Nathaniel Lewis: Gobs and Gardning

So this weekend was a weekend of excess. We ate too many sweets and drank too much beer. My sister and her boyfriend came to visit and we had a very nice time. They are somewhat joined at the face still, but this drawing was actually her idea. I think I mentioned in a previous blog that I leave the front page of new sketchbooks empty until I have the right drawing. This drawing now proudly occupies the front page.

We went to the ICA and saw the Os Gemeos show at the ICA. It was probably the most refreshing show I've seen there in the last 2 years.

Then I took my sister to the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, which, if you aren't familiar is an Italian villa plunked in the middle of the Fenway by an eccentric art collector of the same name around the turn of the century. She left her house to the city on the condition that it be left exactly as she left it. She was a friend (and collector) of John Singer Sargent . It's also the scene of the most costly art heist in history. They just recent built a wonderful looking addition with a library, a children's center and a gallery. However much the addition looked like any other new contemporary museum, it was especially great juxtaposed with the antiquity and opulence of the original Gardner. I was a little disappointed with the fairly lame show in the new gallery. I also was a little disappointed that the top two floors were offices and not more galleries. So, besides the original museum, the architecture was the star of the new wing. This is my 5th or 6th time going. If you haven't been, check it out! It's a whole day's worth of coolness.

Fun times