If rainy days and Mondays always get you down, then you’re in for it today, since it’s likely to be both. (Well, the rain is likely; the Monday part is pretty much settled.)
So… make this another Museum Monday! Many of Tampa Bay’s museums are open today, including the Tampa Museum of Art, the James Museum of Western & Wildlife Art, the Dalí, USF’s Contemporary Art Museum and more.
At the Museum of Fine Arts in St. Petersburg, there are two special exhibitions on view that’ll reward close attention (and help you while away a few rainy hours). A Feast for the Eyes: European Masterpieces from the Grasset Collection features 40 Old Master paintings from the 17th and 18th centuries by major Italian, Spanish, German, and Netherlandish artists; if the vivid still lifes make you hungry, you can pick from a whole row of restaurants open for lunch right across the street from the museum. (Unfortunately, the museum’s excellent cafe is closed on Mondays.) And Theo Wujcik: Cantos is a must; huge in scale and impact, these works inspired by Dante’s Inferno are fascinating both as technical marvels (wait till you see what he did with paper towels) and as visual metaphors, and show why Wujcik was one of the most important artists the Tampa Bay area has ever produced. Get there soon; the show closes June 2. (Feast runs through July 28). mfastepete.org.
Pictured above: Theo Wujcik, American (1936–2014), Canto II, 1997. Polymer emulsion and charcoal on canvas. Gift of Bonita L. Cobb in memory of Nikki C. Cobb.
