Hi everyone! This past week, I visited the Michener Art Museum. This museum is located in Doylestown, PA – My hometown! Doylestown is known for many things. One of the biggest things to note is all of the art here. While I have visited this museum many times, they always rotate out their pieces and have different exhibits. Last summer, I went to their Keith Harring exhibit! Seeing some of his work in person was SO cool as he is one of my favorite artists. I even found out that he is a PA native! He’s from Reading, PA. Currently, the Michener Museum has a featured exhibit from another PA artist that really drew my attention.
“Elemental” By Alan Goldstein
Alan Goldstein, a New York City native, displays his abstract works through many different mediums. Goldstein started teaching drawing and painting at Bucks County Community College in the 1970s. Goldstein has resided in Bucks County since then, making this exhibition even more heartfelt and sentimental to the Doylestown Community! (Doylestown is located in Bucks County). Fun Fact! My mom used to know Goldstein! She was kind enough to write a little something about Alan and her experiences.
“I ‘worked’ with him from 1998 till 2008. He was an incredible artist as we saw. He had a cute little house in Carversville with a studio on the property where he painted. His main passion was painting and I remember going into his studio with absolute adoration. I technically didn’t work with him. Obviously, as an artist, it’s tough to make money. I was an interior designer at the time and he would go to New York and select and schelp area rugs for us to select. Like $10,000 area rugs… sometimes more than that. I have always wondered how he was, I feel like it was fate that we stumbled upon it (the exhibit) that day!”
—Colleen DiNella
Examples of some of Goldstein’s work:
Left: “Tower with Falling Man“, Oil, wax, and pastel on canvas, c. 2005
Right: “Last Tree (The Captive)”, Oil, wax, and oil slick on canvas, c. 2010
Mid-Century to Manga
The Modern Japanese Print in America
The museum’s largest exhibit right now is the “Mid-Century to Manga: The Modern Japanese Print in America”. One of my favorite topics to learn about in my Art History class was “Japonisme”. I found the art style so interesting and this exhibit reminded me of that style a lot. This exhibit celebrates Japanese and Japanese-American illustration and print-making.
Click through some of the “Mid-Century to Manga” pieces in this gallery:
I had a wonderful time exploring this local museum. It’s always fun coming back to visit it especially when they have new exhibits. As always, I look forward to writing a new blog soon! Thank you for reading!