Two new exhibitions are set to open at Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art this weekend, offering visitors a chance to see art in a new light.
Moshe Safdie: The Path to Crystal Bridges highlights how the architect who designed the museum, uses light and nature in his buildings. The exhibition features models and drawings from six of the architect's projects, including the museum.
"Ever since the design of Crystal Bridges, people have had a fascination with it," says Elizabeth Weinman, the museum's registrar. "It's really a fun progression that gives context to our building itself."
A second exhibition, See the Light: The Luminist Tradition in American Art, focuses on how American artists have used used light as a subject in different mediums.
"The path between painting and sculpture really starts to blend," Weinman says. "We're trying to show Northwest Arkansas kind of the range that is possible in American art."
Weinman says the light sculptures are sometimes hard to understand, but art is meant to do more than just look pretty hanging on a wall.
"It's really to push your boundaries with the internal and external and to push you into a new way of thinking," she says. "Come with an open mind, come and be prepared to be confused... Your job is really to look at a piece of artwork and then create your own feelings about it."
The exhibit also features a new acquisition for the museum's permanent collection, the painting "No. 210/No. 211 (Orange)" by abstract expressionist Mark Rothko.
Both exhibits open on Saturday, and run through January 28th. There is no fee to view See the Light and no advance tickets are required.
Moshe Safdie: The Path to Crystal Bridges highlights how the architect who designed the museum, uses light and nature in his buildings. The exhibition features models and drawings from six of the architect's projects, including the museum.
"Ever since the design of Crystal Bridges, people have had a fascination with it," says Elizabeth Weinman, the museum's registrar. "It's really a fun progression that gives context to our building itself."
A second exhibition, See the Light: The Luminist Tradition in American Art, focuses on how American artists have used used light as a subject in different mediums.
"The path between painting and sculpture really starts to blend," Weinman says. "We're trying to show Northwest Arkansas kind of the range that is possible in American art."
Weinman says the light sculptures are sometimes hard to understand, but art is meant to do more than just look pretty hanging on a wall.
"It's really to push your boundaries with the internal and external and to push you into a new way of thinking," she says. "Come with an open mind, come and be prepared to be confused... Your job is really to look at a piece of artwork and then create your own feelings about it."
The exhibit also features a new acquisition for the museum's permanent collection, the painting "No. 210/No. 211 (Orange)" by abstract expressionist Mark Rothko.
Both exhibits open on Saturday, and run through January 28th. There is no fee to view See the Light and no advance tickets are required.
