Driving through Ohio was probably not as exciting as Pennsylvania, although a few parts along the shores of lake Erie were quite beautiful.
The monotony of the highway was interrupted by the sighting of quite a few religiously-inspired billboards. Besides quite a few huge Bible quotes, my personal favourite was the one with a big “What if you died tonight?” question followed by what looked like the two options of a multiple choice test, in capital letters: “Hell!” or “Heaven”, and a phone number to find out more (I am guessing many of those who feel the urge to call while driving might find out their personal answer sooner rather than later).
The importance of religion in this part of the country was also confirmed by a conversation I overheard at the bar in the evening, between a man and a woman who had clearly just met there. After showing each others pictures of their families, they got more personal with the man complaining about his marital problem and the woman asking him what Jesus would do and how would he be able to go show his face in church if he left his wife (or something like that… Life in Church was definitely a recurring topic). At that point I was quite tired and went to bed, so I have no idea how did that ended up: nevertheless, definitely not something I would have expected at a hotel bar 🙂 .
Considering the Cleveland Museum of Art was the main reason for getting creative and adding this road trip by car to my plan, I was happy to see it was definitely worth the effort, starting from the impressive structure that hosts this institution.
From the incredible work of Louis Comfort Tiffany, whose art-deco lamps and stained glass windows I have already had a chance to enjoy in other stops along my way before, to great American masters like Bellows and his incredibly dynamic boxing scenes (just look at the neck of the fighter on the right in the picture in the gallery below).
It is also always amazing to see how American artists like Childe Hassam or John Sloan interpret themes that their French impressionist counterparts have made famous (busy city streets, strolls in the park, men and women sitting in a cafè) but give them an American dimension that makes them interesting and appealing in their own right.
The Cleveland Museum has also an impressive collection of French masters, ranging from Van Gogh to Gauguin and Cezanne. Once again, one of my favourite pieces was a painting of Westminster by Derain, an explosion of colour that fills the eye and the mind.
Matisse’s “The Windshield” is another small gem of the collection, and I chuckled a bit at the idea of the artist sitting uncomfortably with his kit trying to get the picture right while the car eats the road (his son was driving though, so Matisse wasn’t being completely reckless 🙂 ).
Before leaving Cleveland, I decided to make a quick stop at the Rock&Roll Hall of Fame. The place has a wide collection of memorabilia, similar to what I have had a chance to see in the past at the Grammy Museum in LA or at the Experience Music Project Museum in Seattle (now apparently called Museum of Pop Culture).
I think the main issue with this place is that, with very few notable exceptions, it focuses a lot on the history of American rock&roll, and not enough on how this genre expanded all over the world and developed in different directions. I particularly found it lacking in the Hard Rock/Heavy Metal section. All in all, a check on the map and a good spot to spend a couple of hours if you happen to be in Cleveland (in which case I’d still rather go to the Art Museum though 🙂 ), but not exactly a destination itself worth travelling to.
