Hidden Treasure... Discovering the Tang Museum of Saratoga
I have lived in Saratoga Springs for nearly three years now and it amazes me how many interesting buildings, cool museums and historical events that I still have yet to discover around town.
Recently,I visited the Tang Museum, located on the Skidmore College Campus, and was amazed at what I found!!!The Tang museum is formally known as The Frances Young Tang Teaching Museum and Art Gallery at Skidmore College, features two major exhibition galleries, two classrooms, rooftop patio, huge atrium, and permanent storage for the Tang collection. The first aspect of the Tang that I liked was the architecture! When you park and look at the building from the lot, the building is magnificent! When I visited, there was a piece outside called "Politeness Counts" by Johnathan Sellger (2004) right outside the museum doors. The piece was a larger than life (and larger than me) grocery bag, made of aluminum and painted with auto body paint! It had a generic "thank you" painted on it! Seeing this piece outside made me excited for what the Tang actually held inside!!!!
The first exhibit I visited in the Tang was by Arlene Shechet called "Blow by Blow". It is an exhibit that is inspired by an aspect of Buddism, breathing. The exhibit is a collection of sculptures, all carefully crafted to convey breathing, and the movement of air. I think my favorite part of this exhibit is that all of the pieces had different bases.
The piece pictured on the left is called "Even and Perhaps Especially" (2007), when i first saw it I thought that it looked like a human heart that has been covered in silver. It sits on top of a wooden base. I liked this piece because it helped me to understand the purpose of her exhibit.
The second exhibit that I visited was just beyond the Arlene Shechet. It was called "The Way We Weren't" by the artist Nicole Eisenman. This exhibit was a collection of her paintings. This collection is inspired by America's attempt to make the world believe that our culture is all around happy, when really we are riddled by sadness, guilt and trouble. I really liked these paintings because they showed real emotion and tough times, but they were presented in almost cartoon like figures. My favorite piece in the collection was a painting of a flooded town, the towns residents are glum and sick looking, and at the bottom there is a cats head (presumably its swimming) with a cute little bird riding on it. The part of this painting that made it
visually appealing were its colors and texture.The piece pictured to the left is called "Biergarten at Night" (2007), it features a myriad of people, all drinking beer! Some of those depicted at visibly intoxicated, while others dance, flirt and talk! I like that the painting is a see of people and they all look different and are acting differently!
I really enjoyed my visit to the Tang, had I not taken a class in the visual arts I probably would never had know it even existed so close to my home! What a pleasant surprise!!!
