For blog number 3, we were required to go to a city of our choice and go to two different museums, galleries or one museum and one gallery then write about it on the blog. I chose to go to one museum and one gallery. I was unable to attend to New York City bus trip so I decided to take a trip down to Philadelphia; I went to the Philadelphia Museum of Art and The Wentworth Gallery in Philadelphia. I was expecting both the museum and the gallery to be a little similar but as I was looking closer at things they are very different in many ways. I feel like I liked the museum a lot more than the gallery and have a lot more to talk about the museum than the gallery. The museum was so fascinating and amazed me by the setup, architecture and artwork in the museum. I wish that the museum would have been open longer due to the fact that I could have literally spent all day in the museum looking at the artwork and exploring. I take a lot of pictures since I love photography which I will post in this blog, but I am hoping to make a trip back down to the museum to explore some more artwork that I didn't have time to look at.
First, I am going to talk about the Philadelphia museum of art as a whole and my experience there. When I was getting close to the actual museum, I started getting excited, I didn't really know what to expect or what I was going to find inside. I drove up to the museum parking lot and got out of the car. Right by the parking lot there was a Greek looking metal statue that seemed to me to have some type of sea creatures and horses on it. Not only was it a statue but I also think that it was a fountain turned off or used some time ago. Next, I got to the stairs and of course had to run up the rocky stairs. When I got to the top, the actual art museum building really toke me by surprise. The architecture was put together very well and it was a really beautiful building that consisted of big columns and pediments and marble creatures on the top. Once I got to the top of the stairs and stood up under the columns, I got a strange feeling that went through my body. I couldn't believe I was there, it was so amazing to me.
Next, when I got inside there was a grand staircase leading to the upstairs. The museum consisted of 3 floors: a ground floor, 1st floor and second floor. The ground floor was made up of prints and photographs. I didn't spend too much time on the ground floor, but the first and second floor I spent more time on. The 1st floor consisted of some prints and drawings, modern art, contemporary art and modern European art (1850-1900). These floors had older paintings and sculptures. The floor had more modern art that used bright colors and patterns, some things were abstract and some realistic. There were some of Andy Warhol's work on this floor which I thought was awesome. If I had to pick something that I really liked it would be his work because the way he put things together was in a weird but awesome way. If I had to relate our printmaking class to an artist or floor this would be it.
The second floor was at the top of a large extravagant staircase. This floor consisted of older European art (1100-1850) also, this floor consisted of some architecture, furniture and sculptures all from this time period. I don't think I would have liked this floor as much if I didn't know and study renaissance art this semester. I saw a lot of artist that I have learned about and it was really amazing for me to be standing there in front of very famous works of art. I was amazed to know that I was there and all these artworks were from so long ago. I was also amazed that I was in the presents of the artwork that looked like it wasn’t even that old. One of my favorite paintings of all time was on that floor, "The Birth of Venus" by Nicolas Poussin. I don't know what it is about this artist or the painting but I just love looking at it., I think that I like it so much because I studied his artwork and also because the painting has so much detail that my eye can spend so much time looking at the painting.
Next, the second place I went to was a gallery. The gallery was the Wentworth gallery in Philadelphia. This gallery was a lot different compared to the Philadelphia Museum of Art. The gallery was a lot smaller than the museum by 100's of paintings. The gallery I went to had about a dozen or so artist that actually got to sell their artwork and put on main display. One of the most famous artists in Wentworth is Jane Seymour & her "Open Heart Collection". The gallery has 20 different locations in 8 different states including Pennsylvania, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Maryland, New Jersey, North Carolina, and Virginia. You can buy the paintings at the galleries but, I noticed that the paintings are a little pricey for what I thought they would sell the artwork for. I wasn't very impressed with the work in the gallery compared to the museum artwork. Although it might have been that I was amazed by the museum and there were a lot more artwork and things that really entertained me at the museum. It could have also been that I don't think the pricing of the painting were worth it.
I noticed a lot of the painting in the gallery had to do with some type of "Americanism" or "Patriotic" incorporated into their paintings. Also, the artist used a lot of bright and vibrant colors in their work. Some of the work was abstract looking, almost like they used the outlining of skinny abstract people along with some realistic paintings. Most of the paintings were hung up on a wall about 8 per wall the size of about 60X30, but a lot of their other paintings were hung in a type of wall that almost stand up drawers that slide out and you could also view the artist artwork from there. Although the artist artwork may have taken a lot of time, I respect the time they have put into their work and the way that every artist had approach there artwork differently and had different ideas. Like I said early, I didn't nearly enjoy the gallery as much as I did the museum.
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