IMA is the most fun I’ve had in a prints gallery in eons. I hope the show is on http://imamuseum.org.
• Emile Bernard’s Yellow Christ: fascinating apostles. Mask-like: recalls later Picasso; simple, direct feature that recall very late Matisse.
• IMA Sandback space is haunting. Untitled diagonal going out window into beyond…
  Read the rest of this entry »

Yes, I was just in Washington DC, but this post isn’t going to be about national politics. A few of us recently returned from the Museum Computer Network conference – four days of workshops, presentations, and case studies on topics ranging from virtual machines to the semantic web. Since I totally forgot about having to blog upon our return, I’ll just share some of the bits I found interesting.

Read the rest of this entry »

From mad reality comes the sanity of art.  “My whole village was crazy,” writes composer Tan Dun.  “We had a professional crying team available for hire at funerals and deaths…a shamanistic choir to set the mournful tone.”  In Chinese folk culture, “ghosting” is a verb: an active conversation with the spirits of the past and the hereafter.

In Tan’s composition “Ghost Opera”, part of the first concert presented in the IMA’s newly renovated Tobias Theater this Friday, gongs talk to splashing water (yes, water); stones talk to cymbals, and the breath of a monk talks to a Chinese lute (a pipa).  It’s going to be a visually stunning, dramatically lit piece in which the musicians won’t be sitting still.

Photo courtesy of Nana Watanabe

Read the rest of this entry »