{"id":1088,"date":"2014-04-16T22:17:23","date_gmt":"2014-04-16T22:17:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.mcelhinneyart.com\/?p=1088"},"modified":"2014-04-18T20:37:03","modified_gmt":"2014-04-18T20:37:03","slug":"1088","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.mcelhinneyart.com\/jlmcelhinney\/1088\/","title":{"rendered":"Report from Bentonville, Arkansas"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Pea_Ridge_AR<\/a><\/p>\n

Image: Cafe Eleven, Crystal Bridges Musem of American Art<\/em>.
\nWatercolor and Micron pens in Moleskine sketchbook
\n3.5 x 5.5 inches. April 10, 2014<\/p>\n

CRYSTAL BRIDGES MUSEUM OF AMERICAN ART: THE SHAPE OF THINGS TO COME<\/p>\n

For years it was whispered that Alice Walton, the daughter of Wal-Mart founder Sam Walton had been buying important works of American art from the colonial period to the present. Self appointed eastern elites scoffed at her plans to build a major center for the study of American art in her hometown.
\nBentonville, Arkansas sits on a broad plateau west of the Ozarks, just east of the Cherokee Nation, where the western margin of the Mississippi woodlands meets the frontier of the Great Plains.
\nPeople started taking Walton seriously when she stunningly negotiated the purchase of Asher B. Durand\u2019s Kindred Spirits<\/em> from the New York Public Library.
\nAcademics and museum specialists began to realize that the lady from Arkansas was a force with whom to be reckoned. She invited Moshe Safdie to Bentonville where together on a cold damp day they tramped through the wooded ravine where Ms. Walton envisioned her museum.
\nThey hiked along the creek. Safdie lost his footing and fell into the water. As he scrambled out of the creek Ms. Walton asked if he wanted to cut short their tour and change into some dry clothes. Safdie insisted on completing their reconnaissance. Later, knowing that other architects were under consideration, Safdie asked Ms. Walton what process she would use to make a selection.
\nShe smiled and said that her decision had just been made.
\nSafdie\u2019s building wraps around the base of a curving wooded slope, with \u201cbridges\u201d crossing the pond at the bottom of the ravine. The central \u201cbridge\u201d is a large dining and commons area where meals are served by Caf\u00e9 Eleven, the number being significant because the museum opened on November 11, 2011\u2014the eleventh day in the eleventh month of the eleventh year of the new millennium.
\nTo the north another \u201cbridge\u201d crosses the base of the pond, where it drains into a stream flowing northward into city parks. At the opposite end of the curving main structure is the Great Hall, an events center, auditorium and reception hall.
\nMany of the wall surfaces throughout the building are curved. Supporting the roofs covering the Great Hall and \u201cbridges\u201d are huge, arcing laminated wooden beams like ribs of ancient ships, tied together by an ingenious system of steel rods which also support walls of glass that seal the gap between the floors and the ceilings. These are the \u201ccrystal bridges\u201d\u2014spacious and luminous interiors, above which hover turn-turtle carapaces of wood and glass.
\nUpon entering the building one is greeted by friendly, attractive staffers who ask if this is your first visit to the museum, before directing you to the reception counter. Free admission is underwritten by Wal-Mart, but special exhibitions such as the William S. Paley Collection, presently on loan from MoMA, require a special ticket. School groups bussed in at the museum\u2019s expense fill the galleries and are treated to free lunches.
\nI was completely ambushed by the collection, especially the American modernists like Arthur Dove, Marsden Hartley, Stuart Davis, Max Weber and Joseph Stella. The collection has a stunning Copley, a canonical Revolutionary-war era portrait of Washington by Charles Willson Peale, and a fabulous wall of hummingbirds in South American landscapes by Martin Johnson Heade. First rate works by Hudson River School artists include Durand’s Kindred Spirits<\/em> and an unusually fine Crospey.
\nRecently Crystal Bridges paid a princely sum to Fisk University for a fifty percent interest in the Alfred Stieglitz collection, which had long been locked away from public view. Now on exhibit at CBMAA, it is full of surprises.
\nAlso on view was a comprehensive exhibit of American watercolor painting and a contextual exhibit of drawings and studies for Edward Hopper\u2019s Blackwell\u2019s Island<\/em>, recently acquired at auction by the museum.
\nWeather-permitting one may trek a series of footpaths and trails along which are strategically positioned sculptures such as a Luis Jimenez Vaquero<\/em> and a site-specific light installation designed by James Turrell, one of Alice Walton\u2019s favorite artists. Following the trails into the town center one passes through Compton Gardens, a public park extending from the former home of nature conservationist Dr. Neil Compton that winds its way behind private residences along paved walkways inhabited by sculptures from the Crystal Bridges collection, like Paul Manship\u2019s monumental Group of Bears<\/em>.
\nA few steps beyond Compton Gardens is 21C Museum Hotel<\/em>, which one might expect to find in South Beach or Beverly Hills, not a city block from a typical Southern courthouse square with park-benches orbiting a pillar on which a Confederate soldier stands at \u201cparade rest\u201d.
\nBordering the square are upscale eateries, banks, and private retailers. Under construction just off the northwest corner of the square is the kind of mixed-use retail-residential building advocated by New Urbanists, staunch opponents of laissez-faire zoning and the automotive strip-mall netherworlds where Wal-Mart reigns supreme.
\nChallenging regional philanthropists to use culture to transform hometowns into national destinations, Crystal Bridges celebrates art as medium of public salubrity, a way to build community, and a vaccine against mediocrity.
\nArt makes sense, like everyday low prices.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Image: Cafe Eleven, Crystal Bridges Musem of American Art. Watercolor and Micron pens in Moleskine sketchbook 3.5 x 5.5 inches. April 10, 2014 CRYSTAL BRIDGES MUSEUM OF AMERICAN ART: THE SHAPE OF THINGS TO COME For years it was whispered that Alice Walton, the daughter of Wal-Mart founder Sam Walton had been buying important works … Continue reading Report from Bentonville, Arkansas<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1088","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-blog"],"yoast_head":"\nReport from Bentonville, Arkansas -<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.mcelhinneyart.com\/jlmcelhinney\/1088\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Report from Bentonville, Arkansas -\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Image: Cafe Eleven, Crystal Bridges Musem of American Art. Watercolor and Micron pens in Moleskine sketchbook 3.5 x 5.5 inches. April 10, 2014 CRYSTAL BRIDGES MUSEUM OF AMERICAN ART: THE SHAPE OF THINGS TO COME For years it was whispered that Alice Walton, the daughter of Wal-Mart founder Sam Walton had been buying important works … Continue reading Report from Bentonville, Arkansas →\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.mcelhinneyart.com\/jlmcelhinney\/1088\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2014-04-16T22:17:23+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2014-04-18T20:37:03+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.mcelhinneyart.com\/jlmcelhinney\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/04\/Pea_Ridge_AR-1-292x93.jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"James Lancel Mcelhinney\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"James Lancel Mcelhinney\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"4 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.mcelhinneyart.com\/jlmcelhinney\/1088\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.mcelhinneyart.com\/jlmcelhinney\/1088\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"James Lancel Mcelhinney\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.mcelhinneyart.com\/jlmcelhinney\/#\/schema\/person\/430757513bcd859019ee4437fe2c7d39\"},\"headline\":\"Report from Bentonville, Arkansas\",\"datePublished\":\"2014-04-16T22:17:23+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2014-04-18T20:37:03+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.mcelhinneyart.com\/jlmcelhinney\/1088\/\"},\"wordCount\":878,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.mcelhinneyart.com\/jlmcelhinney\/1088\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.mcelhinneyart.com\/jlmcelhinney\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/04\/Pea_Ridge_AR-1-292x93.jpeg\",\"articleSection\":[\"Dispatches\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.mcelhinneyart.com\/jlmcelhinney\/1088\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.mcelhinneyart.com\/jlmcelhinney\/1088\/\",\"name\":\"Report from Bentonville, Arkansas -\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.mcelhinneyart.com\/jlmcelhinney\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.mcelhinneyart.com\/jlmcelhinney\/1088\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.mcelhinneyart.com\/jlmcelhinney\/1088\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.mcelhinneyart.com\/jlmcelhinney\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/04\/Pea_Ridge_AR-1-292x93.jpeg\",\"datePublished\":\"2014-04-16T22:17:23+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2014-04-18T20:37:03+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.mcelhinneyart.com\/jlmcelhinney\/#\/schema\/person\/430757513bcd859019ee4437fe2c7d39\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.mcelhinneyart.com\/jlmcelhinney\/1088\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.mcelhinneyart.com\/jlmcelhinney\/1088\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.mcelhinneyart.com\/jlmcelhinney\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/04\/Pea_Ridge_AR-1.jpeg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.mcelhinneyart.com\/jlmcelhinney\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/04\/Pea_Ridge_AR-1.jpeg\",\"width\":1088,\"height\":349},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.mcelhinneyart.com\/jlmcelhinney\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.mcelhinneyart.com\/jlmcelhinney\/\",\"name\":\"\",\"description\":\"\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.mcelhinneyart.com\/jlmcelhinney\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.mcelhinneyart.com\/jlmcelhinney\/#\/schema\/person\/430757513bcd859019ee4437fe2c7d39\",\"name\":\"James Lancel Mcelhinney\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.mcelhinneyart.com\/jlmcelhinney\/author\/james_editor\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Report from Bentonville, Arkansas -","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.mcelhinneyart.com\/jlmcelhinney\/1088\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Report from Bentonville, Arkansas -","og_description":"Image: Cafe Eleven, Crystal Bridges Musem of American Art. 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