Whatever the exhibition, but especially when parts of it are outside, a visit to the Tampa Museum of Art inevitably yields a certain affirmation. How fortunate we are, indeed, that there is the nearby permanent, de facto installation: the University of Tampa minarets.
Right now they are the aesthetic backdrop for two sculptures (The Soul of Words I and II) of the “Jaume Plensa: Human Landscapes” exhibit now adorning the museum’s lawn. The sculptures intriguingly use numerous alphabets to form two sitting men facing each other. Unsurprisingly, virtually all of the visitor photo ops were inclusive of the minaret background.
They complement everything.
TMA is also currently featuring selections from the Masterworks collection of the Kassar Mochary Art Foundation. The theme: “Public and Private–the (Human) Figure Examined.” One observation that typically typecasts me as a philistine: Whenever a collection is referenced as “eclectic,” it seems that is code for Jackson Pollock inclusion. Mercifully, Pollock did something before drip art caught the trendy eye of the artsy in-crowd.