Day 4 - Boston

It was 78 degrees, sunny and beautiful. We grabbed a quick breakfast at Fanagle-a-Bagel and the metro to the Fine Arts Museum of Boston.

Side Note: Denis and I make great traveling partners with the exception of eating. He loves to skip breakfast and lunch for the sake of time economy and pack in as much as he can in one massive meal (dinner) a day. On the other side of eating, I eat a light breakfast, good-sized lunch and a light dinner. I may skip much of my working out while vacationing but I just can't compromise my nutrition. He, now, tolerates my eating habits and I tolerate his looking a bit annoyed when we have to make a stop for sustenance. I try not to make too many critical comments about his large dinner - after all, they are usually delicious!

The fine art museum was much like every other large city art museum and it would have been a pleasure to take more time there but since time was limited we breezed through a few permanent exhibits and took a more leisurely pace through the "Soviet Textile" and "Past to Present Japan" exhibits. Both traveling displays were something new to me. The Soviet textiles were from a 5 year period when the country was trying to catch up with the rest of the modernized world. There was all kinds of propaganda incorporated into the fabric designs, some more subtle than others. One of the most unsubtle was a floral pattern with the hammer and sickle woven amongst the petals. Although the pattern designs were interesting many women couldn't find it in themselves to use for dresses or household use and the government became frustrated with the designers’ infighting, so the idea of propagandizing fabrics was dismissed. The Japanese display showed the interesting changes that took place when the Japanese first decided to open their doors to Westerners and their influences. Traditional techniques of painting were used by some artists to paint Western ideas and some artists began to incorporate Western techniques into their works. A particular artist began to paint outside the Japanese standard, added more movement and emotion to his pieces. He was accused of painting under the influence of "sake".