my trip to the East Coast last week I visited a sculpture park in Lincoln, MA. It was founded by a tea merchant of Jamaican descent, Julian de Cordova, who poured his riches into traveling the world and collecting art that he brought home to his mansion – a hobbit-like structure on steroids. After his death in 1945 it all became a museum. His own collection was sold for lack of artistic value, but his generosity enabled a focus on modern art, and eventually sculpture. Details can be found here:

https://decordova.org

The museum and grounds are a spectacular setting for some 60 pieces of art ranging from figurative to abstract to can’t-be-defined by your’s truly but made for a great play ground.

 

Luckily things are explained to the clueless.

A centerpiece is an area called Alice’s Garden, which contains figurative work that echoes Caroll’s fantasy world, Alice included.

I could not quite understand why a disembodied head of a little black girl was included – I would have placed it next to another figurative bust by Jaume Plensa at the other side of the park.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The works in Alice’s Garden impressed with a variety of materials: wood,

metal that reflected the environment,

plastic casts,

stone and as many ideas.

I think my favorite here was Terrence Koh’s sculpture Children of the Corn – Totempole. A title borrowed from a horror story by Stephen King, by a Chinese-Canadian artist who runs around dressed in white and often donning bunny ears seemed a fitting reference to the state of our world. This self-named asianpunkboy is now represented in major museums of the world, including MoMa, the Schirn, the Whitney, Tate Modern etc.  Here is a clip with his good friend Lady Gaga.

The strongest piece in the collection, for my taste anyways, will be described tomorrow. Until then, let the whimsey seep into your day, if only a little bit.