Tuesday was a very interesting experience, since I’ve never gone to the Met before. I had no idea it was so big; narrowing the visit down to a specific exhibit was very helpful. A few of us decided to go to the exhibition Balthus: Cats and Girls. I honestly had no idea what the exhibition was going to be about, but the name itself sounded interesting.
First off, it took us a pretty long time to get there. Not that we got lost or anything.. but the map was pretty confusing. It was nice though, since we had to go through several parts of the museum. We went through American History, the Egyptian Wing (which was personally one of my favorites), and maybe a few more. In the Egyptian part, there was a beautiful temple surrounded by water. The design is very unique, since Egyptian temples were not only houses, but also were representations of religious and mythological concepts, which is shown in the architecture and carvings on the temple. Professor Eversley brought up an interesting point as to how this might be the closest we could be to experiencing Egypt for a while, especially with the current situation Egypt is in right now. Looking at the temple that day made me realize lucky we are to have easy access to art from all around the world.

When we finally got to the exhibition, I was a bit surprised by the paintings I saw there. Balthus was a French painter whose interest, as shown in the exhibition, was girls who were on the threshold of puberty, “hovering between innocence and knowledge.” Many of his pictures had sexual connotations to it, since they portrayed girls as young as 14 posing in ways like shown in this picture

One picture that was of great interest to me was “The Victim,” which shows a young woman’s body that has been thrown on the bed. If you look closer, there is a knife on the floor an it happens to be pointing to her heart. It’s hard to tell if the woman was murdered and died, or if she is in a trance, especially since there is no sign of blood anywhere. I found this interesting because after our discussion of nudity from John Berger’s book, this painting shows nudity in a different perspective; the subject of this painting does not have a seductive look like the other paintings of nudity that we saw. Balthus finished this painting after he came back from serving in World War II, so this may be a reference to the horrors that he saw during the war.

Another observation that was made while walking through this exhibition was the amount of paint Balthus used; if you look closely at his paintings, you can see the thick layers and strokes that he made. He used a lot of paint, which implies that he was rich (something new that I learned that day)

Upon finding out the Whitney was closed on Tuesday, we decided to take a trip to the Met a few blocks down 5th ave. When I got to the Met I knew exactly where I wanted to go. I wanted to go to my favorite part of the museum which was the Sackler Wing.
The Sackler Wing has always been my favorite place in the museum. In the middle, stood the Temple of Dendur and in front of that is water. All of this was partially enclosed by a huge glass window facing a vast green lawn, colorful trees, and clear blue skies. Every time I visit the Met I have to go to this spot in the museum. Especially when it’s empty, the Sackler Wing is very comforting and beautiful. The water and the amount of space in there is stress relieving. My favorite time to visit is at night when the sun is down and the Sackler Wing is only lit by the dim yellow lights in the museum reflected off of the water. It is very peaceful in there at night especially when it isn’t as crowded.
After visiting my favorite spot we decided to check out the American Wing. We went through a bunch of model rooms inspired by neoclassicism. However, I did not find it all that interesting. As we stepped out of those rooms, what caught my attention were the stained glass windows that lined the walls of the area next to the eating area of the American Wing.

The View of Oyster Bay by Louis C. Tiffany made in 1908 was my favorite. It looked pretty simple from afar but as I went closer I realized how intricate it actually was. The combination of different shades of blue and green glass was beautiful. The stained glass windows are supposed to be the view from that of Louis C. Tiffany’s country estate in Oyster Bay.
Then as we were looking for the exit we walked by the Arms and Armor collection which was interesting. At first I thought it would just display armor of the European kind but as I browsed around, I saw armors from all over the world. The contrast and seeing the difference between armors depending on the country was fascinating.
Overall, the unexpected trip to the Met was a fun one and discovering new parts of the museum during each visit is always entertaining.

When I found out we were going to watch Fun Home I wasn’t too excited. Audiences watching books turned into movies, plays or musicals are often left unimpressed. I was nervous that Fun Home: The Musical would ruin the great and funny memory I had of Fun Home, the novel. I’m really happy to say… IT DIDN’T! I usually don’t like musicals; I find them corny and exaggerated. But Fun Home was well directed and all the songs added to the storyline instead of just being filler songs. The way the stage rotated was a genius way to transition between time periods of her life. Seeing a comic book played out by a group of talented actors changed my perception of the novel a bit. Looking at humans versus cartoon characters made the words of the story heavy with emotion. While reading the book, I honestly forgot it was based on a true story since it was a comic. I realized just how young Bechdel was when her father was living a secret life and how it must’ve affected her.

The children in the play were so good that they stole the attention away from the adults at times. The disco themed scene where the kids, the gardener, and the parents were singing something was one of the most entreating scenes in the play. It was a great way to lighten the audience’s mood and have a happy scene since the story is a tragicomic after all.

The set design was breathtaking. It made the theater seem much taller and bigger than it was. Allison’s home seemed strangely big for a small family. This may allude to her father’s desire to have a perfect home so people would think the people inside are perfect too. In such a huge home, emotions can get lost and secrets can hide. The family often spent time alone, and when they were together there was tension. When it was just a parent with the children there was a great relationship but when both parents were together, it seemed like they both knew the secret.

I absolutely love the Met! Even though I really wanted to go to the Whitney Museum, I was still excited about our spontaneous trip to the Met. My favorite part of the Met would have to be the Asian Art section. The Asian Art section houses art from many parts of Asia, ranging from Eastern Asia (China, Korea, Japan, etc.), to Southern Asia (India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, etc.) I love visiting the South Asian part because that is where all of the Hindu art are! I am Hindu and I love learning about my religion. Hinduism is polytheistic religion, meaning that there are many gods. However, my family practices Hinduism by choosing one of the gods as our main “god.” Our god is Vishnu, and ever since I was a little girl, I always had an interest in reading and learning about Vishnu. One of the sculptures I stumbled upon was Standing Vishnu.

Vishnu is one of the major gods in Hinduism. He is often referred to as the “preserver,” since he is known as the one who protects the universe. Vishnu’s depiction in this specific sculpture shows his protective role. For example, one of his arms has the mudra symbol, which is a symbol of protection. By making this gesture with his hand, Vishnu is protecting Hindus from whatever possible evil might threaten them. Also, in his upper hands, Vishnu holds a battle trumpet and a war discus. This implies that Vishnu is part of the military, which further puts emphasis on this notion that Vishnu is the preserver. Vishnu’s expression is one of calmness, which again alludes to his protective nature.

When I go back to the Met, I will try to visit another gallery (probably the Egyptian Art). But I will definitely set aside an entire day when I go back. It is really hard to explore the entire museum in only three hours.

Deciding what exhibit to go to in the Metropolitan Museum of Art can be quite a daunting task, so difficult that I left my voyage up to chance, randomly selecting a room and heading there. In my quest to locate The American Wing, I stumbled upon a sign for Japanese Art. Coming from half an Asian background I’ve always found Asian art particularly beautiful and interesting, so off I went to explore.

I stood in a dark room with few people, accompanied to the sound of a waterfall. It was quite pleasant, and their uniquely modern sculptures took me by surprise. I was expecting traditional art such as calligraphy and flowers, but instead, I saw abstract pieces – one of the most interesting was a deer made out of glass balls.

However, it was the 1979 piece entitled Footprint of the Buddha by Kondo Yukaka that took me in awe. From afar, I thought the overall print was beautiful, but once I got closer, I saw the fantastically unique detail. Each indentation was the name of a country, city, district, restaurant and name the artist knew, some in English, others in Japanese. This merging of cultural beliefs is very intriguing. Japanese ceramic art resonates very close to Japan’s culture, so to have it contain English words and an Indian Buddha footprint, exemplifies a fascinating culmination of all cultures.

Unfortunately, these camera-phone pictures lack depth and fail to do the piece justice. When I studied and admired it, I tried to see it from all angles, bending down to be at eye level and standing on my tippy toes to get an overhead view. Each angle made it appear slightly different from the other, making my overall impression very comprehensive. Other than the angles, I also found the placement of the two pieces interesting. When going online to find information on it, I noticed that the two pieces were pushed together as opposed to being spread apart. When they were pushed together, it made the piece appear more like a footprint, yet when spread apart, it became more abstract.

Overall, I found this piece both beautiful and interesting, and I’m happy I stumbled upon this serene section of an otherwise chaotic museum.

When I was going to the library for the archive project when I came across this sculpture. I thought it was a really unique sculpture since I never saw anything like it. I was wondering why it was in front of the a high school. It turns out that it’s a memorial sculpture made by William Tarr made by a self-weathering steel. This same steel, which is called the Mayari R. was used for the walls of the schools buildings. When I found this out, I thought that it was really cool. The connection between the sculpture and the school was so amazing! I thought it was a great idea! I mean, who thinks like that? Relating the sculpture to the school. I thought it was terrific.

Have you guys found a sculpture with this kind of connection to its school?

Yesterday, due to the failed trip to the Whitney Museum….(just kidding), we went to visit the Metropolitan Museum. As I had never been to either museum before, I was very excited and interested to see the exhibits there. My first reaction when walking into the Met was that this place was huge. After splitting up, a group of us, accompanied by Professor Eversley, set off to locate the Balthus exhibit, but were quickly captivated by the many other exhibits and works of art that the Met had to offer. When we finally reached the Balthus exhibit, I was very skeptical but intrigued by his style of mid century art work, which included many street scenes as well as portraits of young girls in suggestive positions. Overall though, it was a very interesting experience that I hope everyone will get a chance to see. From walking through the Temple of Dendur in the Egyptian gallery to viewing original works of art by Pablo Picasso and Henri Mattise, the Met’s quantity and variety was fascinating. I will definitely visit the Met again in the future in hopes of further exploring their wide array of art works.