Springfield Art Museum – October 2023 — The 21st Century Matriarch

One of my favorite places to enjoy with family that visits me is the Springfield (Missouri) Art Museum. This time it was the backup plan; we had originally planned a visit to the botanical garden, but the day was cold and wet.

The museum was not busy, but we weren’t the only people there. We wandered through the Tradition Interrupted exhibit (August 19-November 12). I enjoyed the pieces….recognizing many of the traditions and enjoying the descriptions about the way they were interrupted. Trying to capture the pieces photographically is always part of a museum visit for me; I keep a small camera that fits easily in my purse rather than lugging my bridge camera; it provided optical zoom giving me more options than my phone does. My favorite piece in this gallery is one called Teardrop (middle image below)…a metal piece that imitates embroidery or lacework. The lighting is part of the work and I was only able to capture the shadows immediately behind it; there were also shadows on the ceiling and floor!

The museum is also hosting a series of exhibits in collaboration with Missouri State University. The one showing now is titled *Blue on White* (July 22 – December 3) – featuring Chinese ware (with connections to Persia)…appropriated through imitation and export to Japan, Europe, and the Americas. Curated by MSU students.

The Creating an American Identity exhibit is a semi-permanent rotating exhibition from the museum’s collection of over 10,000 objects. The middle one below is an early Jackson Pollock – created in the 1930s before he became famous for ‘drip’ paintings!

There is a copper sculpture that I’ve seen every time I have visited the museum. It is difficult to photograph because the background is always so cluttered. This view is about as good as it gets!

The Survey of Ceramic Art is also a semi-permanent exhibit. Even if many of the pieces are ones I’ve seen before, I like ceramics so much that it is probably my favorite exhibit/gallery in the museum. This visit, I thought about how lighting of objects makes a big difference….but often reflections from glass cases is problematic; it’s more apparent in photographs but it distracts even when simply viewing the pieces.

I waited until the end to photograph the Chihuly chandelier in the foyer of the museum. It’s titled Autumn Persians and Feather Chandelier. I zoomed in to eliminate a spotlight; the lighting of the piece is required…but it can also be a distraction.