apah

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In keeping with the collection of a world-class museum, the Kimbell art museum of Ft. Worth makes it a point to mix in classical and timeless works with new and fresh ideas from our own age. Museums such as the Kimbell cherish the learning and discovery that classical paintings convey to thier viewers. The social conflicts, personal struggles, and epic feats sometimes displayed in such paintings will forever strike a chord in humanity's heart, but these intimate themes often elude viewers. Phillip Haas has done a wonderful job of teaching viewers about a small selection of the works on display at the Kimbell through the use of video installations and interpretive storytelling, and with the museum at its back, it will remain a powerful teaching tool for everyone who enjoys a showing.

The first piece to be completed (and also the first piece to be shown publicly) was The Butcher's Shop by Caracci, which contrasted the artist's classical knowlege and both the two butchers and Caracci's assistant's congenial laughter and their mocking of their macabre profession. As the butchers chopped and rended their animal carcasses, Haas made it quite evident how Caracci saw semblance between the two trades of butchery and painting. Panning over a rack of ribs and a palette of oil paints like a helicopter over the gaping chasm of the Grand Canyon, the artist took the liberty of two screens to display the effect of his artistic vision correctly and in the most simple way, rather than using one screen and cutting back adn forth between the two elements. It is this enthralling display coupled with the static statement that only the genuine piece can make that brings such a rich quality to The Butchers Shop. The quality of this display is so pristine in its' teaching that there is no doubt in my support to install more works like those of Haas' at the Kimbell in museums world-wide in order to help educate, enthuse, and promote the preservation of often overlooked works like those of Caracci and ancient asian orgin.

The importance of pieces like these is that it educates the people. education about history keeps the future in a linear path. without it, we would be lost, stuck in the present, and never looking forward or backwards. Imagine what you could do with a tube of neosporin and a time machine. If you could travel back in time and save just one person from death in the dark ages, and with them save all of their knowlege and aquisitions of thoughts that theyd gathered through the years, the world would be in a completely different place then where it is now. it would be an unbeliveable gain for the human race. that is why its so important to educate the people about art and about the sciences so closely related to it.