By: Katie Devoe
Visitors and locals alike can observe artwork in the Mint Museum Uptown, and walk away with a profound understanding of the past.The peaceful atmosphere, sleek architecture and variety of artwork in the Mint Museum make it a perfect escape from the busy streets of uptown Charlotte.
The Mint Museum is located in a an expansive building that has high ceilings and five floors total. Levels three and four house the Craft and Design gallery and the American and Contemporary Art galleries, which are permanent residents of those floors. The special exhibitions located on a separate part of the third and fourth floors can only be accessed if a special admission fee is paid. Current special exhibitions include Connecting the World: The Panama Canal and Beyond Craft: Decorative Arts from the Eagle Collection.
The American and Contemporary Art Galleries provide a contrast between artwork from past centuries and recent years.The American Gallery is composed of artwork dating from the eighteenth to the twentieth century. Cultural changes in America over the span of two hundred years prompted artists to change their styles to reflect the new world around them. The transition from Impressionism to Realism, for example, can be seen in the dreamy landscape paintings that gave way to harsh paintings of daily life in America.
Mary Titcomb’s Sunday Morning is an example of Impressionism that depicts several people walking down the street to church in pastel greens and blues. Titcomb used light colors and feathery brush work to create a peaceful setting.. The Stone Cottage by Frederick Childe Hassam captures a whimsical brown cottage on a bright day. Hassam used light brush work and several tones of brown to make the cottage appear as if it were in the sunlight.
Realism gives the sense that there was change in American society during the twentieth century. Edward Middleton Manigault painted the mysterious Adagio in 1912. Several gypsies can be seen dancing in the lush green countryside. Their dark black eyes convey a mystery that makes the onlooker wonder why they are in the field. From Adagio, an individual can tell that there is a gloomy, ominous feeling in the countryside. The raw emotion of Adagio is disturbing when compared to serene impressionist paintings. Manigault’s Adagio was considered modern art because the loose brushwork and dark colors were thought to be unconventional.
Art in the Contemporary Gallery is groundbreaking compared to some of the conventional pieces in the American Gallery. Invincible by Edward Ruscha combines an unidentifiable landscape with the single word “Invincible” in bold white. The blue and grey backgound against the white words create a contrast. Not many people would expect to see this work in an art gallery, but rather on a more informal medium like Instagram. Even though Invincible is modern art, it seemed out of place on the wall next to abstract paintings.
Seven girls in lavish ball gowns stand under a chandelier as jewels and birds fall from it in Self-Portrait as Wunderkabinett. Julie Heffernan’s fairytale scene was inspired by her unconscious mind and the Northern Renaissance. Heffernan’s self-portrait shows that art has no limitations.
Art is a universal language that continuously changes through decades, and the Mint Museum Uptown allows anyone to see art in their own way.
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