The Peabody Essex Museum

Happy Saturday everyone. It has cooled off here after a nice warm day yesterday, but the sky is blue and it is above freezing so all is good.

Yesterday I took a little drive down to Salem, Massachusetts to visit the Peabody Essex Museum. This is one of my favorite small art museums. It's main focus is on art that relates back to the history of this area. Most people think of Salem and the infamous witch trials of the early 1690's, but Salem went on to become a leading center of trade in the late 1700's and the early 1800's. It has a rich maritime history. On permanent exhibit are galleries with art and furniture from that period as well as some Asian pieces that were brought back to Salem on some of the vessels that sailed from the city. They also have this cool Chinese house and they have some travelling exhibits.

I thought about retouring the Chinese house, but the museum was SO crowded I decided I would wait to another visit. You do have to pay extra to view, but it is worth it, even if this photo of the outside isn't much.

It really isn't all that far from my house to the museum and I should make more of an effort to get there more frequently. I've been there several times in the past but not for the last 2-3 years.

One of the exhibits there now is one about  Georgia O'Keeffe. It  had a few of her paintings, lots of photos of her, many of her iconic clothing pieces and some jewelry as well as a couple of statues. It outlined her career starting when she was in NY in the 1920's up to the end of her life when she lived in New Mexico. It was a very rich exhibit that portrayed the whole artist, not just her paintings.

Here's a little taste to wet your whistle as the cliche goes.

The exhibit was VERY crowded and I spent my time slipping around people.

 About 25% of the exhibit was her paintings, but I did enjoy the exhibit. I did hope for a  little more painting, but I loved seeing other representations of her life.

I will do a whole post and show you more another day.

At the exit to this exhibit was the entrance to a Native American artist exhibit, T. C. Cannon. Most people went back down the stairs, but I went in. It was a new discovery for me and oh man, I LOVED this exhibit.

Cannon painted in the 1960's and 1970's. You can probably tell by his colors. Unfortunately he was killed at age 31 in an automobile accident in 1978. Too bad too because it would have been great to see what else he might have created.

He was also a poet and they had some of his poems on the walls also.

I'll show you more of his art another day too.

And I finally went into American Art gallery. I had never been in there and I wanted to see it.

It was a fun visit, other than the crowds, which were all checking out Georgia O'Keeffe, but the rest of the museum was a pleasure to walk through.

I think when I retire I am going to think about joining so I can visit more frequently.

Hope you enjoy this little taste and will stop back to see some more. :)

Happy weekend. (As well as Happy Easter and Passover to those of you who celebrate.)