Three days, three museums - Part 2 of 3 - Seattle Art Museum

The Seattle Art Museum, or SAM, is one of my favorite museums. I've spent many hours there over the years but this is my first trip back since the big renovation and I have to admit that I do miss the grand staircase.

But the  installation below which is the first thing you see almost makes up for it. I love these cars - half a dozen white Ford Tauruses - the world's most generic car. All lit up. It's definitely a great way to get into the museum.

One of the things I really like about the new layout is the way the curators have jumbled (okay, not a real art museum word, but you'll see what I mean) everything up. You can go from one room that contains Italian masters to the next which might contain African masks or modern photography or something by the surrealists.

The connection aren't as obvious as they are in a traditional format, but they are interesting - and they made me think. A lot.






For example, this totally scary Maori mask...

Sits in a room next to this gorgeous antique Persian ceramic...

which sits in a room next to a series of relatively modern Seattle paintings which are like canvases filled to the brim with all kinds of crazy people...

which sit in a room next to abstract paintings...

which sit next to a hallway lined with photographs of artists...

which sit beside...

You get the picture. You need hours and hours to decipher the connections - and even then, I'd bet 99 times out of 100 they weren't the connections the curators planned. Which is, for me, the best part of the whole experience.

Kate