Celebrate the season with a weekend adventure at the Hall Art Foundation in Reading, Vermont, open on Saturdays and Sundays, rotating exhibitions of contemporary art. Rules have relaxed since my last visit a few years ago in that you now have the choice of self-guided tours as well as docent-led ones. I recommend both.
Imagine being a (woman) artist in 1972 and garnering a solo show at the Whitney Museum, only to have two of your paintings stolen from the exhibition. Such was the case for Gladys Nilsson, longtime Chicago-based painter and collageist (and still creating at age 85) of romping, colorful figures like those in the diptych Painting Nature (photo, top). The Hall has 15 of her works on display, and each one is more luscious than the next. Your morning would certainly start off better if you had the occasion to gaze at one of Nilsson’s works before facing the rest of the day.
What drew us to the Hall was an exhibition that included work by Ed Ruscha. Ramos, Rosenquist, Ruscha: Pop Perspectives. The Ruscha was eclipsed by the other two artists: Mel Ramos’s kitschy nudes (including one of Christine Hall herself) and the decidedly unkitschy The Drawing Lesson #3 (photo just above). Said the docent of this one: “She is exuding nothing but pure confidence.” Entirely apt. Then he supplied us with a tidbit of info that artist James Rosenquist himself had appeared in the movie Wall Street (1987), in a scene involving the purchase of some art. I fact-checked this: he was right.
Last, and not least, was a photo exhibition of the work of Joel Sternfeld. A lover of New York City, many of the photos related to the construction and before-times of the High Line. But my favorite—and much commented upon by viewers when I was there—was a photo of a firefighter intent on choosing just the perfect pumpkin albeit maybe (?) at an inopportune moment. (There a secret explanation to this photo but I won’t ruin it by revealing it here. You’ll have to go yourself, or ask me when you see me.)
The campus of the five-building Hall Foundation is walkable, features outdoor sculpture, a small cafe, and two waterfalls—one natural, and one human-made. For more information, check out the website. Open on weekends from May 10 to November 30.
Post-visit and hungry for lunch? Head to nearby Brownsville Butcher and Pantry, where if you hit it at just the right moment you will join a long line of locals, bike tourists, and to judge by their muscled arms and printed sleeveless shirts, members of the Dartmouth crew team. Share a menu with a neighbor and then order the pastrami Reuben. Trust me.
And since you are in Brownsville, you might want to pay a visit to the cemetery located right in town, where actors Charles Bronson and Jill Ireland, longtime area residents, are buried. Bronson selected a poem for the tombstone. A service going on at the time prevented us from getting close enough to read it, but it is available here.
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And in case you are wondering . . . Susan B. Apel shuttered a lifelong career as a law professor to continue an interest (since kindergarten) in writing. Her freelance business, The Next Word, includes literary and feature writing; her work has appeared in a variety of lit mags and other publications including Art New England, The Woven Tale Press, The Arts Fuse, and Persimmon Tree. She connects with her neighbors through Artful, her blog about arts and culture in the Upper Valley. She’s in love with the written word.