Metropolitan Museum of Art - Rebecca Samuels #2

My Trip to The Metropolitan Museum of Art 

"Tomb Effigy of Elizabeth Boott Duveneck"

Gilt Bronze

Frank Duveneck

These are two pictures of the inside, I apologize that I didn't

use my mother's camera because this picture came out terrible.

MY PAPER:

           The next museum I went to go see was the Metropolitan Museum of Art. My father and I take frequent trips to New York, but it has been a long time since we went there to NOT see Madison Square Garden. I was in a daze when I realized what I was looking at was the museum. Originally I thought Wadsworth Atheneum was huge. At that moment I learned that it was tiny compared to this New York museum. The detail on the top of the building was very pretty along with the top of the windows. Even the windows were unique. Since I often take the same route around New York, the details on the building seemed very rare and like no other I have seen before. Also at the entrance to the museum there were numerous stairs. When I looked at them, I immediately thought of the entrance-way on Law and Order. People were sitting all over the stairs like they were furniture. My dad and I also noticed the water fountains on both the left and the right of the museum.

            After searching the MetropolitanMuseum of Art’s website, I first learned that “The Met’s” earliest roots come from 1866 in Paris. It was intended to be a “national institution and gallery of art.” On April 13^th, 1870, President John Jay incorporated the Metropolitan Museum. In November of that same year, the museum acquired a Roman Sarcophagus which became the first object in the new museum. March 30^th, 1880, the museum moved to the Douglas Mansion and was then opened to the public. Calvert Vaux and Jacob Wrey Mould (the architects of the building), designed the building to be a Ruskinian Gothic structure. Today the museum is about two million square feet and it even includes many additions to the building. Each addition had a different architect. (Most of this information was re-worded from the website mentioned in the first sentence of this paragraph)

            I’m sure there were many special exhibitions but the place was so big, I wanted to explore it myself! After getting my bags checked we went over to the admissions desk. What I thought was really neat was that before charging us the lady asked if the amount was “okay”. We knew how expensive it was going to be to get in but apparently if you can’t afford that full price, you can pay whatever you have in your pocket (as a donation). It was nice to see that this huge museum allows people to pay whatever they can afford. Anyway, we got these cool pins to clip on to our shirts to say we paid.

            The first exhibit we saw was Egyptian art. This consisted of sculptures, jewelry, and many other things. If you know me at all from reading my Wadsworth blog, you would know that I am more of a painting person. As we walked along I became impatient and irritated because all we were seeing was sculptures, china sets, tools, jewelry, etc. I seemed to walk right through the exhibits I wasn’t really interested in. Next was the walk through the Modern Art room which included funky furniture and even a Dyson vacuum! Then I finally found something that sparked my interest. I entered the room with many of the paintings.

            The painting that stood out the most to me was by Arthur Segal. The medium of this piece of art work is oil on a board. The first thing I noticed about this painting was that Segal got so into it that he even painted the frame! You don’t see that too often. It took me a while to figure out that the name of the painting was “Strasse auf Helgoland II”. This painting was given to the Metropolitan Museum of Art as a gift from the Rolf and Margit Weinberg Foundation. It came from Zurich, Switzerland in 2003—it was painted in 1924 (this was written on the plaque near the painting). Even though there is a lot of black, it still makes the few colors that are present, stick out. Segal was very good with shading and blending.

            Arthur Segal was born to Jewish parents July 23, 1875 in Iasi, Romania. This interests me because I too am Jewish. It is cool to me to know that you can look at a piece of art work and not know anything about the artist but when he/she painted it, their name, and the work’s name. After moving from Romania, to Paris, Italy, and Switzerland, Segal founded his own school in 1923. He was offered a job in Germany in 1925 but had to turn it down due to his religion. He knew that he couldn’t freely show his artwork so he moved two more times. In London, his last place of life, Segal set up another school with his daughter. He was mainly a painter but also an author. Wikipedia mentions that Segal’s work was heavily influenced by impressionism and neo-impressionism, then to expressionism and Dadaism, and then in the end he found his own style. Arthur Segal died in June of 1944 which was exactly a month before his sixty-ninth birthday. (Most of this is my own words from Wikipedia)

            I’ll be honest when I say that this New York Metropolitan Museum of Art trip was completely different than the last museum trip. As the museum was so big, I grew overwhelmed. The map admissions gave me didn’t seem to make any sense anymore. I felt like I was panicking to see everything in the time allotted. There were so many people around and so many cameras visible. No matter where I stood, I felt like I was in the way. All in all, in the end, my anxiety got the best of me. In the end of every science lab the writer must indicate if their experiment was reliable or not. Even though this museum wasn’t necessarily a science lab, I would like to conclude by saying that I don’t think my trip to the Metropolitan Museum of Art was very successful. But besides the fact I think it was unsuccessful, I still was able to see some cool art works and was able to write a nice paper. 

This next painting is called "Autumn Landscape"

Tiffany Studios

It is Leaded Favrile Glass

This wrinkled glass acheived color by adding tiny 

flakes of glass in the surface

1923

This particular painting was written about in my essay.

It was painted by Arthur Segal in Oil

1924

For the rest of my pictures of THE MET, go here

Karri-Ann Filiatreault Trip to the Slater Memorial Museum, Photo essay

I went to the Slater Memorial Museum in Norwich this weekend. "Dedicated in 1888, the Slater Museum has continued to enrich its fine collection through purchases, gifts, and bequests. The museum houses over 150 plaster casts of Classical and Renaissance sculpture, as well as Egyptian, Ancient, African, Oceanic, American, European and Asian Art and artifacts, and Pre-Columbian and Native American objects. The Museum also holds a fine and decorative collection of art and artifacts that are distinctive to Norwich and Southeastern Connecticut history" (taken from NFA website, http://www.norwichfreeacademy.com/page.cfm?p=471).
This is the entrance.

Upon entering we need to climb a set of stairs to get to the museum, and is greeted by some Egyptian art hanging on the walls.

After entering the museum we are greeted by, many casts of Greek sculptures. Most if not all of these statues have been cast from the original art work, which is no longer allowed. This section of the museum is by far my favorite part. It was amazing to walk around and look at how detailed and anatomical these statues are and so many of them are simply breath taking.

The second floor of the museum has a lot of interesting things in it too. This is pictures of some of the ivory and whale bone collection.


This is an example of some of the paints that are displayed.
They also had Chinese and Japaneses art works and artifacts.



This was a view of the main floor of the museum from the upper floor.
This is some statues I liked as we we're on our way out.

I had gone with my boyfriend and we both loved it, and decided that the Greek artwork was out favorite. they are impressive and awe-inspiring to be able to stand in front of them and see how much effort and time they put into creating these magnificent pieces.

Paper # 2 Wadsworth in Hartford

I went to the Wadsworth Antheneum Museum with my almost 2-year-old daughter. This was by far my most enjoyable experience I have had so far. The building’s entrance is beautiful as you walk up to it. The first words out of my daughter’s mouth were, “Mommy! Castle!”, which is the perfect description. It truly looks like a castle.

When you enter, you are greeted with a long corridor with very high ceilings. There is a library to your left and the museum store to your right. The staff was very friendly and helpful. It was family day, so there were plenty of children and parents. The mood was very lively and fun with extra staff and a full museum at the opening hours. We went on a children’s tour, where I learned just as much as the kids would have. We also were able to roam ourselves, take part in special crafts for the kids and watch a dance performance.

The Wadsworth is the oldest public art museum in the United States. The museum was founded by Daniel Wadsworth, in 1842, Wadsworth wanted to a public facility devoted to the fine arts. There are 5 connected buildings in all and the entrance is the Gothic Revival Wadsworth building built in 1844. The architects for the front building were Ithel Town and Alexander Jackson Davis. Four other buildings were slowly added on, but they were used for other purposes and not affiliated with the Wadsworth. By 1969, all buildings were in use for the museum and opened to the public. This is the point where it reached the beginning focus of Daniel Wadsworth being solely for publics viewing and understanding of the fine arts.

The Wadsworth museum has almost 50,000 works of art from a time period of over 5,000 years. They have Greek and Roman antiques, European decorative arts, baroque, surrealist, landscapes, Impressionism from Europe and America, modern art, American colonial furniture, African American art, contemporary art and more. This museum is quite larger then the two New Haven museums and it was hard to see it all in one visit with all the other activities going on as well. The rooms seemed to take the form of the art, which created a great mood and cohesive personality. The museum was successful in creating theme within each gallery. Their largest special exhibit was by photographer Patti Smith called “Camera Solo.” It is the first exhibition of any of her works and is complimented with documentaries playing and interactive art making.

The piece I was drawn to was by William Holman Hunt. He was born in England in 1827 and was the founder of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood. This society sought to revitalize art by emphasizing the detailed observation of the natural world in a spirit of quasi-religious devotion. He liked painting naturalistic scenes, did a lot of religious paintings and many works based on poems. He is also known for his great attention to detail, vivid color, and elaborate symbolism.

The painting was ‘The Lady of Shallot’ made between 1890-1905. It is oil paints on canvas and is a scene from the poem by English poet Alfred Lord Tennyson. The poem is about a tragic heroine who records scenes and events in a woven tapestry about King Arthur. But because of a curse she is not allowed to look outside, once she does the tapestry unwinds and entangles her to her demise. Her hair is flying and so is all the string. You can see in the picture the elaborate details. You can feel the movement of string and hair. There is a vast amount of colors. I was drawn to it at first by the sheer size of the piece. It also stands out for the other works in the gallery because of the bright colors.

This museum visit was very fun and I encourage anyone with children to take part in the second Saturday family events. My daughter and I had a very fun and educational time. Not only did I enjoy myself, but also my daughter had a very cultured learning experience by learning about art, taking part in it and watching the beautiful performances.

Here are a few other pieces that we enjoyed on our visit:

Clifford E Still “Number 5”, 1951

Oil on canvas

Andre Masson “Germination”, 1942

Oil, wax and sand on canvas

Florine Stettheimer “Beauty Contest: In Memory of P.T. Barnum”, 1924

Oil on canvas

Hope you all are enjoying your museum visits! I know, my family and I are.