Uncle S.A.M.

 Ok. I know that the worst idea would give up this blog but! I just had so many things going on and I didn't wanna miss any single day of my "Seattlian" life so I just stopped writing.
But. I got back home and now while I'm trying to get used to my "after america" life, I've got more time to post what I've been through.
So now I will be trying to put more on here so everybody could see the pics and fall in love with Seattle as I did.
I've got lots of messages about where you could find the New York pictures. They are in my other "old" blog - the-philosophia.blogspot.com

So this coming post is about S.A.M.
Seattle Art Museum

I hope things are going well with you, aren't they?

Here're just a few pictures of what I liked the most of all, but I bet if you came there yourself, you would like smth else.
 The main exhibition is about the modern american art. We too often think of the origins of modern art as having germinated in the exploration of abstract form for its own sake- in part probably because American audiences were largely conounded by their first encounters with art that shed all vestiges of time-honored pictorial traditions. In truth early modern art in America is strongly linked to myth and symbol, to what was an enduring quest to find spiritual meaning in the physical world.

The last picture is called Spring on West 78th Street by Childe Hassam. Here is his own perspective of America of that time: "I never had any desire to remain permanently on the other side (of the Atlantic, in France), America represented to me the highest opportunity. When I came back I came to New York, though I always considered Boston my home. To me New York is the most wonderful and most beautiful city in the world. All life is in...No street, no section of Paris or any other city I have seen is equal to New York."

 

I didn't have a clue that this is called "Hot Water Urn". I believe that every foreigner should know that it's called "Samovar"- the best thing to make your tea with. 

 

After some time I came across this dramatic pair of six-panel screen. The white-walled buildings and the boats of the left-hand screen identify this is a Chinese landscape setting. But the painter is Japanese, who is famous for exploring the expressive possibilities of ink on paper, which I find very interesting.

The next one is my favorite. I know that my camera can't really show the quality, but it seems like the painter used the layers and just put them on each other so if you stare at the picture for a while you see more fish, which is hiding deep in the water.

It seems like it's moving all the time. Pretty awesome, I wouldn't put it on the wall in my house though :).

That's very funny that in Russia we have old grumpy women who watch after the museum. Here they've got securities. In case I steal the samovar, I guess.

The self-portrait I liked the most.

P.S. I still can't figure out the purpose of the hanging cars in S.A.M. Is there anybody who sees the point?