Grandmother's Gift – warmed my little artist heart
Grandmother’s Gift – warmed my little artist heart
One summer, when I was around twelve years old, I went to visit my grandmother in New York City. She took me to all the major art museums, including the Whitney, the Guggenheim, the Museum of Modern Art, and the Met. It was a marathon museum tour that warmed my little artist heart.
We must have made a strange pair. I was an awkward teenager with thick glasses and braces from the suburbs, and my grandmother was very tall and graceful and elegant. She was a life-long New Yorker, and I can remember how impressed I was with how she ordered tea at the Museum of Modern Art. I think people could tell she was important and treated her with deference .This left an impression on me.
My grandmother Celia Klein
This is me at about thirteen with my mom
I wonder how many thirteen year old boys would be as excited as I was to go to the big city and visit the art museums. She really was the perfect museum going companion,---curious about what I was into but also having her own stories, opinions, and tastes. And she never got tired! (Museum going can be really hard on the feet).
Van Gogh "Wheat Field with Cypresses" One of the colorful paintings from the Metropolitan
What I remember the most from that day is how when I went to sleep, visions of paintings danced in my head. You know how when you are driving on a long road trip and finally stop at a motel, you can see the red taillights when you close your eyes? I had visions of Van Gogh, Matisse, and the Fauves fluttering across my eyelids. It's the kind of color experience I now savor, and I want to give to other people.
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This is me at about sixteen. Notice the Van Gogh poster of the Wheat Field with Cypresses in the background. I think my grandmother bought it for me on the NYC trip.
My grandmother is no longer with us. Going to the museums with her was one of the best gifts I ever got, a gift I still cherish. She introduced me to a world that I love, on a perfect summer day.
