The High Museum of Art, Atlanta

April 22, 2006

It had been several years since I went through the permanent collection of the High Museum here in Atlanta. The collection is not too impressive.. and I am not certain that I would recommend a trip to the museum as a "must-do" for visiting friends.

What caught my attention was the arrangement foregrounding links between the applied arts and the fine arts. So, on the one hand, there are minor works by Rothko, Pollack, and Gorky hanging on the wall.. but then close by may be a some colorful furniture from the 50s.

This furniture and other examples of applied arts from the 40s and 50s marks a distinct change from the more formal Craftsman or Art Deco designs from earlier in the century. So it is hardly surprising to find the fine arts making a similarly radical leap. For the most part, our decor seems to get the art it deserves in each age.

It was often the furniture itself that caught my eye. I swore to myself that someday I would get a large console radio for our living room.. with which we will listen to classic radio..

Looking at the fine craftsmanship of beds and chairs I reflected on how nice it would be to live in a world where craftsmanship is a part of everyday life. I am sure equal craftsmen are alive today, but their work is far too expensive to have a place in the life of an ordinary person. The majority of us can only pay for work that is designed to be mass produced. But how beautiful this work can be!

It makes one want to buy a few less things, but make sure what one does buy is beautiful.

One case held an assortment of daily household items that had magically been transformed into something beautiful. There was a glass iron, an odd clock, and then an old camera.. which really did seem to belong in a museum.

A little later there were a few small boxes constructed by Joseph Cornell. These were not spectacular, but these little constructions always draw me.. there small private world beckoning. Lucky the person who has a little box to put all the odd striking things that cross his or her gaze. Which is a further lesson as to what the internet can be.. a box for preserving all these random things.. and building them into some personal pattern that will beckon to someone who stumbles upon them..