Crocker Art Museum

Crocker Art Museum
216 O Street
Sacramento, CA
crockerartmuseum.org

When visiting this museum the first thing you notice is it the architecture which in a way is a work of art it's self.  With the new addition there is a sharp contrast between the new cool sleek modern building and the formal opulence of the original 1800's house.  The Crocker family donated the home to the city after the death of E.B. Crocker (the brother of the Crocker who was a member of the Big Four who funded the Trans Pacific Railroad).  It was then that it became an art gallery and since then there have been two expansions, one in the 50's and another one which was finished earlier this year.

Personally I enjoyed the Impressionist art but then again, I always do.  The artists that caught my eye were, Mary Curtis Richardson, Edward Butler, Paul Burde and Wilhelm Marc.  The current temporary exhibit at the Crocker is called "The Inferno of Innocents" by Gottfried Helnwein.  It's brilliant, the emotion and thoughts provoked my a mere image were astounding.  I felt myself being drawn in and it was all I could do to keep myself from reaching out touching the canvass.  Each painting was larger than life, almost the size of a movie screen, and so realistic that it wasn't until I was only inches away that I could make out the brush strokes.

Going from one wing of the museum to the next it is like stepping back in time by way of museum display technique.  In the modern wing the walls are all white and each piece has plenty of space surrounding it and the lighting gives each and every piece of art the appearance of being center stage.  As you move to the original wing art is everywhere from the intricately carved bannisters to the beautiful wallpaper, which it all of the paintings were striped away would most likely be left with squares of evidence that they were once there, and before your eyes even have a chance to finally rest upon the century old oil paintings there is more art in the form of elaborate guided frames.