The High Museum, located in midtown ATL, is not a masterpiece museum - and that’s fine.

You won’t find gaggles of biddies milling around certain pieces, taking photos of each other next to Van Gogh’s Starry Night. (Don’t think it didn’t happen to us at the MoMA in NYC. We waited patiently as Mildred and Agnes mugged for their Instamatics. We both agreed that Van Gogh would have cut their ears off.)

Instead, you’ll find works that are gentle reminders that there is more to the art world than blockbuster pieces fetching millions at auction. The High Museum’s permanent collection offers up lesser known gems from Monet and Joseph Stella, and a surprisingly nifty collection of Frank Lloyd Wright and Walter Dorwin Teague pieces.

What’s Going On Now At The High Museum

From 2006 to 2009, the High Museum partners with the Louvre Museum, bringing pieces from Paris for special exhibitions - Louvre Atlanta. Currently (and until September 2008), the main joint exhibit is entitled Louvre and The Ancient World, which showcases Egyptian, Greco-Roman, and Near Eastern (think ancient Iran and Iraq) selections. As an added kick, an additional exhibition, The Eye of Josephine, adds pieces from Empress Josephine’s (Napoleon’s wife) collection of ancient artifacts from Greek and Roman periods. You’ll also find some furniture and washstands from Chateau de Malmaison, her estate in Paris.

I’ll admit, I was less than impressed when I meandered through the Louvre portion of the High Museum. I’d like to believe that I’m not jaded, having been to the Louvre and viewed some of these pieces in situ, but rather disappointed at the layout of the exhibit.

Too many Greek vases, clumped together in a space that detracted rather than highlighted the differences between pieces. Awkward placement of pieces from different periods (one end of the room held a 19th century piece from Chateau de Malmaison while a few steps away, an Egyptian statue from the 3rd century B.C. held court), and a lack of focus made me wonder if the layout was the result of a fight between the curator and the exhibit team: “Fine - just put them anywhere! I don’t care!”

In June, Josephine’s collection will go bye-bye, and in its stead, we’ll be able to examine approximately 20 works from the Houdon collection. (Jean-Antoine Houdon was a French sculptor who was fortunate enough to capture the likenesses of philosophers and political big-wigs, including George Washington.)

A very cool exhibit on Georgia O’Keeffe and the Women of the Stieglitz Circle mixed O’Keeffe’s complexly simplistic paintings with photography and other pieces from Gertrude Kasebier, Pamela Coleman Smith, Katharine Nash Rhoades, and Anne Brigman. A special treat was photographs from Stieglitz himself (a gallery owner and O’Keeffe’s husband), which presented a view of O’Keeffe that you don’t normally equate with her - a young, sensual woman.

Unlike the Louvre exhibition, this was well staged, drawing you in with small pieces until you reach O’Keeffe’s largest works in a large space which allows you to stand back and view several pieces at once. Even if you are not a fan of her work, it’s worth seeing the influence that these women had on each other.

TRANSactions:Contemporary Latin American and Latino Art had pieces that made us giggle and gasp. We were amused by certain photographs (”This artist’s photo made a auto meet look classy.”) and struck speechless by Solomon Huerta’s UntitledFigure. This exhibit is only here until May, and it’s worth seeing.

Future Exhibits Worth Mentioning

Have you heard about the Terracotta Army? Discovered in China in 1974, thousands of life sized statues stood guard over an underground palace for Emperor Qin. Fastastically, each figure is painstakingly individual - from soldiers and archers to acrobats, intricately designed, posed in different positions, and detailed with unique facial expressions. While over a 1,000 of this “army” has been unearthed, it is estimated that over 7,000 exists.

The First Emperor:China’s Terracotta Army arrives at the High (coming fresh off the exhibit of the same name from the British Museum) in November 2008.

In September, Medieval and Renaissance Treasures from the Victoria and Albert Museum stops in Atlanta (it’s a traveling exhibition, so if you’ve seen this at other locations, then you’ve…seen it.). It will have pieces from the 2nd to the 17th century, and includes a daVinci notebook (not THE Da Vinci’s Notebook, which includes Paul and Storm, who came to the Variety Playhouse in March.) But I digress, being A.D.D…. look! Shiny!

The Rest of The High and The Nitty-Gritty

We enjoyed the permanent collections of modern art (although there were pieces which inspired a “huh?”, which I supposed was the point…), 20th century art, and the small selection of European art. Both of us were struck by a sculpture by Benzoni, which was a gorgeous example of the mastery needed to create an illusion of veiling in marble. I think that’s what we liked the most about the High Museum - we were surprised by pieces we never expected to see.

To visit as an adult non-member will set you back $18.00, which I have to say, is expensive for what you get. Look, it costs $17.00 for the Boston MFA, $20 for MoMA, and only 13 Euro for the Louvre permanent collection and special exhibits. (And if you’ve been to any of these, you cannot get through them in a day and see everything you want.) I understand that the High Museum may be trying to pay off the building/expansion they did in 2005, but really… and a $2 discount only applies if you buy your tickets online.

It may actually behoove you (see, I’m being intellectual here) to join as a Member of The High Museum. You can get unlimited entry to The High and all the special exhibits, discounts for the Museum Shop and food, discounted parking rates, and discounts on selected tickets for the Alliance Theatre and Atlanta Symphony Orchestra. (And yes, your membership purchase is tax-deductible.)

It’s $65 for an individual, $90 for a couple (which comes with 2 “one-time” guest passes) - and $90 for a family membership (2 adults and kids or grandkids seventeen and younger). You can’t buy memberships online; you must go to the museum to do this. But…. if you go to the museum at least four times in a year, then it’ll pay for itself.

You can visit the High Museum for free - if you are a Fulton county resident and arrive before 4pm on the first Saturday of the month. Kids under 5 are also admitted free, but I haven’t met a five year old who willingly goes to a museum that doesn’t offer opportunities to touch EVERYTHING or allows you to make noise. (They do have a small section for kids in the museum, but it’s woefully lacking in anything that can really connect it to the museum itself.)

The High Museum is closed on Monday, but open late on Thursdays until 8pm. There’s also a Friday Jazz gig that keeps the place open until 10pm.

We did a little video to commemorate our first trip here… enjoy!