Embroidered Collage

Aluminum foil, brown paper, and some other random household items are what went into this magnificence.  When I first saw "The Throne of the Third Heaven of the Nations' Millenium General Assembly" by James Hampton I mistook it for rich and heavy metalwork, which I am sure was the intent.  Instead it is made of humble materials and resides in a nook the size of a small room in the Folk Art section of the American Art Museum.  Talk about being struck in the face with how you really don't need every new gadget to make art.

Another highlight of the museum visit was the Luce Conservatory section.  The collections were in a high ceilinged room that used to be a library with two balconies.  The upper stacks had been turned into display cases where art was grouped into categories and filling every available space, so different from the usual environment of putting a great deal of space between the works, intended to highlight them.  It was an interesting affect.  I could get a much better sense of an era or an average by a glance, but I really had to concentrate to see only one piece, isolating it in my mind instead of having it isolated for me by the hanging arrangement.  You could also walk back into glass hallways that enclosed the rooms where the conservators actually worked on the museum's collection.  No one was there, as it was Saturday, but the explanatory exhibits were very well done.