Modern Fort Worth

Before the Savannah jaunt, I spent a weekend in Fort Worth. I love Fort Worth. I would live there in a minute, if only it supported more of my industry.

Fort Worth and Dallas are like sisters; Fort Worth is the intelligent, well-traveled, even-tempered, old money brunette sister who can converse on any topic, loves the arts, fine dining and can feel just as comfortable in formalwear as in jeans-n-boots.

Dallas is the high-maintenance, drama-queen blonde sister with the nice rack and the Platinum AmEx.

It still baffles me that Fort Worth, not Dallas, is the seat of culture for North Texas, this is so far from the pokey cowtown that most people make it out to be. The largest Modern Art Museum in this country is in Fort Worth, seriously. When NYC's MoMa reopens (if it hasnt already), Fort Worth will have the second largest.

Fort Worth's Modern Art Museum, The Modern , is an artistic wonder that Japanese architect, Tadao Ando, gave birth to in 2002. Its such an interesting building, inside and out, that sometimes I spend more time looking at the features of the building than the exhibits.

Photo Collection: The Modern, Fort Worth



I went to The Modern to see 4 exhibits, 3 of which were going away that weekend. Instead of seeing all 4, I spent 4 hours looking at the work of Chuck Close. Mind boggling. He can take an image in his head, divide it into hundreds of little squares, carve each square on a large wooden sheet in reverse image, apply the correct color to the wooden sheet, then apply the wooden sheet to canvas to make what appears to the eye as a photograph. (Actually its a group of 7-8 wooden sheets, each intended for a different color, which is more mind boggling).

It defies conventional thought, Close defies conventional thought. If this collection comes to your city, definitely set aside a few hours for a viewing.


The Modern
Fort Worth
Chuck Close