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Thomas James • April 19, 2020
Why does every museum have an Alexander Calder?
There is a running joke between some of my friends and I that ‘you’re not a museum unless you have an Alexander Calder piece in your collection on display.’ Now, of course this is a sarcastic joke, but there is some validity to it. Calder was an American sculpture best known for his innovative “mobile” sculptures who gained prominence in the art world in the 1920s. He created over 16,000 pieces of art throughout his life and they are in many of the world’s largest museums including The Guggenheim Museum, The Whitney Museum, Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), the National Portrait Gallery, and the National Gallery of Art.
Personally, it seems as though every large museum I visit I see a Calder piece or two. Each time I see his work I chuckle to myself for a second and think “ahh, so here is their Calder piece.” Most recently, I saw his work during my visits to the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago, the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, the New Orleans Museum of Art, and the Baltimore Museum of Art.
I started asking myself, “I wonder why everyone has Calder pieces??” I mean, I knew a little bit about Calder, but clearly not enough. I thought, “if he is in damn near every museum I visit, I should probably know more about him.” [Read more]
During times like this where we may find ourselves with more down time than usual, we have the opportunity to fill our time with things we may not be able to on a regular basis. That might include more exercising, reading some new books (and if you’re interested, I do have a suggested reading list), or watching something entertaining! For me, it can be difficult to find time to watch TV series, movies, and documentaries because I’m on the move a lot. But when I get the chance I enjoying watching different movies, documentaries, and even panel discussions as a way to actively learn and be entertained. So, for this post I wanted to share some awesome videos that will grab and hold your attention. [ See the list on the Urban Walls Brazil website . ]
As young adults we have a tendency to put a lot of pressure on ourselves. We want to do everything right the first time and/or have it all figured out without taking any pain or punishment along the way. Especially for those of us with a lot of ambition - when we do underperform or fail to reach our goal(s) we tend to beat ourselves up. Now, why is that? There are many reasons we punish ourselves and I think one of the main reasons is because we expect so much out of ourselves on a daily basis… BUT dedicating 100% of yourself to every aspect of everyday is impossible! Everyday brings new challenges, so we have to adjust on a day-to-day basis. For example, could Lebron James score 60 points, grab 20 rebounds, and dish out 20 assists in one game? Of course! But you can’t expect him to do that for you every single game! Why? Because each game comes with new challenges and requires a different set of needs. It is difficult for ambitious folks (including myself) to accept this. So, here are some ways I believe one can perform at a high level on a consistent basis while not letting the pitfalls of ambition get the best of you [ ... ]
On September 20th, world renowned artist Derrick Adam opened his solo show at Baltimore City Hall, entitled Where I’m From... The exhibition displayed “ten new large scale paintings taken from scenes of his childhood in Baltimore City.” The paintings only slightly strayed away from his style of figurative painting we’re accustomed to seeing and they were just as profound and beautiful. Each painting had a gleeful, faintly child-like, loose sketch charm to it (speaking to the history in-which these family pictures were based on). But to me, the show’s opening event itself was the most beautiful part of the entire exhibition. He brought the city out and displayed the Black heartbeat that is the Baltimore Black art scene [ ... ]
