The Influence Of The Metropolitan Museum On Chin Through The Looking Glass

Cultural objects can practically be found anywhere. “A cultural object may be defined as shared significance embodied in form, [In other words] it is a socially meaningful expression that is audible, visible, or tangible or that can be articulated” (SOURCE). Cultural objects tell stories, and those stories could be interpreted in numerous different ways. The significances of cultural objects vary from individual to individual, as well as location and time. So, a cultural object valued in the United States, could have a totally different meaning and representation in another country. Lastly, cultural objects don’t have to be physical objects. They can be; an idea, songs, believes, videos, styles, pretty much anything as long as they could tell a story. With that being said, the meaning doesn’t have to be built into the actual object itself, but the representation of the object should be open for interpretation.

Many people visit museums to view antiquities. They enjoy seeing these relics of the ancient world as a way of understanding past cultures and sometimes connecting with their own heritage. This evidence was found in the passage, “Returning Antiquities to Their Countries of Origin” by Joyce Mortimer paragraph 1. Cultural artifacts should not be returned to their region of origin because some people don’t have enough money to travel to China or Brazil to go look at ancient artifacts from the past. So they should bring these ancient trinkets to places like America and Canada so people around the world can study different cultures to learn more about the life around use.

On September 2nd I took a trip to the Michael C. Carlos Museum at Emory in Atlanta. The museum included many art exhibits from ancient cultures around the world. Including pieces from South America, Greece, and Egypt with larger exhibits as well as African and Asian cultures with smaller exhibits.

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.

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

The second floor of the museum is filled with paintings and works from the Common Era. These pieces originate all over the world and span centuries. It includes pottery and figurines from first century Asia, suits of armor from the Medieval Era in Europe, to contemporary paintings and sculptures in the Americas. This is where the majority of well-known artwork is located.

Countless art has been sought-after throughout history. Explorers, scientists, art collectors, politicians, and entrepreneurs from Western nations have sought out and removed art from the lands of great civilizations, often with the assistance and participation of local people and governments. Even as cultural property faces immediate danger today in conflict zones like Syria and Mali, there is circumstantial evidence that some nations are awakening to the political and foreign policy benefits that can flow from the repatriation of cultural patrimony. While on a different scale from World War II, historic structures, religious monuments, and other priceless ancient times continue to suffer collateral damage and manipulation in armed conflict. Relics have been stolen, smuggled and sold in what is a reported multibillion dollar underground market. They have become the illicit prizes of private collectors and the subject of legal claims against museums. Of the countless museums subject to legal claims, The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City happens to be one of them. “The Metropolitan Museum has acquired thousands of works and objects of art from the antiquities”. “For the past several years, the government of Turkey has warned U.S. and foreign museums (including The Metropolitan Museum of Art), that unless ancient objects from Turkish soil are given up on demand, Turkey will stop lending artworks” (The Committee for Cultural Policy, 2015). Turkey continues to up the

In museums today various pieces are displayed in such a way as to show people that these pieces are what they are and to explain their original uses etc. In Paris for example, a new museum was built in 2006 called Quai Branly and it displayed a collection of Benin pieces including

Mel Chin is a local Contemporary artist from Houston, Texas. He was born in 1951 and was the of his family to be born in the U.S. Mel Chin studied at Peabody College in Nashville, TN, graduating in 1975. Even at a young age Mel Chin had an interest in art. His parents owned a grocery store where Chin would make portraits out of ground meat. Even his high school English teacher Shirley Wiley could see the artistic potential within Chin. “Supplied with a special electricity from the Primal Source, M.Chin hums quietly along without the usual electrical short-circuit, for he is calm, pleasant, gentle, and exploited by us all, including me”, said Chin’s English teacher Shirley Wiley. He drew cartoons for the school paper and put a touch of his artistic skill on school projects. Chin has been active the contemporary art world from the late 1970’s to the present. Mel Chin has received numerous awards and grants for his works since early in this career. One of his earlier achievements was the Visual Arts Commission for the Houston Festival in 1982. Chin works with various mediums ranging from earthworks to sculptors and more. The ideas for Chin’s work usually come from social, political, and environmental issues. Mel Chin can be described as an artist that is difficult to categorize.

The Museum of Chinese in America is located in the lower part of Manhattan and is on the edge of Soho and Chinatown. It was founded in 1980, was dedicated in preserving and presenting the history, heritage and presenting the history, heritage, culture and diverse experiences of people of Chinese descent in the United States. The museum brings 160 years of Chinese history through videos, pictures, and artifacts. The museum also has a broad array of different activities for all ages, and all visitors. The goals of this museum is to make the history of Chinese American more accessible to the public, and to informs, educates, and engages visitors about Chinese American history that is in the making. The museum

Here in California we are constantly exposed to the richness and grandiose of Chinese culture from buildings inspired by Han Dynasty architecture to simply the material of silk first utilized in China during the second millennium BCE. Growing up in a place with so much Chinese influence has broadened my understanding on such a unique style and heritage.

Asian Art Museum in San Francisco has a collection of about 17,000 objects of art and artifacts from all major

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.

The Museum of Modern Art in New York City is the world’s leading modern art. Its exhibits have been a major influence in creating and stimulating popular awareness of modern art and its accompanying diversity of its styles and movements. The museum’s outstanding collections of modern painting, sculpture, drawings, and prints range from Impressionisms to current movements. Moreover, there are exhibits of modern architecture, industrial design, sculpture, photography, prints and electronic media. The museum presently has a modern art library of 300,000 books and impressive collections of films that are shown regularly. The Museum is said to be the complementary of the Metropolitan Museum

I will also be discussing the influence that Elsa Schiaparelli has been having on the distinct creation of surrealism in fashion, focusing