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| Walmart Headquarters in Bentonville, Arkansas |
Bentonville, Arkansas is best known for headquarters of Walmart. The main building seems as bland in appearance as their retail stores.
BUT THEN… there’s Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art. This 120-acre park and stunning museum is the brain child of Alice Walton.
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| Art Trail through Compton Gardens to Crystal Bridges |
An active art collector of American Art, she lamented the fact that there were absolutely no art museums anywhere near Bentonville. The Walton family’s foundation backs it. Always free to enter; committed to education.
Talk about education! Although a group of high school students was being ushered through the gallery ahead of us, I had my own educational experience. A succinct explanation of the different styles of art in the collection is offered on a hallway wall. Artists in their Early American and Modern Art Galleries, it explained, responded to their everyday surroundings. Some painted regal portraits of men with powdered wigs. Others employed colorful, abstract shapes to show city life. Those depictions reveal the experiences of their own times. But Contemporary artists respond to major events, some finding inspiration in controversial issues in our daily lives.
Lest the lines between the categories be too clear, the poster on the wall goes on, working in the contemporary moment doesn’t mean that artists don’t draw on the past. They do. They build on the work of their predecessors by borrowing and modifying established styles.
There are several deliciously apt examples. Here’s one: a portrait of dancer Martha Graham from a 1922 photo and then echoed in a 1977 sculpture.
We spent three hours in the museum and grounds. I could have easily done more. It’s beautiful.