This transcendent Baltimore museum features works 鈥� and quirks 鈥� of art
TILED IN STYLE: Mosaics on the exterior of the American Visionary Art Museum in Baltimore were created by incarcerated and formerly incarcerated young people.
Melanie Stetson Freeman/Staff
Baltimore
At the Louvre, you鈥檒l find Leonardo da Vinci鈥檚 鈥淢ona Lisa.鈥� At the Art Institute of Chicago, you鈥檒l see Georges Seurat鈥檚 鈥淎 Sunday on La Grande Jatte 鈥� 1884.鈥� And at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, you can see Mary Cassatt鈥檚 鈥淟ilacs in a Window.鈥�
But you won鈥檛 find a 15-foot-tall, amphibious, all-terrain, pink poodle kinetic sculpture named Fifi. For that, you need to go to the American Visionary Art Museum in Baltimore.
On its website, AVAM describes its quirky niche as highlighting 鈥渟elf-taught individuals ... whose works arise from an innate personal vision that revels foremost in the creative act itself.鈥�
Why We Wrote This
The American Visionary Art Museum showcases the full range of human experience, from the tragic to the goofy. Self-taught artists created many of the pieces on display.
鈥淚 have an art degree, but I think we overthink things, trying to produce things that have meaning behind every single stroke,鈥� says Ellen Owens, the director of AVAM. 鈥淚 truly believe that people need this stuff [art] to thrive. Being creative and being artistic doesn鈥檛 have to be boring or quiet. It can be exciting, joyful, and silly.鈥�
If it鈥檚 silliness you鈥檙e after, it鈥檚 hard to beat 鈥淔ifi.鈥� Designed by Theresa Segreti, AVAM鈥檚 now-retired director for the museum鈥檚 annual Baltimore Kinetic Sculpture Race, 鈥淔ifi鈥� is a crowd favorite. This year鈥檚 15-mile race, held on May 2, was a 鈥渞ace of artful contraptions鈥� built to travel over land, water, sand, and mud. Its goal is to show kids what adult fun looks like.
But, as novelist Meera Syal reminds us, 鈥淟ife isn鈥檛 all ha ha hee hee.鈥� One of AVAM鈥檚 current exhibits is 鈥淓sther and the Dream of One Loving Human Family.鈥� Through a series of 36 hand-embroidered tapestries, Esther Krinitz portrays how she and her younger sister survived the Nazi invasion of Poland by breaking away from their Jewish parents and siblings on the road to an extermination camp and posing as Polish Catholic farm girls.
In the same room, you鈥檒l find 鈥淭he Strength To Be Joyful,鈥� a series of painted pieces by self-taught artist Mary Proctor. Raised by her grandmother in rural Florida, Ms. Proctor struggled with depression after a fire claimed her grandmother鈥檚 life. The one thing that gave Ms. Proctor joy, hope, and meaning was an impulse to gather salvaged materials and raw feelings and experiences and to make art from them. On one painting, Ms. Proctor wrote, 鈥淚 refuse to let hate live in my garden. Love help me grow.鈥�
鈥淲hen I think of Mary Proctor and Esther Krinitz,鈥� Ms. Owens says, 鈥渂oth are incredibly skillful artists, but there is something childlike about their imagery. It allows us to process this incredibly difficult part of history鈥� 鈥� the Holocaust for Ms. Krinitz, and America鈥檚 Jim Crow laws for Ms. Proctor.
AVAM gives people an opportunity to see the full range of human experience, Ms. Owens says, from the tragic to the transcendent, all told through the personal visual narratives of artists.
鈥淭his is not a quiet, churchlike place. It is a place for lively dialogue or laughing at our quirks.鈥� 鈻�