Burchfield Penney Art Center

So this weekend I visited the new Burchfield Penney Art Center. I have to report that this is waaaay better than the Albright Knox Art Gallery which was a total rip-off in that they charge too much and took away anything worth looking at.

The only complaint I have is that Buff State needs to take down the signs that point to the old Burchfield Center. Not being super-familiar with the area, we followed the signs thinking that they were showing where we were supposed to park. We could see the new building when we got off the 198, but thought that parking was around back or something. Until this weekend, I didn't even know that there was an old art gallery - I thought the new one was just that: new.

Once we figured out where to go, the rest of the visit was wonderful. There was a nice mix of stuff that you could tell what it was, stuff you couldn't and photography. And the things there that were abstract were still attractive and made you use your imagination - they looked like someone had gone to a lot of effort to make them look like they do!

The center was open and airy and very friendly and relaxed. There were no pruned-faced old ladies telling you not to stand close to the art. There were no police-officer-wannabes telling you not to take pictures. As a matter-of-fact, picture taking was just fine, as long as you didn't use a flash.



I especially enjoyed the Buffalo ties to the art. A good chunk of the exhibits had stories next to them explaining how they were related to Buffalo, whether it was the artist or the object of the art.

Albright Knox opted to take down my favorite picture they had from when I was kid. I now have a new favorite:



Who can't love a 4-foot package of Twinkies?

The Grand Staircase was pretty cool, too. If you stand at the top and watch people walking up or down, they looked bigger or smaller than they were supposed to because the staircase it wider at the top than at the bottom. Because of that, the perspective is out-of-whack and people actually look bigger as they are going down or smaller as they come up. It was interesting to watch...

I'm really glad I went. It was fun, I feel culturally enriched and it was affordable: $7 to get in (for adults - seniors and kids over 5 only $4) and free parking. I'd go back again.

Not Art

Well, last weekend we made it to the Albright Knox Art Gallery, but didn't get to participate in Maple Weekend. I wish we had swapped what we chose to do. The art gallery was not what it used to be. The Jennifer Steinkamp exhibit was pretty cool, but the rest of it was pretty much a waste in my opinion.

It looks like they got rid of all the paintings that were art - meaning the pieces that actually look like something and someone went to some kind of effort to make it look recognizable. I don't totally hate modern art. Some of it is neat, but a lot of it I just don't consider art. Just about everything that was on display looked like something a five year old could do. How hard is it to take a piece of canvas and paint it blue? And don't tell me that it's the color of blue that makes the difference. I can take a sample of any color in the world, go to Home Depot and get a gallon of it while I wait. Give me a canvas and fifteen minutes and I could do the same thing.

Just about all of the things that I had fun looking at when I was growing up were gone. The mirror room was still there, but under repair so we couldn't go in. Everything else was gone. Even the Campbell soup cans. So much was gone, one could go through the whole building in a little over an hour if they took their time. At $10 a ticket to get in and $8 for parking (if you don't get your ticket validated), I don't find visiting the Albright Knox art gallery a very good value. I can't image paying for a family to go in. I don't think I'll be going back for a very long time. If at all.