NYC Blog Assignment_Lena Kurtz

On the New York City bus trip I visited both the Museum of Modern Art and the Metropolitan Museum of Art. MOMA's special exhibit of Claude Monet's Waterlilies was one of my favorite exhibits considering he is one of my favorite artists. I really enjoyed getting to see numerous pieces from his waterlily work all exhibited together. Though all the pieces are so similar in content they're all very different.
One reason why I was so interested in the exhibits at MOMA is that I'm taking History of Modern Art this semester and a large amount of the pieces we've studied in that class were in this museum. Works by artists like Picasso, Matisse, Van Gogh, Duchamp, Andy Warhol, and various others are all things that we have studied in Hist. of Modern. It was just really nice to actually see these works in person instead of looking at them on a slide show.
Another part of MOMA that I really enjoyed was the sculpture garden. It was nice to have a break from the hallways and rooms of the gallerys to be able to just go outside and walk around in a more laid back setting.
In my opinion, the Met. is a completely different experience than MOMA. All the exhibits in the Met. were really interesting but slightly overwhelming. There is just a lot to look at there and honestly I feel like it would take years to actually walk through and appreciate everything there is to see. Even though I think the Met. can be overwhelming, certain exhibits wouldn't be as strong if there wasn't so much to look at. Certain exhibits such as the Greek and Roman Art and the Egyptian Art exhibits are amazing to look at because of just how much there is to see. For example, in the Egyptian exhibit, there were tons of tiny sculptures, some no bigger than a penny. If there would have just been one there, it wouldn't have been as interesting to look at, but since there was a huge amount, they definetely have a bigger impact on the viewer.
My favorite exhibit in the Met. was the American Decorative Art Exhibit. Everything in this exhibit is absolutely beautiful. The stainglass works that are designed by Louis Comfort Tiffany are amazing to look at. I've learned about his work before but pictures really can't do them justice. Each piece has so much color and little details that you can't see in a picture. The ways that the colors are blended and how some parts have flakes of other colors in them is really beautiful.
An aspect of the Met. that I really liked was how diverse the contents of exhibits were. From the origin of the art to the time when it was made, the variety in the art you can view at the Met. is really nice. To go from looking at a suit of armor or an Egyptian sarcophagus to a huge European painting or an American tea spoon really shows that art can come in any form.