Words Fail Me

Visited the National Constitution Center which is an entire museum devoted to the Constitution of the United States.  Dealing, first, with the hard-hitting questions like “what’s the deal with using ‘f’ instead of ‘s’?”I found this room of life-sized Constitutional Convention attendee statues slightly disturbing.I expressed my concerns to George Washington, privately.

Visited Philadelphia’s Rodin Museum.  From DreamWorks, I learned that young artists often struggle with drawing hands well.  It didn’t surprise me to see Rodin experimenting with their representation on a large scale.There was a distinct emphasis in eroticism that I had never noticed until seeing multiple Rodin pieces side by side.Even this etude of Balzac’s musculature was unsparing in it’s nudity.Most striking for me was an assemblage (or pile, really) of discarded, experimental heads from his work The Burghers of Calais.  Seems like it would make a good album cover.

Visited the Philadelphia Museum of Art which has one of the greatest collections in the world.

I didn’t know this Claude Monet piece of pine trees at sunset, but I found it mesmerizing.This Cubist masterpiece by Lyonel Feininger reminded me, specifically, of the cover art of the Foundation trilogy paperbacks my father had on his bookshelf when I was growing up.I was disturbed, as intended, by this Marcel Duchamp work.  A closed door with a hole in it.  Peering inside, you see the exposed, naked body of a woman.I found it much more provocative than his famed Nude Descending a Staircase, No. 2.
Cy Twombly‘s abstract series inspired by The Iliad drew my attention.Looking out from the museum, down the museum steps, to the Washington Monument and the Philadelphia skyline beyond.Cathedral archways and entire chapel courtyards had been reconstructed indoors.As well as Japanese homes.And Buddhist temples.The museum’s grand staircase.Saw one of my favorite Van Gogh’s.Peering up at the museum from outisde through the branches and bramble.A statue of Chief Justice John Marshall stands out front of the museum’s northern approach.

I was profoundly disappointed by the Liberty Bell.  I couldn’t help but obsess about the failed promises & hypocrisy that it represents.  What better metaphor for our country than a giant crack in the Liberty Bell?