The Museum Experience: Paper #2 – Katelyn Westervelt

On June 10, I went to the Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art with my mom for a fun day trip. When arriving, we were greeted by very kind and informative workers who gave us maps of the museum as well as information about the different exhibits that were currently on display. We decided to start on the first level and not look at the map, and instead just enjoy the art as we saw pieces that jumped out at us. We started in the Wadsworth section of the first floor, and the first piece I saw that stuck out to me was by Naama Tsabar. Pictured below are a handful of photos from her exhibit, Melodies of Certain Damage (Opus 6). One of the reasons I loved this exhibit is because it's interactive – the guitars are all smashed but still set up in a way that they are playable, so visitors are welcome to get on the ground and strum the guitars as much as they want. They are electric so they're plugged in, so sometimes you're walking around in the exhibits nearby and you get to hear someone else start playing.

My mom walking into the Naama Tsabar exhibit – I loved how minimal this entrance and exhibition were.

Melody of Certain Damage #19. Naama Tsabar. Israeli, 2022. Broken electric guitar, strings, metal, cable stops, screws, and microphones.

Melody of Certain Damage #5, 15, 16, 17, 18, 20, 21. Naama Tsabar. Israeli, 2018/2022. Broken electric guitars, strings, metal, cable stops, screws, and microphones.

#5: 86 1/2 x 25 x 17 inches

The other exhibit that spoke to me most and I found to be the most artistically beautiful was Baroque Art: Life in Holland on level two, Morgan section. Some context as to why this section was so important to me: I was adopted as a baby, so I didn’t know my cultural background for the longest time. I grew up Dutch, because my (adoptive) dad is fully Dutch, and his ethnicity and culture have always been really important to him. Once walking into the Dutch Baroque art exhibit, I found a handful of pieces that reminded me of the delft pottery we have at home. Reading about these pieces, the city of Delft in the Netherlands, and learning more about the history of which my family came from was really thought provoking. My mom and I had a really great time getting to feel connected to our heritage, and she got to tell me more stories about my dad’s family history and her time visiting the Netherlands with my dad on their honeymoon in the mid-90s. Below are some beautiful pieces from the exhibit.

Dish. Willem Jansz. Dutch 1650. Tin-glazed earthenware.

Barber's or shaving bowl. Dutch, 1710–1720. Tin-glazed earthenware.

Tobacco jar. Dutch, mid-18th century. Tin-glazed earthenware.

Garniture of five vases. Lambertus van Eenhoorn. Dutch, mid-18th century. Tin-glazed earthenware.

Dimensions: Height; 21 1/16 inches.

A Still Life with Flowers. Nicolaes van Veerendael. Flemish, 1682. Oil on copper.

Dimensions: 55 x 42 cm; 21 5/8 x 16 1/2 inches.

River Landscape with Boats and Liesvelt Castle. Salomon Jacobsz van Ruysdael. Dutch, 1641. Oil on panel.

Dimensions: 21 3/4 x 30 7/8 inches.

My mom looking at the wall of Delft pottery.

The Wadsworth Atheneum, founded in 1842 by Daniel Wadsworth and opened in 1844, is the home to nearly 50,000 works of art that span the course of 5,000 years, ranging from European to American art and from the 1600s to today. On top of the thousands of beautiful pieces of art this museum houses, it is the oldest continuously-operating public art museum in the United States. On top of being a public art gallery, the Wadsworth offers innovative programs, study halls, educational resource rooms, and more. From 2010 to 2015 the Wadsworth underwent a renovation that cost $33 million, during which the museum added 17 new gallery spaces to the building.

One of the many stairwells, complete with a beautiful stain glassed window ceiling on top!

Beautiful entryway to the museum.

My favorite two pieces from my visit on Friday are from very different eras, but both portraits. One was on the first floor in the Wadsworth section, and the other was on the second floor in the Morgan section. The first painting was one of the first that popped out to me as bold, colorful, and contemporary. The second painting was one that I could have sat in front of and stared at for the entirety of my visit because of how in awe I was. The first painting is one by an artist I had never heard of before, and of a person I had never seen before. The second painting is one by an artist who I adore, and of a person that is my biggest art inspiration. Both of these paintings are pictured below, and truly captured my attention.

Portrait of Toks Adewetan (The King of Glory). Kehinde Wiley. American, 2016. Oil on canvas.

36 x 24 inches.

Self-Portrait. Vincent van Gogh. Dutch, 1887. Oil on canvas.

42 x 34 inches.

Since people are typically more familiar with the artist of the second painting, I’ve decided to do some research into the first artist of the first painting. Kehinde Wiley, born and raised in South-central Los Angeles in 1977, now based out of New York City, is a contemporary artist who works to change the narrative of portrait paintings. Wiley chooses to replace the typical white male subjects of portraiture with young men of color who he approaches on the streets of New York City. Wiley has been commissioned to paint portraits of powerful Black people, such as President Barack Obama. In 2018, Wiley was named one of Time’s 100 Most Influential People. Wiley was named teacher of the year from the NYC Art Teachers Association in 2011, and has had countless exhibitions shown throughout museums such as the National Portrait Gallery and the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts. In this particular portrait, Wiley’s subject, Toks Adewetan, poses with his arms crossed, imitating the pose from The King of Glory. Adewetan flips the narrative of this pose by looking up with confidence, and instead of wearing Christian jewelry, he is wearing a necklace that showcases other religions. Wiley does an excellent job in his pieces of challenging narratives about bias in the United States in particular about Black people, especially young Black men.

Between exhibits

Mom looking at her favorite painting of the day!

Between Naama Tsabar, the Dutch Baroque art, and Van Gogh, my time at the Wadsworth was immensely inspiring and breathtaking. I hope one day I’m able to bring my future high school students to this museum and let their creative brains go wild with all the new information they will learn, and the inspiration that will strike in them. I couldn’t have asked for a better experience at the Wadsworth, and I hope you all enjoy it just as much too.