Charlottesville, Virginia

Great meeting with David Summers in Charlottesville on Monday. David is one of the most important art historians in the country and, as regular readers of my blog know, his books, especially Real Spaces, have had a major influence on my approach to "art" and culture. I was privileged to have taken two of his seminars in graduate school at UVa, but it was through reading Real Spaces, published in 2003, that I finally came to the realization that "art" comprises all man-made objects. We spoke for over an hour in his office, and then my friend Peggy Lowe took this picture of us.

David is also a painter, and at one point during our conversation he informed me that he has a show opening at a local gallery, Les Yeux du Monde. It's in the countryside outside of Charlottesville and kind of hard to find, but boy are we glad we did. First of all, the entrance to the property is almost mystical.

And then after winding probably a good half a mile down this driveway you come across this vision of modern architecture in the middle of nowhere.

The gallery building (but not the house behind it) was desiged by W.G. Clark, best known in Charleston for the Middleton Inn and the Croffead House.

Here are some of the pictures in the exhibition, all by David Summers.

These three are part of a series called "An Investigation of the Weight of Shadows." The show is called Light, which, if you know Professor Summers and much of his scholarly work, has significance on many levels.

This one's called "Mondrian's Apricots."

This is "Mont Sainte-Victoire, Morning," which would have significance for any art historian.

And here's Peggy and me in front of the biggest painting in the show, "A Greater Net of Indra (for L.M.)."

And so, Ned's 2013 National "Art" Tour (so christened by my friend Laurie Israel; quotation marks added by me, of course) continues. I wasn't sure if I was going to blog it or not, but my first experience in Raleigh got me to thinking that I might post a blog about each museum I visit along the way. And then I have this completely serendipitous encounter in Charlottesville. I mean, the meeting with David Summers was planned, but I didn't know he had a show opening this week, and I certainly didn't expect it to be in a super cool modernist building in the Virginia hills. I wonder what other marvels I'll encounter on my journey.