Welp, now that I have your attention for all of the wrong reasons, thank you for tuning in yet again to my artistic ramblings. In this Examiner’s edition, I’d like to focus on a Twilight that I truly think deserves your attention. No, I’m not talking about the book and movie that has captured the attention span of millions of our ADHD youth; I’m talking about the Frist Center for the Visual Arts’ Twilight Visions: Surrealism, Photography, and Paris that closes this Sunday, January 3rd.
Twilight Visions has been around at the Frist Center since the beginning of September this past year, but you need to walk on down after the New Year ball drops to take one last glance of over 120 photographs by such artists as Man Ray, Hans Bellmer Brassai, Eugene Atget and Andre Kertesz celebrating Paris as foundation of Surrealism. Twilight Visions is not just a bunch of pictures of one of the most beautiful and romantic cities in the world, it is an in-depth examination of the revolutionary social, aesthetic and political activities of the Surrealism movement between the world wars. Organized by guest curator Therese Lichtenstein, Ph.D., this exhibition will take you through the labyrinthine city streets of Paris as if you were there in person. In my opinion, this is not a bad way to start your year off by visiting Paris without paying the full price to get there.
In case you needed another reason to go to the Frist Center this week, they are opening their doors at 4:30 pm this Saturday, January 2nd for a FREE Architecture Tour in the Grand Lobby. To think that you can get this amazing tour for FREE is almost unthinkable! I’m not a salaried spokesperson for any art gallery in Nashville nor do I get paid enough to keep my home’s lights on to promote the arts, but this tour is something special to see, hear and learn about. It not only contains such interesting tidbits of knowledge as when the Frist Center was built, the history about the floors in the galleries and walls within the Grand Lobby, but you inevitably walk away at the end of the engaging tour with a more complete sense of the necessary relationship between the Frist Center’s landmark building and the city of Nashville, TN and how they need each other.
Since I forgot to give y’all a Christmas present because I’m still looking for mine, I hope that this little treat will suffice for smiles all around. A little birdie told me that if you are a fan of the best man of steel on the silver screen, then you will not be disappointed if you drop by the Frist Center’s Auditorium next Friday, January 8th, at 7pm. You will be able to walk in for FREE (that word never gets old) to sit and enjoy Frist Center’s first Films at the Frist of 2010 showing the always classic Superman: The Movie.
There you have it. Happy New Year! May your 2010 bring you loads of happiness, insight, personal growth, and more creativity than 2009 could ever dream up. See you again next year!
Salud,
Chuck Beard
Image: Eugène Atget. Rue du Figuier, 1924. Albumen print, 9 in. x 7 in. Gift of Walter P. Chrysler, Jr. by Exchange, Chrysler Museum of Art, Norfolk, VA.