Picked up Sal and Russ today and went to IHOP for brunch, the food is good, lots of it, and good prices and service. Thankfully it has warmed right up again, now back nearly into the 70s and should be so for this whole week coming. It's their last day here, they had visited Joshua Tree National Park yesterday and loved it and the surrounding desert scape.
Skies today were grey and overcast, though mild, and tonight we had about 3 cloudbursts, that each lasted about 5 minutes, no more, light rain really, nothing much to speak of though very dark skies near 4 PM or so.
We went over to the Palm Springs Art Museum, and had an excellent docent Denise guide us around, the gallery is totally self sufficient, no public funds of any kind. They are very lucky with very generous patrons and donors. Spectacular works of art, and she had us going all over, and comparing/contrasting things. It was fascinating. They own quite a lot of art and have more promised to them, with some fabulous benefactors that live right here in the Coachella Valley.
There is quite a lot of sculpture, Henry Moore bronzes, some amazingly lifelike statues, one of a pair of average folks sitting on a bench, you just assume they are real. And there is a nude girl lying flat, called Joan, and she is eerily lifelike.
There is another woman artist represented who makes horses out of driftwood, then casts the driftwood pieces into bronze to form, the horses, incredible. Another of her works was a horse lying down that appeared to be made out of bed frame metal or something.
They have some fabulous western art including some by George Montgomery, the actor, he was a cowboy actor, but also carved beautiful furniture, painted and did many interesting things. They have work by Remington and Russell including some cowboy bronzes, and some native indian weaving, baskets and kachina dolls. Some of the desert scenes are lovely. Many of the western art paintings were from the George Montgomery collection.
There were incredible studio glass pieces, some very incredible ones in a special room, and some very modern pieces of work. They appear to have very high calibre work, Andy Warhol, some Picasso and Chagal.
There are 4 floors, and the building itself is very interesting, we didn't see one floor at all, didn't have time, and the lower level has a theatre in it. There were 2 sculpture gardens outside but we didn't have a chance to view them.
A wonderful afternoon.
The first weekend of the month you can get in free if you have a Bank of America card, so that's what we did. Our tour was 2 hours, and so interesting.
We just skimmed through Richard Avedon a fashion, stage and screen photographer, so we'll have to return now that we have discovered yet another jewel of Palm Springs.
About Me
- Di and Lary
- Di and Lary are both retired, Lary was in the Canadian Armed Forces as an Air Navigator, 32 years, and Di did many things, but the most fulfilling was teaching, for 3 years on an Indian Reserve in Central BC and later 7 years teaching ESL, both in Canada and in Europe, in Spain and later Germany.