Sculptural installation by Joe Fafard. Out in front of the National Gallery of Canada. I like it a lot!
More here: http://blogs.ottawacitizen.com/2011/11/29/herd-of-horses-now-runs-through-downtown-ottawa/
It was quite hard to get this picture, because you aren’t allowed to walk on the gravel where the horses are placed. You also can’t actually be on the driveway in front of the horses if you aren’t in a car. Naturally I was on a bike.
Security guard: ‘Sir! You aren’t allowed to be here! You must be in a car!’
Me: ‘I’ll just be a minute. I just want to get a picture of this work of art.’
Security guard on walkie-talkie: ‘Mumble mumble refuses to leave mumble mumble…’
Anyway I got the picture and left before I got arrested. I guess you could look at the horses if you were driving by in your car, or walking on the sidewalk, but I didn’t try that. I wanted to get them from inside, looking out at the street. And I did!
I was actually at the National Gallery to see the Van Gogh exhibit. This one here: http://www.gallery.ca/vangogh/en/index.htm#
I was expecting to be pretty much gobsmacked by being in the presence of actual Van Goghs, but it wasn’t quite like that. The colours weren’t as bright as I expected, and there was a lot of kind of pukey green in them.
They didn’t have the famous ones like Starry Night and Sunflowers, although there was another painting of sunflowers which was once owned by Gauguin. I thought that was pretty cool. And it was interesting to see the Japanese prints by Hiroshige and others, which influenced Van Gogh. I totally get that. I love Japanese prints.
I liked some of the paintings a lot, but I would rather have seen them on a computer where the light would be brighter and the colours would be better.
After I finished looking at the Van Goghs, for which I had paid $23, I wandered out and saw some contemporary Canadian art in the adjoining galleries. There was an exhibit of photographs by Arnaud Maggs, who I actually knew in Toronto back in the seventies, and I saw a Norval Morrisseau, some Michael Snows, and that Claude Breeze painting of the lynched family. I liked that stuff a lot better than the Van Goghs, and it only would have cost me $9 to see it.
So that was me and the Van Goghs. I don’t mean to discourage you from going! I’m sure you’ll like it more than I did.
A year ago today:
Pic 1156
Race weekend, 2011
May 29, 2011
Two years ago:
Pic 810
Shoes
May 29, 2010
Three years:
Pic 472
Dandelion
May 29, 2009
2 Comments
This shot is incredible, and not just for the story of near-arrest. I have been to the gallery many times and actually have never seen this – how long has it been there? I think it’s kind of sad that there’s no good place to stand and admire it/take a picture. I’ll have to be satisfied with your shot – it’s going on my artwork wish list :).
Hi Lynn. I hadn’t seen it either, but I wanted to. It is at what the gallery thinks of as its main entrance, which is the main entrance for cars. But I think most visitors arrive at the gallery by walking past the big spider, not in a car, and when you come that way you don’t see it.