Austin Museum of Art

I really wanted to like the museum.  I wanted to be impressed and interested.

Sadly, I was not.

There is only one floor of the big building on Congress that is the museum, so there isn't much to see.  I kept looking for stairs or something to go to another floor, something else, something more.  The major exhibit right now is the Art of Hatch show prints.  The history is interesting, but not really what I was hoping to see.  The rest of the exhibits, I didn't really understand.  I know, modern art is supposed to be kind of edgy and unusual.  I get that.  But it's also supposed to SAY something.  And I wasn't hearing it.

I saw one exhibit that could have been done by any 10-year-old.  Acrylic on little wooden squares, one of which looked like it had coffee spilled on it, and not on purpose.  Another was two Beatles records with a perfect square of scratches across them.  Right next to it was an old Perry Como record sleeve with an inked circle on the cover.  OK.  What's the point?

I was really hoping to see some actual art by at least one name I would actually recognize.  I was disappointed.

I should have expected it, though.  I went to the Laguna Gloria a few years ago, and I was more impressed by the grounds than the few paintings that I saw on the walls.  I guess it's just me.  Maybe I don't know enough about modern art to appreciate it.  But really, if it doesn't speak to regular people, is it really art that belongs in a museum?  Or is it just somebody's little ego trip?

Austin Museum of Art