Field Trip To New York

Last week I went to visit two museums in New York. My first stop was at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. This was my first time being there and at first was very overwhelming. Once I was over the initial shock of the amount of art that was actually in the museum I decided to see the drawing, printmaking, and photography section. My true interest is in the drawings with solid color ink, but, unfortunately, this was probably the smallest exhibit in the museum. The prints in this section were probably the best part, especially those done by etching and engraving.

Next I went to the an exhibition title The World of Khubalai Khan: Chinese Art of the Yaun Dynasty. This show was the most interesting to me due to all the different forms of art it contained. They had everything from huge marble statues of soldiers to pottery and masks made of pure gold. The thing i enjoyed most were the long scrolls had been drawn on with ink. The detail on them was incredible and the colors were brilliant. I also went to the Man, Myth, and Sensual Pleasure exhibit by Jan Gossart which I enjoyed but felt was entirely too long and somewhat repetitive in the content and style.

After I left the Met I went to the Neue gallery which was a completely different experience. The first floor was all German art which, for the most part, consisted of one long display case. It contained post cards in sets of 6, each one with art on them, done in chromolithography. I didn't really understand how these came about and no explanation or history was offered. I found the art odd since they were all by different artists, almost like quick sketches done on the back of scrap paper. One thing I noticed is the subject matter normally consisted in one way or another of a woman. The rest of the art on this floor were large unfinished sketches done in crayon.

The second floor was an exhibit by Franz Xaver Messerschmidt who did a whole series of heads cast in different types of metal. He would sit in front of a mirror, pinch himself, and sketch out the different expressions he made. Each head was done in great detail and the exhibit exceeded 30 heads.

These museums were very interesting to see in contrast to each other because of the very different kinds of art in them. I enjoyed them both and am planning on going back someday soon.