Kyle Shalongo- N.Y.C.Field Trip Blog

     The trip to New York City to view some of the greatest pieces of art was both a tremendous and unusual experience that I will always remember when viewing another art gallery.  First of all, the change in scenery and setting was a big change to what I am used to.  With so many people and great realms of influence around, there is no doubt that such a place would create numerous interesting artists, each with their own view of artistic values in which to demonstrate.  While enjoying the awesome and exciting atmosphere and a very tasty place to eat, another peer and myself focused on three of New York's best museums; The Metropolitan Museum, the Frick Collection, and the Museum of Modern Arts.
     The first museum we visited was the very spacious and prestigious Metropolitan.  This enormous exhibit was broken up into sections of time and location along the course of the world's history.  I really like how the sections were organized to certain time periods we would think of like;Egyptian, Renaissance, Roman, and a precolonial setting of the  17th and 18th century.  Along with a great amount of artwork visually available, there was a pleasant historical factor following you in every room reminding one that these awesome artifacts and relics are only a thing in the past to us, as they were real tools and items used by our ancestors during the rise of their time.  The combination of these two elements really gave myself a great sense of appreciation towards all of the pieces of historical art in the Metropolitan.  This may have been my favorite among the three, and I hope I have the opportunity to visit again in the future.
     The second museum that I had the pleasure of viewing was the Frick Collection.  Although not as large as the Metropolitan, it was not slighted in it's elegance or the quality of artwork captured inside.  A very close second to the Metropolitan, the Frick Collection housed a more classical style of art and was much more refined to a type of selection, reasonably because of the time period in which most of the sketches, paintings, and sculptures were found or purchased.  The layout was very elaborate and evenly spaced, with no such sense of clutter for the audience to feel comfortable  while viewing the artwork.  The paintings were of a time period of possibly 17th through 19th century and a series of sketches downstairs, of that time period or later.  All of the artwork was beautifully done and could be easily noted of being tedious and laborious, especially the larger portrait paintings. This museum was an enjoyable experience as well.
     The final museum on our stop to NYC was The Museum of Modern Art( or MOMA).  This exhibit was quite different from the others, mainly due to the span of time skipped to our modern day.  All or most of the art was created and displayed in the 20th and 21st century.  Because artists of this time period have had many new and different experiences and influences, this adversely changed the style of art used to a more conceptual outlook, expressing feeling and opinion through sculpture, photography, and other sources of media unavailable to those artists of the other two museums.  You definitely had to keep an open mind when exposed to the art produced of younger, more recent artists as it may not have been visually straight-forward.  For that reason, I enjoyed viewing this type of art which either made you think or permeated your mind with strong feelings of one thing or another.  It is not my personal favorite as a type of art, but nevertheless it was most interesting and I don't regret seeing any of it.  The entire experience in NYC gave me much more perspective to art and all of its riches and also taught me a better understanding of what I can appreciate as a masterpiece.