It really has the most amazing artists we have ever seen anywhere. Sadly, just like most of the well known artists in traditional museums today, these people did not receive recognition in their lifetimes. Many of their works were only discovered upon their deaths when people went to clear out their things and discovered many, even hundreds, up to sometimes thousands of pieces of work.
All of the "visionary" artists are outside of the mainstream, and it's safe to say many of them had maybe a just a few emotional demons and their works often depict imaginary worlds they had conceived of in their heads as a method of coping.
Their current exhibition is: Life, Liberty & the Pursuit of Happiness: October 3, 2009 - September 5, 2010
I'm going to describe this as "Baltimore Bus," as this type of art is typical here in town. It's not out of the realm of possibility to see something like this on a city street. I've seen cars with hundreds of Barbies glued to them, "Blue Hawaii" Elvis tribute cars, even cars redesigned to look like row houses with fake stone and AstroTurf attached. This one had swans and rabbits among many, many other items glued on. We even have an art car competition here in town at an arts annual festival which shall remain nameless, as it used to be really cool, but now it's just 3 times more booths with crap businesses like Geico and replacement windows than it is art. Sad.
Obviously, the other sculptures above are political in nature, I suppose because of their "Liberty" theme. Here are my two favorites below.
A painful reminder of how we got into our current mess in the Gulf. That administration is just a gift from Hell that keeps on giving.
Is anybody else old enough to remember when that rat bastard from North Carolina, Senator Jesse Helms, was trying to gut funding for the arts? I sure as Sam Hill do. The conservative Senator's views even prompted Loudon Wainwright III to write a song about it and I believe it was called, "If Jesse Doesn't Like It" (then it's probably not art). In the song he alleged Jesse's favorite painting was the one of the clown with the tear rollin' down. No doubt! I couldn't find a decent video of the song on Youtube. Damn!
So, it's very appropriate to see 'ole Jesse outside of a truly visionary museum with arrows stuck in his back. Hooray!
The BEST current exhibit inside is:
OUT OF THIS WORLD: A Centennial Celebration of Eugene Von Bruenchenhein : March 2, 2010 - March 2, 2011
Unbelievable!
This guy could have done every single rock album cover in the late 60s through the early 70s.
He was a baker by trade, and many of the paintings were done of boxes from his bakery, if you can imagine.
I borrowed this image from his website as the museum has a strict no photo policy, but you can download hi-res images for FREE.
vonbruenchenhein.com
Trippin'!!!
Well, that, in brief, covers our trip this time to the American Visionary Art Museum.
So, if you are planning to visit Baltimore, appreciate art and don't want to stare at Andy Warhol Brillo Boxes, this is the place to be! It's right on the harbor too, near lots of other fun stuff.
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