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Frederick Eversley
"Big Red Lens"
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Louise Bourgeois "Maman" delivered to Crystal Bridges June 2015
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Louise Bourgeois:
"Maman"
(photo: crystalbridges.org)
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Thomas Hart Benton's "Departure of the Joads".
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"The Steel Mill"
Thomas Hart Benton
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Creekstone Farm Black
Angus burger
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| Andrew Wyeth's "Airborne" |
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Norman Rockwell's
"Rosie the Riveter"
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Jenna, part of the 2013 ISP demonstration rivet crew.
Photo: Nathan Holth
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Jamie Wyeth, son of artist Andrew Wyeth, grandson of American illustrator N.C. Wyeth, signing his work at the Crystal Bridges Museum.
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Photos by Vern Mesler or Nan Jackson, unless otherwise indicated.
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Greetings,
Traveling and spending time at exceptional places is something we Americans have always enjoyed doing. In this ISP Newsletter, we wish you Happy Holidays by featuring an art museum that was especially designed for all people, from young families through older generations. And you will find a little iron and steel preservation sprinkled throughout.
Enjoy the Holidays!
Vern Mesler
Iron & Steel Preservation Coordinator
Lansing Community College
May 2016 Iron & Steel Preservation
Conference: May 18th & 19th $375.00
Workshop: May 20th $175.00
Space is limited. Register early.
Contact Vern Mesler at
meslerv@gmail.com
or 517-614-9868 with any questions about the conference; contact LCC's Business & Community Institute at 517-483-9853 if you need help with the registration process.
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Crystal Bridges American Art Museum
Bentonville Arkansas
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In 1950 Sam Walton opened a small
Five and Dime store in Bentonville, Arkansas. As
Walmart grew, the town of Bentonville also grew, and the giant retailer is still headquartered there today. Sam Walton died in April, 1992, and Walmart ownership was passed on to his wife and children.
One daughter, Alice L. Walton, inherited a large portion of the Walmart fortune and with it established the first major art museum in Northwest Arkansas. The Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art opened its doors in 2011 in a city named after the great uncle of an American artist, U.S. Senator Thomas Hart Benton.
"Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art welcomes all to celebrate the American spirit in a setting that unites the power of art with the beauty of nature. We explore the unfolding story of America by actively collecting, exhibiting, interpreting, and preserving outstanding works that illuminate our heritage and artistic possibilities."
Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art came into being because of Ms. Walton's passion for art, especially American Art. American masters-of-art hang on the walls of the Crystal Bridges Museum, a museum larger than any average Walmart Supercenter, its design pleasing to any craftsman. Moshe Safdie, a Boston Architect, designed the 200,000 square foot museum which sits on one hundred and twenty acres of former Walton family land.
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"Nestled at the base of a natural ravine in the heart of the Ozark forest, Crystal Bridges was designed to be both a complement and a counterpoint to the surrounding landscape. Rather than building at the edge of the ravine, overlooking the stream below, Safdie chose to let the landscape embrace the building, and make the springwater an integral part of the design. Two ponds were created with a series of weirs that manage the inflow from Town Branch Creek and nearby Crystal Spring. This natural spring, along with the striking glass and copper bridges that span the ponds, provided Crystal Bridges with its name." (Text and photo above: crystalbridges.org)
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Eleven, the restaurant at Crystal Bridges
Why Eleven? The museum opened on 11/11/2011.
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Our introduction to the museum
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An article in the New York Times Art & Design Section (June 16, 2011) featured the daughter of Walmart founder Sam Walton building an American Art Museum in Bentonville, Arkansas. This article (
The New York Times, Alice L. Walton) caught the eye of my wife Nan Jackson, who made a mental note that we needed to visit the Crystal Bridges Museum sometime. On a trip to the Gulf Coast we decided to detour to spend a couple of days in Bentonville and explore Alice Walton's American Art Museum. (Our next trip to the museum was not a side trip, but a destination
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Along the walls of the museum are the works of many different American artists. In "Departure of the Joads," Thomas Hart Benton depicts a scene from John Steinbeck's book "The Grapes of Wrath" and in another painting the industrial energy of a steel mill. "What I wanted to show was the energy and rush and confusion of American life." (Thomas Hart Benton in The New Freeman Feb. 18, 1931). Andrew Wyeth's painting of rural life in Chadds Ford, Pennsylvania, turns the ordinary into art. Edward Hopper and Georgia O'Keeffe are represented, and no American art museum should be without a Norman Rockwell in its collection.
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Rockwell's original painting of "Rosie the Riveter" of course caught my attention, a burly red-headed young woman with industrial clothing that craftsmen both men and women would recognize (except for the brown penny loafers). On Rosie's lap Rockwell painted a very accurate #90 twenty-eight pound Boyer field hammer, a tool appropriate for driving large steel rivets (could be problematic for driving aluminum rivets on thin-sheeted World War Two B24 bombers). Rockwell, as with many artists, created an image to illustrate an idea, a time and a place. A burly red-headed woman with industrial tools (even if misrepresented) is a powerful symbol that communicates women's important contribution in winning a war.
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Rosie the Riveter
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Norman Rockwell's iconic image of an American woman employed in the production of military hardware, represents a distinctive melding of contemporary wartime life and art historical tradition."
(text accompanying the painting as displayed at Crystal Bridges)
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Jenna McFarland, a recent graduate from Lansing Community College with an Associate in Applied Science degree for Welding Technology. Currently
working as an apprentice for Plumbers and Pipefitters local 333, Jenna was part of the rivet demonstration crew for past ISP Conference & Workshops.
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Extensive Network of Trails
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"Designed to spark the imagination, the trails help guests form connections to the land and its history, as well as enjoy outdoor artworks." Every once in a while, a guest comes upon a frame for creating a scene of her own.
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Can you identify the rivet tool in the picture on the right?
From an exhibit at the National Museum of American History
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| Past Iron & Steel Preservation Newsletters |
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