Anyway, today (or yesterday, I suppose) I took a field trip to the Philadelphia Museum of Art with my art class. I had very much been looking forward to the trip, as I hadn't been to an art museum in a long time, and I feel like I have a better appreciation for that kind of stuff now that I've learned a little about it. Also the fact that this is one of the premier art museums in the entire country, and (without getting into the existentialism of what art is really worth and why, etc) seeing millions and millions of dollars hanging on the wall right there in front of you is an experience in itself.
I made sure to take lots of pictures to document my journey. I'm certainly no art critic, but I took pictures of anything I just thought was interesting. Most of them are of sculpture, as I figured anybody can look up any painting they want on the web and get a better view of it than anything I can take with my camera phone, but every picture of sculpture is different and shows different qualities of the art, and so taking them felt a little more worthwhile.
I spent the longest amount of time in the first two wings I came to, which was European art from mostly the eighteenth and nineteenth century (I believe) and contemporary art. This statue was from the former. It was a sculpture of a young ballerina, from an artist who apparently really had a thing for ballerinas. I was told that he made many, many of these statues, nowadays all with different length skirts. The length of the skirt actually tells you how intact the piece is, as they would fray with the passage of time, and museum curators would trim them accordingly. Our girl here would appear to have lost a good bit of her skirt, unfortunately. I love the expression on her face, she's obviously very tired, but trying not to look it.
I love this piece. The artist who was commissioned to create this sculpture of a child was having a very difficult time of it, until he happened to catch a glimpse of the child peeking through a curtain. To him it appeared to be a "picture of purity", and served as the inspiration for this piece. It looks eroded, but I believe this is the way he created it, with just the hint of a face peeking beyond the blankness.
This is supposed to be a representation of thought. To me it looks like he started with that block and gave up on life after carving the head. Maybe the girl was really out of shape and only wanted her head carved. I really don't see how it portrays "thought". Maybe "brain fart", but not "thought". This is all still part of the European art wing, believe it or not. This piece looks very contemporary to me. I guess they had already started to experiment with traditional form when this piece was made, I think during the eighteen hundreds.
This is titled "Eve". It really makes you appreciate the story of creation better, I feel, whether one were to take it literally or figuratively. The look of utter shame and embarrassment, when there's nothing in her figure to be ashamed of. What could better illustrate the fall of mankind, in the presence of God himself?
I know the old European ideal for womanly beauty was quite different than ours today (they liked them plump and pale, i.e. rich). Call me whatever you like, but this is still the most beautiful feminine figure I think I've ever seen, and I'm not talking about as a work of art, I'm talking about as a woman I would like to have a long, steamy night with.
Now we're into contemporary art. This is one of my favorite paintings I saw while I was there. It's a Picasso, in his cubism phase. "Man with Violin" or something like that. I love the color pallet, and how the longer you stare it, the more you think you see.
This is indeed what it looks like: an iron with nails glued to it. Another one of those "I shit on a stick and it's art, because I said so. Don't try to argue with me, you uncultured barbarian." In all seriousness though, I really can appreciate art like this, it sure makes you think about things in a different way. Upon just looking at it, you feel a vague sense of frustration as you instinctively imagine trying to use the thing, ripping your favorite shirt to shreds in the process. With modern art it's very tempting to go with your instinct of "Geeze, anybody could do that!", but the truth is anybody in the whole world could pick up a paintbrush and learn to paint, or to sculpt or anything else, if they're willing to put in the time. Just because you may see this as "easier" doesn't mean it's worth any less.
I thought this was funny. And, though the piece itself may claim otherwise, I'm sure this is actually worth quite a few dollars.
This was probably the creepiest piece in the museum, especially since it was tucked away in the corner; I doubt if many even noticed it. Continuing from the last picture, as this is spray-painted right onto the gallery wall, is it really worth anything? It's not as if, after buying it, you could move it or do anything with it. I sure wish I knew the context of this piece, as its meaning or intention all but escapes me (unless the intention was to thoroughly creep me out, which may very well have been the case).
This is also one of my favorite paintings that I saw. There's a lot you can't really see in the picture, like the smaller figures of nude women hidden in the skirt of roots the lady is wearing (or growing or whatever). I decided this painting, being created by a lady, probably deals with the concept of aging. The woman is in a very vulnerable state clothing-wise, heightened by the look of despair on her face, along with the endless corridor of doors beside her, perhaps to represent the passage of time. She's obviously still attractive and full of vitality, yet in her face she's so withered and aged. I imagine the griffin-looking thing in the corner is a reoccurring theme in this artist's work.
This is a wooden door shrouded in darkness. If you go up and look through the two small holes in it, you see a brightly lit scene featuring a woman's naked body lying spread-eagle in a pile of hay, with a painted landscape behind it. I would have completely missed this had my art teacher not happened to be in the same gallery at the time. Fairly startling, anyway this was practically hidden all the way in the back of the wing, and I felt so special having found it, until a huge group of girls from some other school entered and started swarming around it. To make matters worse I kept going back and looking through it, as I was trying to get a sense of how big the scene was (pretty hard to do with the two holes like that, very limited depth perception), and I'm pretty sure they thought I was some kind of creepy perve. Oh well, story of my life.
This was an interesting piece, I assume dealing with commercialism and whatnot. There's a lot to it, a phone, some peaches, a bent snow shovel, a picture of Reagan as you can see (probably dealing with politics as well). This is the kind of piece that made you nervous walking around it, as presumably it was all just lying there, and you might accidentally bump it and knock something off. There isn't even any way of telling if the original artist would consider that ruining it or improving it.
This was the main entrance to the museum, which I saw after exiting the modern art wing (we entered through a back entrance). What you're seeing is a large metal mobile hanging from the ceiling. Apparently you can move it just by blowing hard at it, but I definitely couldn't do it (probably I wasn't blowing that hard because I was afraid one of the three bazillion security guards would yell at me).
This is the skyline, as seen from that same entrance hall. I liked the view of city hall which you can see fully in the distance, framed by the large pillars on either side.
This is one of the rooms of their collection of really old armory and weapons. I'd heard a lot about it, honestly I only found it vaguely interesting. They have those self-guided tour things with the ear pieces and the old man blathering at you, I'd probably have to do that in order to appreciate it a little more.
This is my own work of art, I call it "Untitled (Sleeping Guard in front of Large Window)".
This was another one of my favorite parts of the museum. It was a collection of artifacts from Europe and Asia from like the fifteen hundreds and before, and a lot of it was parts of buildings that had been moved and reconstructed inside the museum, like this Asian temple. I couldn't take as many pictures as I would have liked because most of it was very dark, but in retrospect I should have taken some pictures of those beautiful stain-glass windows (darn!). Anyway, most of it was simply breath-taking, the kind of thing you have to be there to really experience.
You can tell by the large entrance way behind this that this was extremely large. Speaking of that entrance way...
It is (or rather was) actually a giant window. Weird, huh?
Anyway, I thoroughly enjoyed it and look forward to going back (forward to going back... hm) sometime soon. Hopefully I'll have plenty of opportunity to do so while in college.
BTW, Mr. Urffer, if you're reading this, I WANT TO HAVE YOUR BABIES! That is all.
I really have to go to bed! It is raining outside, hopefully it will ice and there will be a delay. If not, I'll be up again in four hours. I really should stop staying up so late. Oh well.
-Dr. M
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