How dare Seattle look down on Richmond when it comes to art!
At today's "Introduction to Picasso" lecture at the VMFA, art historian and speaker Lulan Yu began with a story she was told at Can Can back when the banners were being hung to announce the Picasso exhibit.
A man at the bar shared with her that he had been in Seattle last year and when he heard that there was a Picasso show there, had gone to see it.
Buying a ticket, he told the woman that he was from Richmond and she informed him that the show was going to Richmond, a fact he didn't yet know.
Leaning in to him secretively, she whispered, "And we have NO idea how they got it!" We could practically hear the condescension in the ticket seller's voice as Yu told the story.
Get over yourself, West Coast.
The story was a funny start to Yu's lecture about Picasso's history. She made the point that the lecture should have perhaps been offered closer to the start of the exhibit rather than the close, but as one who will make her third trip this weekend, it was still timely enough.
She began with his child prodigy years, showing incredibly deft works from ages eight and fifteen. His classical-looking "Science and Charity" painting from 1897 (at age 16) won a local award, causing his father to open a bottle of champagne and pour it over his head.
"You are an artist now," the father told the son, who promptly abandoned classicism. Yu's talk took us through Picasso's many periods using works from the VMFA show as well as additional works to make her points.
She cited examples of Picasso's early influences by Degas, Lautrec, Van Gogh, El Greco and Manet. She talked of his lifelong fear of venereal disease and endless quest for his soul mate; sex and work were the constants in his long life.
On my way in to the lecture, I'd run into manager Michael and bartender Stephen from Amuse on their way to have the new summer drink menus printed.
Full of delicious-sounding rum and tequila drinks, the colorful menus will debut soon. But seeing them put me in mind of an afternoon absinthe so after the lecture, so I bypassed the endless Picasso ticket lines and went upstairs.
They were back and I had the pleasure of Stephen sitting down next to me on the customer side of the bar to eat, but also for some excellent conversation about herb growing, the closing of the big show (collective whew! from staff, no doubt) and the need for more muddlers when the new drink menu debuts.
As I sipped my post-lecture absinthe fairy and he enjoyed a Canton sidecar with mussels and sausage, I was thrilled to learn that the absinthe drip will not be leaving Amuse after all.
Given its popularity and the fact that other Richmond places that carry absinthe merely pour it in a glass (and what self-respecting artist or writer of the late 19th or early 20th century would drink it that way?), it has earned a place of honor at the bar.
Between the Seattle story and hearing that the drip has taken up residence at my local museum, it was an informative afternoon. Educational, even.
Tell me about your museum's absinthe drip, Seattle.
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Hey now, a third-hand story doth not a condescending city make. :-) Speaking as a Seattlite who moved to Richmond four and a half years ago, my reaction to the locations for the Picasso show would have been the same if I'd heard about it back home, not for reasons of condescension, but because I would have expected one of the largest East Coast cities--D.C., NYC, etc. At the time, Richmond was just "a city" to me--I knew almost nothing about it, didn't associate it with art in the slightest, and I didn't know any East Coasters who did either. I think the VMFA's awesome new digs, which I love, have changed that, and the Picasso show is helping to bring the point home nationally as well. And while I always enjoy the SAM, the VMFA is clearly the better museum at this point, at least to my tastes.
ReplyDeleteReally like your blog, BTW. I've been reading it for a couple months now. I think I was looking for accounts of a poetry reading and came across your writeup? Anyway, it's a pleasure to read your accounts of all things Richmond.
John, You are the perfect antidote to the Seattle ticket-seller's alleged comment! Thanks for adding in your perspective.
ReplyDeleteAnd if you've been reading me for a couple of months, you know I don't hesitate to comment about everything I see and hear. Not trying to be mean-spirited, just trying to make interesting (non-verbal) conversation.
Thanks for your kind words about the blog. It always makes my day to hear from those who enjoy me.
Hey now, a third-hand story doth not a condescending city make. :-) Speaking as a Seattlite who moved to Richmond four and a half years ago, my reaction to the locations for the Picasso show would have been the same if I'd heard about it back home, not for reasons of condescension, but because I would have expected one of the largest East Coast cities--D.C., NYC, etc. At the time, Richmond was just "a city" to me--I knew almost nothing about it, didn't associate it with art in the slightest, and I didn't know any East Coasters who did either. I think the VMFA's awesome new digs, which I love, have changed that, and the Picasso show is helping to bring the point home nationally as well. And while I always enjoy the SAM, the VMFA is clearly the better museum at this point, at least to my tastes.
ReplyDeleteReally like your blog, BTW. I've been reading it for a couple months now. I think I was looking for accounts of a poetry reading and came across your writeup? Anyway, it's a pleasure to read your accounts of all things Richmond.
Ah, but third-hand stories are such great blog fodder!
ReplyDeleteHow nice to hear that RVA has made a believer out of a Seattlite. Must be all this great culture we have.
It makes my day when someone tells me they enjoy reading me. Thanks so much for that!