Visit to MiMA

Upon arrival at the Mint Museum of Art, I learned with mixed emotion that there would be no charge for admission (regularly $6 for adults, $5 for students) because portions of the two-story building were closed for renovation or installation of new exhibits. The first floor is dominated by the admissions area, but also accommodates restrooms, a gift shop, and a special events auditorium. As a repeat guest, I found many new reasons to visit again, particularly on Tuesday evenings between 5 and 10 pm, when admission is waived. Textiles, ceramics, and stonework from Mexico, Central, and South America comprise a quarter of the second floor. I was astonished by the lifelike detail, taken directly from nature, in the water vessel effigies of crawfish, crabs, and corn cobs. Ecclesiastical and secular paintings from the Spanish Colonial era, many with frames as impressive as the portraits themselves, are sure to delight. These collections as well as a children’s educational center are linked by a second gallery which holds traveling displays, or changing exhibitions, but during my visit, they were unavailable.
One of the largest departments within the museum is the Department of Prints and Drawings. Of the more than 27,000 items in the Museum’s permanent collection, 3,000 reside here. This department also includes maps, watercolors, photographs, and collage. In order to protect these pieces from the damaging effects of ultraviolet light, works on paper are displayed on a limited basis and rotated within the Alexander Gallery (the north entrance) or the Crosland Gallery, which leads to the Dickson gallery. This last space is home to a lively collection of African art including carved masks, textiles, figurines, and ceramic vessels. The Mint Museum boasts an impressive ceramic collection, which, like the department of prints and drawings, is located throughout the museum. These works illustrate an important aspect of our North Carolina heritage-- the renowned Seagrove pottery works.
In the Belk and Tate galleries, the visitor will find many impressive examples of contemporary art (works created after 1945.) This collection is particularly appealing to my aesthetic taste. In my discussion of these pieces, I will attempt to sidestep a strict definition of art, and the subjective taste of artists and art lovers. I find that I am drawn to pieces where a juxtaposition of thought, feeling, or form is presented. Many works in this area connected with me, such as North Carolinian Maud F. Gatewood’s Wind and Snow (1977; acrylic on canvas) which is evocative of Pop art. The painting is geometric rather than organic. Snow laden boughs of impressionistic evergreens are exaggerated by a repetitive barrage of painted snowflakes, represented by thin, uniform diagonal strokes, similar to Morse code. These dots and dashes suggest movement, and are the true subject of the piece. Angular trees with stark, leafless branches lead the eye of the viewer to the focal point of the painting, where footprints from migrating animals leave an intense feeling of restlessness--a final statement that comfort, safety, and warmth, should be sought elsewhere. Her simple palette of black and white acrylic relies heavily on shading and the use of negative space within the composition. The asymmetrical balance interplays with the parallel lines of the snowflakes to evoke a strict, frozen environment, perhaps a reminder of the harsh, rigid cold that winter represents. It reminds us of a reality all too evident to the average man before the introduction of central heating.
Another more playful dichotomy is presented by Kehinde Wiley in the oil and enamel on canvas portrait of Philip the Fair (2006). Inspired by an antique stained glass window, the artist gives the composition a modern update by portraying a black youth in an Astros jersey, designer jeans, and Nike hi-tops. The figure is surrounded by an intricate neon floral motif, suggesting baroque elegance. The pattern is evocative of lavish European aristocracy and the repetitious scrollwork and flourishes of fine Chinese porcelain and textiles. The pun is revealed in the title of the work, as a reference to Philip IV of France, who was nicknamed “le Bel” in reference to his handsome appearance. The larger-than-life size of the solitary figure, coupled with the bright magenta, orange, and lime green of the artist’s palette, satirizes the self aggrandizement evident in current cultural norms (prioritizing self over community) and which is particularly characteristic of the current hip-hop milieu. Alternatively, it can be read as a comparison of the expansionist conflicts and turf wars of the Capetian monarchy with modern gang-related “street wars”.
In the corner, a brilliant abstract sculpture by Siobhan Hapaska, born in Northern Ireland, titled Perpetual (2001), consists of a glass-encased pine tree, whose shorn needles have been repackaged within clear glass bulbs and used as ornaments upon the denuded branches. While perfectly preserved, the tree’s artificial presence inside the building, far removed from its natural environment, is designed to cultivate conversation over life, death, and the skewed priorities of our commercially-driven culture. It points out in a flash of stark reality that a natural entity is not enhanced by our appropriation and adornment of it—that in fact, our appropriation leads to its death.
A visit to the Mint Museum of Art has much to recommend it. This institution provides a venue both for the exhibition of talented, but otherwise unknown, regional artists like Rod MacKillop, and more renowned figures like native Charlottean Romare Bearden, who warrants and is assigned a gallery of his own. The curator has successfully encompassed elements of the distant past, regional history and the rapid, and ever-changing, pulse of modern art. And with a little planning or a little luck, you may get to see it all for free!