Randuwa II: BMA: European Art

Saturday, July 24, 2021

BMA: European Art

After attending the lecture at the Maryland Zoo, I went over to the Baltimore Museum of Art for a visit. Interestingly, it was the last public venue that I went to before everything shut down back in Mid-March 2019.

The first floor galleries which feature the museum's African Art works is completely shut down for a total make over. They have a fairly descent collection of 18th thru mid-20th century cultural artifacts. I look forward to see how they plan to better contextualize the works. The BMA is one of these all in one museums with a little something from antiquity to contemporary.

With the first floor closed, I headed up to the second and started as one must in the several galleries devoted to European Art 15th thru 19th centuries. I had just entered the second room when a young black patron called out, "Hey! How are you doing?"

Since I was the only other person in the gallery, I turned and replied, "Fine," and then added, "How are you?"

From the tone of his voice, I sort of assumed that he had mistaken me for someone he knew. We were (everyone was) wearing masks, after all. He replied that he was good, too. So I gently too it a little further. I didn't want him to feel embarrassed.

I asked, "Are you enjoying the museum?"

He replied, "Yes. It's really nice."

The way he inflected his worlds made me think he was seeing the place for the first time, so I continued, "Is this your first visit, or have you been here before?"

"This is my first visit. You?"

"I've been before, though it's been awhile."

"That's cool."

Here the conversation faded, and so mission accomplished, I said, "There's a lot of great stuff to see, I hope you enjoy the rest."

He thanked me and we went about our separate explorations. Here are 6 images from these galleries for you enjoyment.