Brandeis

I went to the Rose Art Museum at Brandeis and checked out the permanent collection. There were quite a few people there, which was good. 

My two favorites are Willem de Kooning's Untitled, 1961, oil on canvas,80"x70":

(this picture doesn't do it justice, it's actually more saturated with greens and peach and yellow and blue...it reminds me of a Summer day)

And a rather large piece by Sam Francis, which is essentially some paint around the edges of the canvas, leaving the middle white. This piece makes me smile.  I could not find a pic of the piece, so I found one like it:

 

Sam Francis, Untitled, 1968 acrylic on canvas

It looks as though someone has placed a sheet of paper on top of a complete painting. There is definitely something there, behind the mass of white, and I get to decide what it is.  

 

  I have a doll that my mother made for me when I was in second grade. Her body is made of a sock, she has yarn for hair, buttons for eyes, and felt hearts for cheeks. She does not have a mouth. When I would bring my doll in to school, some kids would point out that she was lacking.  One of my teachers picked up on this and pointed out to the other kids that my doll was like Native American dolls.  They lacked facial features so that they were not restricted to one emotion. The one holding the doll could assign any number of facial expressions.   Francis' painting does this for me.