Wednesday, May 27, 2009

An "A" for Atlanta

This is the first of a multi-part (exact number to be determined) post on the recent weekend trip to Atlanta. Did you ask, Why a multi-part post? I thought you did. Well primarily because there is much to cover, and second, we arrived at TPA around 12:15 AM this morning, so an early to sleep time is in order tonight.
Before I get too far into the post, I must acknowledge our hosts for the weekend. We (we being Frank and me) spent the first two days/nights with my nephew, Monte, who more than likely will not read this blog. But if he does, he was a good host, and his condo was a wonderful spot to relax. Thank you, nephew ! Monday afternoon we moved in on our dear friends, Henry and Liz. Liz has been mentioned before in my blog as she is my foodie idol. Not only is she a wonderful cook, she knows the ins and outs of culinary Atlanta. And, Henry is a great guy. We always have a great time when we visit them. Thank you both for your usual warm hospitality.
In addition to visiting my nephew and our friends, I had made an appointment for a second opinion with a melanoma specialist at Emory Cancer Center. I met with Dr. Lawson and his staff for a couple of hours on Tuesday. Without going into great detail, I was very pleased with the visit and the bottom line is that he concurs with the plans of my local specialist, Dr. Weber. So confirmation is a good thing.
I am going to make you wait for the details of our dining experiences in Atlanta. Sorry, but I am just that kind of guy. We will start with places we visited.
  • High in Atlanta: On Sunday (another rainy day) we started our excursions at the High Museum of Art to see the current special exhibit, "The Louvre and the Masterpiece". We also visited other galleries in the museum, including an exhibit of contemporary art. Pay attention Dr. T, there were four (yes count them, four) works by your favorite, Ellsworth Kelly. We finished with a tour of the permanent collection which includes some wonderful works by American Impressionism painters.
  • More Moore: When we left the High, the sun was out and the clouds had parted. We originally planned our next stop for the following day since it was an outdoor venue. But with the sun shining and an uncertain forecast for the next day, we headed to the Atlanta Botanical Gardens. The gardens also had a special exhibit, this one titled "Moore in America", a collection of very large sculptures by Henry Moore. These works were placed throughout the grounds which was a nice counterpoint to all the wonderful vegetation and flowers. Another highlight of the gardens was the large glass sculpture by Dale Chihuly. The Museum of Fine Arts in St Petersburg had an exhibit of his work a few years ago, as did the Atlanta Botanical Gardens. I will post some pictures from this stop within a few days.
That's all for today, more to come.

3 comments:

Paul said...

You're right. I love Ellsworth Kelly's art!

I recalled that a few years back the High commissioned a work for their new addition from him. I found this related interview, which I thought was interesting (to me anyway).

Richard said...

Interesting article, thanks for sharing. That was not one of the pieces, and we missed that one, unfortunately

Paul said...

Well, fortunately, if you've seen four Ellsworth Kelly's you can kind of guess what the fifth might look like in person. :-)

I like his works' simplicity and scale. To me, they're sublime.