Carl Bloch

Posted by Mark:

I can't say I'm the most cultured person in the world. I daydream about cars and power tools, I like getting my hands dirty with dirt/sawdust/oil and I enjoy video games where the soul purpose is shoot as many of the enemy as possible.

However, from time to time I try to put aside my Neanderthal ways and partake in the finer things of the life. Last week was just such an occasion. BYU's museum of fine art managed to secure a number of paintings by the artist Carl Bloch. The highlight of the exhibit being five of the eight gigantic alter pieces that Carl Bloch created that have been, until now, housed in a number of churches in Denmark.

Since the exhibit opened in November I've told myself and Kimmi on numerous occasions that wanted to go see this once in a lifetime collection. Due to my normal procrastinating nature I chose to wait till the final week before going on line to reserve tickets. To my utter dismay I discovered I wasn't the only one in the area that had the same thought. For every day until the exhibit's close on the 7th of May the tickets were entirely reserved! Not wanting to take "no" for an answer, nor did I feel like waiting in the stand-by line for fear of driving all the way to P-town and getting turned away, I decided to use the last arrow I had in my quiver... Name Drop.... I called up my grandpa's secretary, told her my predicament, told her my desired day of attendance, and voilà! Kimmi and I had tickets. Though I'm slightly embarrassed that I had to stoop to such procurement methods I am no less glad I did because the exhibit was quite spectacular.

Not only was I amazed about how someone goes about painting such beautiful pieces of art but I couldn't fathom how these paintings got shipped here! They are just huge and the liability to ship them must have been immense! Anyway, it was a nice addition of culture to the lives of Mark, Kimmi, and Spencer (Spencer had a blast. His favorite part was the TV that showed all the different churches that these paintings were borrowed from in Denmark. He was transfixed!)

P.S.
Upon exiting the Carl Bloch exhibit you pass a room that had this in it!

Hard to believe that this 12ft tall sculpture is made entirely out of books! It was fun to walk around it and see the different kinds of books used. You could see scriptures, magazines, dictionaries, ect. It was a fun end to a great evening.