The Nasher Museum

One of the things Pam and I have done in the last couple months is visit the brand spanking new Nasher Museum at Duke. It is a very nice place to have just up the street. It struck me as a little sparse and disjointed, but it is new. The building itself is quite beautiful, not quite the architectural marvel as the Mutual Bank building downtown, but very pleasant with all the light and airiness and openness. By disjointed, I mean it reminds me kinda like a strange little western musuem outside of Tucson I visited a few years back where some rich Yankee traveller was so taken with anything Indian that he just collected it all and displayed it together without any idea of tribe or what went with what. Except here it's a mix of modern and ancient art. Fortunately I only need one spectacular piece to make my museum going expereince worthwhile. They had a medieval painting depicting the harrowing of Hell that was jam packed with all manner of oddball imagery. It made me a little proud of myself that I figured most of it out after 20 minutes or so.

Thanks to a grant from the Durham Herald-Sun, the Nasher Museum is free to Durham residents. That is very nice of them!