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July 08, 2009Tanis by Daniel Garber
Last weekend, I went to see the Westervelt-Warner Museum of American Art in Tuscaloosa, AL. I met a friend at a dinner party who told me all about it. It sounded far too good to be true. A museum in Tuscaloosa, AL (40 minutes from Birmingham) stocked full of Mary Cassatt paintings (The extremely nice security guard -- who's been there over 20 years advised me not to miss the Cassatt sketches in the ladies bathroom.), Paul Revere silver, Whistler and Sargent paintings, tons of Hudson River paintings (recognizable from your American History class section about how the west was won) by Thomas Cole, Asher B. Durand? The list goes on and on.
Lansdowne Portrait of George Washington
Young Girl On Steamer by William Merritt Chase
Progress by Asher B. Durand
He's the guiding voice on the audio tour. He takes all the pretension out of art with his easy to understand, insightful, and totally funny thoughts about each of his works. You will never stand before another painting and hear the owner say (in a deep Southern accent) that he bought the million dollar plus work because it, "Reminds him of his Aunt Lizzie, and you know everyone's got an Aunt Lizzie." I'm not quite positive I have an Aunt Lizzie, but now I'm looking for one. You will also never hear an owner look at his Thomas Hart Benton painting of a soldier departing for World War II and be able to tell you what the soldier's thinking because, he's actually been there. Although, Mr. Warner went to Burma, and it looks like Benton's soldier is going to D-Day, and as Mr. Warner says, "hell, you know what happened there, don't you?"
He's also known to drop in 3-4 times a week so you may just catch him. I may be back next week when he's giving a tour to a church group. The security guard told me that if I come, I'm also likely to score an invite to Mr. Warner's birthday party that weekend. Hmmm...
