Text 16992, 83 rader
Skriven 2011-10-24 14:31:00 av MICHAEL LOO (1:123/140)
Ärende: WI trip 89
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I had a breakfast coupon (I'm entitled to two per night
because of my status); Lilli (entitled to one, perhaps,
being of lower status) got none. We complained and
ended up with more coupons than we could ever have used -
under my door, in our names at the front desk ... .

A quite decent spread, almost as comprehensive as the
ones in European Hiltons. Cold cuts, cheap loaf cheese,
several kinds of yogurt, including some made up into
parfait, several kinds of granola. I tried the salami,
which was okay. The standard assortment of honeydew,
cantaloupe (no acknowledgement of the Listeria crisis
in the hotels), and pineapple, all pretty good. Scrambled
eggs; big fat greasy pigskin-filled sausages; smoky and
not too salty bacon. Sausage biscuits, which were notable
for having substantial amounts of real sausage in the
gravy and an unexpected sausage patty (real, though
somewhat spongy) inside the biscuit halves. Lots of
pastries, the muffins looking particularly in-house-baked.
Four kinds of juice. Substantial and sustaining.

It's a quick drive down Lincoln Memorial Drive to the
Milwaukee Art Museum, which is housed in a stunning
complex combining works of Eero Saarinen, local architect
David Kahler, and the notable Spanish Santiago Calatrava,
whose marine-and/or-avian themed Quadrucci Pavilion is
probably the defining visual along the lakefront.

You enter through the airy and spectacular Pavilion and
make your way to the older building, which houses most of
the art. And then past a room of ancient artifacts that
seemed small potatoes in comparison to what we saw in Asia
Minor last year or in Chicago earlier this year, but that
isn't the focus of this collection - it's just not relevant
to the well-fed-and-watered Wisconsin burghers. Europe and
the Americas are the emphases, and after this nod to the
fact that there is culture elsewhere, that's where you go.

I was just about to be bored by the sizable collections
of minor French Romantic and minor Flemish and minor
Italian Renaissance masters (there are some exceptions, a
Madonna and Child by Botticini, a very Rembrandty portrait
"Oriental Man" by Ferdinand Bol, and Zurbaran's famous and
haunting memento mori of St. Francis contemplating a skull
- some translations describe this as Francis contemplating
his skull, which would be a nice trick), when we wandered
into the German Expressionist area (Kollwitz, Grosz, oh my)
and an increasingly increasing wow factor that continued
until we exited the place hours later.

A modest set of Asian artifacts upstairs. Rooms of Haitian
and folk art, neither of which, truth be told, do it for me.

And an extensive American collection, starting off with a
replica of a 19th c. museum of curiosities and proceeding
to a substantial, New England heavy, progress of American
painting, including some pieces that would do Boston proud.

The museum has just bought the Copley portrait of King
Hooper's daughter - the guard proudly announced that it had
cost $3.5 million and then discreetly withdrew so we could
marvel at our leisure. It's nicely done, impressively full
size, but all in all is a society portrait of a somewhat
unprepossessing subject. More interesting is another Copley
of Thomas Boylston that used to reside at my school: I
asked the guard about how Milwaukee of all places got the
thing, and he said that the Fogg gave it on extended loan
that keeps getting renewed. I went to the university
Website, which verified that story.

Major 20th c. works, collected by someone with a good eye,
but there's also tons of stuff that, though famous, I
wouldn't dignify by calling it art (Lichtenstein's Crying
Girl, Warhol's Brillo Boxes, that sort of thing).

Short version: some dreck, a bunch of bigtime stuff, as
befits a city with a wealthy past, in a stunning building,
and we spent hours there (and I could have spent longer,
but stomachs called).

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