Ammi Phillips, “Girl in a Red Dress with Cat and Dog,” 1830-35, American Folk Art Museum, gift of the Siegman Trust, Ralph Esmerian, trustee; Photo by John Parnell
I didn’t actually get rained on when I visited the American Folk Art Museum on Tuesday. But that’s only because I stopped moving just in time, as some drops plopped down on the exact spot where I was about to position myself, directly in front of Martín Ramírez’s “Paper Bag Scroll” in the museum’s lobby. I had arrived to see that artist’s much praised retrospective.
Another puddle was developing beneath one of the museum’s most celebrated treasures, Ammi Phillips‘ “Girl in a Red Dress with Cat and Dog” (above). The indoor precipitation appeared to be emanating from the skylights above, but there was no outdoor rain or snow to produce this damp development—only considerable condensation on the glass, caused, presumably, by the extremely cold weather.
Fortunately, the drops missed the art and landed, instead, on the floor directly in front of the wall where the works were hung. Still, it seemed that emergency measures should have been taken to safeguard the art (not to mention CultureGrrl‘s coiffure).