Metro Part I

The Metropolitan Museum of Art Trip 

Observing art work at the Metropolitan Museum of Art was a personal and fantastic experience. I must declare now that art work viewed online or in books will never do the justice the real art work deserves. The amount of culture and imagination that humanity is capable of was amazing to witness at the Metropolitan Museum. But always follow this rule when entering a world of endless walking: never go to a museum hungry—I might have rushed a few areas of the museum that I would love to revisit and pay more detail to (it deserves that much).

            I am perpetually and naturally excited to visit museums; the history involved in the art work shown is almost too much to bear if one can appreciate it. I find myself aggravated with other onlookers who seem annoyed or bored to be there. There is so much to learn, understand, and simply breathe in. This leads me of course to the assignment in which I was to look for the artists I choose from the time period 1860-1910 and 1910-1950. While I had mild struggle looking for specific pieces; I found more of their work that intrigued me on an even higher level.

Some Works of Art:

Mother and Child

Mother and Child

The Kiss

The Tree of Life

Gustav Klimt

(1897-1918)

Gustav Klimts' work are one of those rare masterpieces (if you will agree) that I have encountered to be brilliant. There is something about the sentiment of the paintings that are beautiful and simplistic. The colors are soft-- mostly neutrals; the depth is limited but fascinating. 

Klimts' Mother and Child is maternity at its best. The Mother's adoring hug to her child is captured with true expression. Nudity in most paintings are often vulgar--more obvious to the point of visual interest. In this particular work, we do not notice the naked mother as crude but that it only makes sense that she is naked holding her child. This painting represents motherhood, love, and devotion. It is surrounded by light colors and soft flowers; it is almost as if a woman viewing this would look forward to the beauty of being of a mother. The Tree of Life is another one of my favorites but not as popular with me as Mother and Child and The Kiss. I am drawn to The Tree of Life because the browns mixed in with the oranges. It has so much detail without the complexity of looking detailed. You must stare at it, stop, and come back to keep finding its little eccentricities. This is a painting I would place in my living room to remind myself of its beautiful colors and how much I appreciate it. 

The Kiss will forever be my favorite work of art--ever. It is romantic, colorful, and most of all it "meshes well together." It is as if the two lovers are one. I adore how the two lovers are different shades of skin tone; it represents a sense of belonging to someone else no matter the distinctions. My least favorite part of this painting is the background "brown"; while it brings out the orange surrounding the lovers, I would love to see an adaptation perhaps in turquoise. 

I respect and admire Gustav's work. It moves me because I relate the best with the emotions of his paintings.

 

 

Monet

Monet's Camille on her Deathbed

Monet

The top two selected works are by Claude Monet. I found these images to be absolutely breathtaking. I decided to show one dark piece and one light piece from the two artists that I chose (Monet and Turner). The painting to the right called Camille on her Deathbed was quite moving to me. I love any sense of darkness that an artist can convey; especially one that was personal to the artist.  One can see his agony through the colors as his wife faces a long and arduous death. Its dark grays, whites, and blacks mesh well with the idea of another world to come. The painting following  also by Monet was simplistic in that it illustrates peace. I adore the woman with what I assume to be her child. This is a type of painting I would love to put in my family room. The brightness of its colors are almost maternal. I adore the red flowers among the greens, blues, and whites.

Monet's Mohnblumen

 Turner

The last two pieces are by Joseph Mallord William Turner. I fell in love with these paintings because of their power to move me. The colors conveyed in both are polar opposite but they give me the same effect.  The top painting of the sea is so filled with depth—its bright moon shining among the darkness. The below painting reminds me of a street in my hometown, California. I can actually feel the sun setting on a warm and sensational day. It almost feels like a dream.

Turner's Mortlake Terrace

Turner's Fishermen at Sea

Art

What is Art?

“Creativity has got to start with humanity and when you're a human being, you feel, you suffer.” (Marilyn Monroe) 

 

When asked how she felt about art and creativity, Marilyn made it very obvious that art was about feeling. For this specific blog I tried to search as many quotes from legendary artists and as many intellectual definitions for art that I could find. While numerous quotes and definitions were quite generic—even brilliant-- I found this one to settle with me best. Art is many things. Art is subjective; art is judgmental.  Nevertheless, art at its very core is about emotion. More often than not in this world we do things because we feel like doing it. Logic and passion are contradictory and I do not think you could find an artist and ask them this question without being confused: “What was your logical reasoning for painting this picture or explain your reasoning for taking that photograph at that exact time?”

Most would tell you because they felt like it. Art is one of the very few things in life that we can accomplish without questioning why we did it. Yes there will be questions about how, where, and what motivated us; however, we never tell an artist do not create something because it does not make logical sense. On the flip side…

I could be very wrong. There are people who despise anything do with art. To give them the benefit of the doubt, they may not like “artsy fartsy” creations because they are disinterested but perhaps because they just do not understand it. Marilyn Monroe had the right grasp on art and creativity. It is about humanity. We are animals and we feel everything. Art is an outlet of expression because of something we suffer from or something we enjoy. Passion is art and if you disagree with that then you are probably not an artist.