July 28, 2010

An afternoon at Palm Springs Art museum

This past Sunday I spend quality time at Palm Springs Art museum. This was my first visit and quite impressive one. A fascinating place I must say!
The current exhibit: Modern Masters Celebrate Line and Form and runs to Oct.3, 2010.
Artists in the first decades of the twentieth century broke away from academic traditions and embraced a new approach to sculptural form and line drawing. Drawing and working spontaneously on paper and with print-making techniques took on a new urgency as artists worked out their methods freely. In sculpture, artists sought freedom from the constrictions of the past by employing non-traditional materials and exploring bold, abstract forms.
The artistic legacy of Modern art is represented by the drawings, prints, sculptures and paintings of renowned artists such as Pierre Bonnard, Paul Cézanne, Marc Chagall, Edgar Degas, Henri Matisse, Henry Moore, Pablo Picasso, Pierre-August Renoir, August Rodin, and other modern masters.

Colors of The West: The paintings of Birger Sanzen were by far my favorite art encounter this afternoon.
Sven Birger Sandzen, a Swedish born artist, who trained in Paris and immigrated to United States in 1894 is considered a post-impressionist for his use of a color and expressionism in technique.
His contribution to the 20th century art gained him the title: “The American Van Gogh.”
The Palm Springs exhibit showcases more then 60 paintings, watercolors and prints from his Memorial Gallery in Kansas.