An Artful Trip to Boston
We went to Boston for a date with abstract expressionist Cy Twombly, and we almost came home with early modernist Marc Chagall. It all started with an art review by Sebastian Smee of the Washington Post. One of my favorite art critics, Smee profiled “Cy Twombly: Making Past Present,” the career retrospective on Twombly at the Boston Museum of Fine Arts, and he grabbed my attention when he wrote, “I’ve been waiting half my life for this show. It’s magnificent.” I’d barely finished telling my wife how I wished I could just hop on a plane and fly cross country for an art exhibit before she was online checking ticket prices. Soon our plans for spring break became a walking tour of Boston’s art scene.
Flying overnight to Boston on Monday, we were fortunate to get an early check in at The Seaport Hotel on the Waterfront, a perfect launching point for various jaunts around Beantown. Because the Boston MFA is closed on Tuesday, we had a day to explore, beginning with breakfast at Flour, a bakery and coffee shop that’s become a Boston institution under James Beard Award-winning pastry chef Joanne Chang. It’s easy to access with nine locations, and Flour’s simple, savory breakfast egg sandwich with crispy bacon, warmed us alongside a rich cappuccino, though it was tough to walk away from the morning buns.
Boston is so walkable that on our way back to the hotel, we were hardly surprised to discover the Institute of Contemporary Art across the street. The Institute, housed in a modernist architectural work of art on the water, features a third floor sitting room with exquisite views of the harbor. Inside we lucked upon the Maria Berrio exhibit “Children’s Crusade,” and her work alone was worth the trip. Berrio crafts huge paintings through a collage of carefully torn Japanese paper and watercolor. From across the room, the images almost appear to be photos. Her current exhibit honoring the struggles of migrants, especially women and children, evokes contemplation of spirituality and social justice.
Wandering through Chinatown later, we ended up so close to Boston Commons that we made an obligatory visit to the new sculpture “The Embrace,” unveiled early this year on the weekend of Martin Luther King, Jr. Day. This incredible bronze piece, memorializing the hug between Dr. King and his wife after he accepted the Nobel Peace Prize, definitely raised some eyebrows when it was installed. In pictures, the sculpture of arms embracing can seem odd. But in person, it’s stunning work, a testament to the incredible power of MLK and Coretta Scott King. While crossing the Commons back toward the North End, the afternoon became a fortuitous visit to a cozy yet elegant gallery on the famed Newbury Street.
The Galerie d’Orsay, housed in a classic brownstone, caught our eye with three Marc Chagall lithographs visible from the street. Upon entering the gallery, the stunning street art of Sen 1 drew us in. Hanging next to a Lichtenstein and Warhol, the frenzied graffiti of a gritty urban backdrop splashed with color reflects the rough vibrant life of the people who inhabit its streets. A Chagall series on the circus ran across the opposite wall, subtly complementing the pop art in the room. Billed as a gallery offering art from five centuries, including several Rembrandt etchings, the d’Orsay consumed much of our afternoon. Talking art with consultant Ben Flythe and gallery co-director Kristine Feeks Hammond, was delightful, as their knowledge and enthusiasm kept us lingering and chatting. When discussing two Matisse drawings on the wall, Ben was so intrigued by another exhibit I referenced, he was soon online looking up the Baltimore collection. The d’Orsay was so captivating we could hardly walk away from the Chagalls that caught our eye from the street.
The following day was reserved for Twombly. With more than one hundred galleries, Boston’s Museum of Fine Arts is one of the world’s top museums, and because the MFA has a renowned collection of classical art, it’s a perfect place for the Twombly retrospective. Curated along with the museum’s vast displays of Greek and Roman relics, the exhibit is a fascinating connection of the old and new. Twombly lived many years in Rome, collecting statuary that, as it decayed, seemed to become a new form of art. Twombly explored that connection in his work believing, as Smee notes, “Modern art isn’t dislocated, but something with roots, tradition and continuity.” The curation by Christine Kondoleon, museum chair of ancient Greece and Rome, is a masterful homage to an icon of abstract expressionism. From Twombly’s famous scribbles, reflecting his interest in ancient text he couldn’t read but found artistically beautiful, to his toy-like sculptures and large scale explorations of color and text, the show honors Twombly’s lifelong exploration of abstraction, decay, and deconstruction.
After spending most of our day at the MFA, we meandered toward the North End, again wandering the shops and galleries on Newbury Street. Following a late lunch of burgers and cheese fries at Crazy Good Kitchen, as well as some reading time at two indie bookstores, we happened across DTR Modern Galleries with promises of pop art icons like Basquiat and Warhol. The staff was heading toward wine o’clock, but when I mentioned being a fan of Warhol contemporary Hunt Slonem, the ladies intrigued me with the comment, “We have a Bunnie Wall in back if you’d like to take a look.” Slonem’s bunnies are like Warhol’s Marilyns to pop art fans, and we spent a while wondering which bunny might suit us. Coming out of DTR, we hadn’t taken five steps before the captivating colors on display drew us across the street to The Sitka Gallery. Sitka, a whimsical and gregarious Oxford-trained artist who worked for years as an illustrator for Ralph Lauren, opened his Newbury gallery five years ago and is always available to talk art and more.
Of course, some of the best art in Boston can be found on the plate and everyone who goes to Boston definitely goes to eat. After a memorable dinner of chicken parm and a fresh seafood linguini on our first night at Giacomo’s in the North End, a cash only operation with regular lines down the sidewalk, we ended our second day just off Newbury at Buttermilk and Bourbon. Celebrity chef Jason Santos’ Boston bistro features elevated New Orleans cuisine, and it serves up one of the best whiskey cocktails I’ve ever had with Whistlepig Piggyback Rye and Vermont maple syrup. Our dinner at the bar included short rib croquettes, barbeque shrimp over jalapeno grits, and a dessert of apple biscuit bread pudding with butterscotch, cinnamon creme that I’m still thinking about.
The following morning, on our last day in Boston, thinking we were all art’d out, we headed to the North End for shopping. However, leaving the waterfront, we passed James Hook & Company, a Boston landmark lobster house, and soon we were sitting down for a crab cake and clam chowda breakfast. Later, Boston gave us one more taste of art in the Boston Public Market. Wandering various food stalls, we happened across another delightful artist encounter with the food-inspired pop art of Laurel Greenfield. Greenfield is a charming young woman whose first love was the culinary arts, having gone to BU to study nutrition. When the art world called, she set up shop in Boston’s bustling business incubator, and we couldn’t resist buying a print of her take on Van Gogh’s Sunflowers featuring blooms of bagels, originally commissioned by a local restaurant. It was a perfectly artsy ending to our trip.
Boston is a truly artful destination, and the Museum of Fine Arts is a location we might need to return to soon, having just missed the opening of a show on the famed Hokusai waves. Of course, on our next trip that Chagall print might still be calling to me from the street, and I might not have the discipline to walk away.
Adam and Eve and the Forbidden Fruit
From the Bible Suite
1960
Book Edition lithograph
Sheet Size: 14” x 10 ¼”
