Visiting the new and improved Art Gallery of Ontario
On Sunday, we finally got around to visiting the new and improved Art Gallery of Ontario. Although we were invited to the artists party celebrating the grand re-opening, we waited until now to venture over to see the place.
Over the years, the AGO has become less and less relevant to me as an art lover and painter in this town. When the reno was announced, I thought that the building didn't matter so much as the programming. In other words I didn't have the highest expectations.
All that said, I was impressed by the new AGO. I enjoyed the renovation. I liked the way many of the spaces displayed the work. There were some rooms which feature smaller galleries or rooms withing larger spaces, organized in a way I thought was very effective.
I enjoyed the work I saw, and was really impressed by the sheer scope and quality of the Thomson collection. In some galleries I thought they could have made it easier for the viewer to identify the various works, but that is a small complaint.
Overall, I think they did a great job.
Now with the revitalized building, I'd like to see the AGO embark on some programming adventures. Show us a lot more contemporary work by a wide spectrum of Ontario artists. We have lots of fantastic artists in this province we should be celebrating in this building.
2 comments:
What exciting news to hear a response to the new building. I'm out of touch with these kind of details.
It was nice to read a positive review of the joint!
I just got an email from a mutual friends daughter who went to the AGO...I thought I'd add it here because it is a cool review too!
"I think the art workshop is very smart, and will open the eyes of people to help express themselves in art. Speaking of art, i went to the new ago recently, i got in for free because of _______, i saw this really amzing sculpture of a glass/mirror house with these weird palm tree's, then there were stuffed squirrels and raccoon's and owl's, some of the owls had this weird Plasticine mask's, then there were chicken men inside and sitting in the house. The men had business suits on and then feather neck's and hands. And chicken faces....it was amzing! there were other great paintings and sculptures i saw, like a stretched face from photo shop, but it was made into a sculpture, it looked so real. But one of the painting's i hated, it was so cruel. From the 1880's or something, but the painting was of these men killing children and the woman were trying to stop it. It was horrible. After you see it, it is forever in your head..."
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