Esther Jacob
POLSC 110
Ms. Logan
April 2017
The Metropolitan Museum of Art
I grew up in a small town in upstate New York where the closest supermarket was a 15-minute drive. A few times a year my mom would take me and my siblings to the Big Apple and expose us to city life. I always loved the city - the lights, the skyscrapers, the street filled with people - it captivated me. One of the places we would visit was the Metropolitan Museum of Art, otherwise known as the Met. I remember walking through the museum in awe – everything was so big and beautiful. The tall ceilings, gigantic sculptures, meticulous architecture - I had never seen anything like it, and it is safe to say that visiting the Met was the highlight of my trip. And of course
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Ranking the third largest art collection in the world, “the collection of Met museum NYC includes classical art, Ancient Egyptian art, European masters, American art, modern art, Asian, African, Byzantine, Islamic and Oceanic art” (“Three Interesting Facts about the Met”). The Met has many different types of art – there are paintings, sculptures, weapons, instruments, and even clothing. The Met’s longest object is a 16th century Egyptian carpet, its smallest object is a 1.1-inch cylinder from ancient Mesopotamia and its oldest object is an Iranian storage jar circa 3750 BCE. As a child learning piano, I was fascinated by the world’s oldest surviving piano created in 1720 by Bartolomeo Cristofori and housed in the Met. The Met is also home to many prominent works of art. Some of the Met’s most famous paintings include Raphael's Colonna Altarpiece (1504), Pieter Bruegel the Elder’s The Harvesters (1565), Diego Velázquez’s Juan de Pareja (1650), Jacques-Louis David's The Death of Socrates (1787), Vincent van Gogh’s Cyprus tree Wheat Field with Cypresses (1889), Pablo Picasso’s Portrait of Gertrude Stein (1905) and Morris Louis’s Alpha-Pi (1960). At any time, there are tens of thousands of pieces of art and objects on display in the museum, and the Met attracts over 6 million visitors each …show more content…
Its name originated from the well-known architect who built the building – Marcel Breuer, known for his sharp-edged and box shaped designs. In 1963, Breuer was given the job of building a new museum in New York City. He built the Whitney Museum which was originally located at 945 Madison Avenue on the Upper East Side before it moved to downtown Manhattan. The Met then took an “eight-year lease on the building from the Whitney Museum, with the option to renew another five and a half years, until approximately 2029” (www.wikepedia.org). The Met Breuer was created to further expand the Met’s modern and contemporary art collection. As New York Times art critic Roberta Smith said on the Met Breuer’s opening, “The Met [Fifth Avenue] is huge and old, with a history of treating contemporary art as an afterthought.” The Met Breuer focuses on the beauty of modern and contemporary art. The Met Breuer’s main exhibit is called “Unfinished –Thoughts Left Visible.” This exhibit displays over 200 works of art that were left incomplete either intentionally or unintentionally. While the Met Breuer main focus is modern and contemporary art, this exhibits art dates from the Renaissance until today and includes artists such as Leonardo da Vinci and Andy Warhol. Home to many other interesting exhibitions, the Met Breuer is “one of the most recognizable modern icons in New York and one of the world's landmark arts
Lorraine O’Gradys’ unintentionally historic performances, seemingly elevate everyday life to the status of art. In her ‘exhibit’ at the Studio Museum, her work is represented through photographs, in ‘Art is…’. Thirty years ago, O’Grady presented ‘Art is’ in the form of a float in the African American Day Parade right here in Harlem. Performers pranced with empty frames, metaphorically capturing fleeting pictures of the people and places that surrounded the route of the parade. By doing so, the trappings of high art were brought out of the museum, into the street, which promotes a new way people might begin to recognize this new art form in the celebrations of every day life. The
Positioned alongside Central Park in the heart of New York City, The Metropolitan Museum of Art is one of the largest and most influential art museums in the world. The Met houses an extensive collection of curated works that spans throughout various time periods and different cultures. The context of museum, especially one as influential as the Met, inherently predisposes its visitors to a certain set of understandings that subtly influence how they interpret and ultimately construct meanings about each individual object within the museum. Brent Plate in Religion, Art, and Visual Culture argues that “objects obtain different meanings in different locations and historical settings.”An object placed on display behind a glass case inside a museum would hold a vastly different meaning if it was put on sale by a street vendor, like the ones who set up their tables in close proximity to the Met. The different meanings that objects are able to obtain is attributed to the relationships that are established between the object itself and the environment that surrounds it. These relationships often involve the kind of audience that a museum attracts, where the work is exhibited, and how the exhibits within a museum is planned out. Museums subsequently have the ability to control how these relationships are established which influences the way a viewer is able to construct meaning. When a visitor observes an object on display at the Met, they instinctively construct a certain set of
New York City, one of the greatest cities of the world, is remarkable because of its history, culture, and diversity. It is world renowned for its skyscrapers, Statue of Liberty, Empire State Building, Madison Square Garden, Broadway entertainment, Radio City Music Hall, Central Park, and even restaurants specializing in ethnic foods. However, the thing that most intrigues and excites me about New York City is the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
Since the Museum's opening in 1931, the collection has grown to more than 12,000 paintings, sculptures, prints, drawings, and photographs, representing nearly 2,000 individual artists and providing the most complete overview of twentieth-century American art of any museum in the
History is thought to be the past, but the past influences the present in many ways. Insane, lunatic, mentally deranged, madness, madman, crazy, mentally disturbed, troubled, these were just a few terms used to label those with mental illness and these labels are at times still used in society today. Although the shift of viewing insanity as a diagnosable condition did not reduce the use of such terms in 19th Century England, there was a historical event that changed the way those who suffered from mental illness were seen. This historical event came in 1845 with the enactment of the Lunatics Act and the County Asylums Act which were dependent on each other. Now, in order to comprehend what these Acts did it is important to first understand
Jan van Eyck was active since 1422 and died in 1441. He was the most celebrated painter of the fifteen-century in Europe. One of his famous works is “The Last Judgment”. At first sight this work immediately attracted my attention. The painting’s stunning colors and the fact that it reminded me of a previous similar work I have seen, triggered in my mind. The material that is used is oil on canvas, transferred from wood. The size of this work is 22 1/4 *7 2/3 in. (56.5 * 19.7cm).
My experience to the Dallas Museum of Art was a bit different from the last time I had attended the museum. I was curious to see what pieces of art there would be and if it would be the same as the previous visit which was long ago, but to me all the pieces of art were so different and very interesting. It may have been because I saw all the pieces in a new perspective since learning about the different types of paintings there can be and knowing how and where sculptures come from. Even though I do not know much of art I really gave it a try into seeing what the artist may have wanted us to get out of his work. By reading a view of the chapters made me aware of art, I wouldn’t call myself an expert, but it was actually nice knowing that a
With exhibitions of the most thought-provoking art, The Museum of Contemporary Art in Chicago is one of the Nation’s largest facilities devoted to the art of our time (“About the MCA”) . The mission of the MCA is to offer a direct experience to the public of modern day art and living artists. German architect Joseph Paul Kleihues designed the new building with seven times the square feet of its previous facility (“The Building”) . October of 1967 the museum opened its doors to the public for the first time. The Museum of Contemporary Art is a symbol of modern art, culture, and the artist of our time. It is a stepping stone in history and will leave footprints in the heart of Chicago for many generations to come.
Throughout time, greed can take shape of thoughts and emotions and guide down paths of ill will. The prophecy made by the three witches in Shakespeare’s, Macbeth, drives Macbeth upon a path of destruction to fulfill his destiny. The predictions made by the three witches show how one must not take every word sincerely and become overconfident, because assumptions can lead to misinterpretation, which in turn can lead to downfall. Macbeth and Banquo, the Thane of Lochaber, both receive prophecies from the three witches, which they each interpret differently (with a focus on Macbeth).
The Metropolitan Museum of Art was founded in 1870 by a group of American citizens. It opened on February 20, 1872 and was originally located at 681 on Fifth Avenue. Also known as “The Met”, the museum is located on the eastern edge of Central Park in New York City. It has a permanent collection containing more than two million works of art. The main building of the Met is one of the world’s largest art galleries. The museum permanent collection includes art from
One pleasant afternoon, my classmates and I decided to visit the Houston Museum of Fine Arts to begin on our museum assignment in world literature class. According to Houston Museum of Fine Art’s staff, MFAH considers as one of the largest museums in the nation and it contains many variety forms of art with more than several thousand years of unique history. Also, I have never been in a museum in a very long time especially as big as MFAH, and my experience about the museum was unique and pleasant. Although I have observed many great types and forms of art in the museum, there were few that interested me the most.
The couple stored the collection in their home for a long period of time, the even agreed to loan two hundred pieces to a “New York Dali retrospective” before finally deciding to give the collection a permanent home. Dali encouraged the couple to build a museum in New York, although they thought this was a wonderful idea they still kept searching. One of their goals for the collection was to preserve the collections historical integrity. When word reached St. Petersburg, attorney, James W. Martin worked quickly to persuade
Positioned alongside Central Park within the heart of New York City, The Metropolitan Museum of Art is one of the largest and most influential art museums in the world. The Met houses an extensive collection of curated works that spans throughout various time periods and different cultures. The context of museums, especially one as influential as the Met, inherently predisposes its visitors to a set of understandings that subtly influence how they interpret and ultimately construct meanings about each individual object within a museum. By analyzing two separate works on exhibit at the Met, I will pose the argument that museums offer a unique expression of a world view that is dictated through every element of its construction.
Myth has for a long time come into question with whether they exist or are just fairy tales. People nowadays are just to ignorant to ask questions about things they believe in because they choose not to accept it, did Jesus Christ really die for our sins or was it a myth, is Jesus Christ a myth, who knows.
Never before have I seen a museum as grand as the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. From its architecture to its massive art collection, The Met has a little bit of everything and one is sure to find something that captures his or her interest. Considering that The Met is the United States' largest art museum, it is easy to get lost within its many corridors and wings. My visit to The Met took place during the last week of July. Despite the almost unbearable heat and humidity that hung in the air, visiting museums under these climate conditions is a welcome respite from a suffocating, yet bright summer afternoon.