Art Review: Lois Dodd: Natural Order at Bruce Museum

Last week I wrote about Greenwich’s Bruce Museum, just renovated, expanded, and transformed. It’s an art-and-science museum, a quirky combo, and now that’s only one of its strengths. I don’t often see a big redo so deftly calibrated to both the enjoyment and edification of the visitors. Everything looks great, which is what the objects want. New and renovated galleries are various and elegant, making for a museum that accommodates different interests and moods. It’s an architectural success story and a great launch for a place that’s now the civic museum for Connecticut’s Gold Coast.

Now it’s the art and the programming that have to do the heavy lifting. A renovated and expanded museum draws crowds when it reopens — once, to see the architecture. The Bruce picked exactly the right temporary exhibition to debut its new look and purpose. Lois Dodd: Natural Order is the first retrospective in the New York area for one of America’s finest painters. Dodd, now 95, has been making rigorous yet luscious landscapes for 70 years, and she’s still painting and still evolving. In doing a big Dodd show, the Bruce does what every smart museum does. It surprises and delights.

About the Author

Brian T. Allen

Brian T. Allen is National Review’s art critic.

Last week I wrote about Greenwich’s Bruce Museum, just renovated, expanded, and transformed. It’s an art-and-science museum, a quirky combo, and now that’s only one of its strengths. I don’t often see a big redo so deftly calibrated to both the enjoyment and edification of the visitors. Everything looks great, which is what the objects want. New and renovated galleries are various and elegant, making for a museum that accommodates different interests and moods. It’s an architectural success story and a great launch for a place that’s now the civic museum for Connecticut’s Gold Coast.

Now it’s the art and the programming that have to do the heavy lifting. A renovated and expanded museum draws crowds when it reopens — once, to see the architecture. The Bruce picked exactly the right temporary exhibition to debut its new look and purpose. Lois Dodd: Natural Order is the first retrospective in the New York area for one of America’s finest painters. Dodd, now 95, has been making rigorous yet luscious landscapes for 70 years, and she’s still painting and still evolving. In doing a big Dodd show, the Bruce does what every smart museum does. It surprises and delights.