The Politics of Art & Authenticity

Museums are of my favorite places to visit.  What one finds in a museum is immortal.  The artifacts seem to transcend the ages.  Wen I see a piece of art I either like it or I don’t.  There seems to never be any in between.

There were many unique pieces in this museum.  The ones that are still fresh in my mind are “The Scream”, “Starry Night”, and Frieda Kahlo‘s painting. These three timeless pieces are extremely famous.  They are shown in textbooks, have parodies made of them, and are often the first things that come to mind when one of these painters are mentioned.

When I saw “Scream”, the first thing I thought of was an article I had recently read about it and all the parody paintings that had been placed around the article.  Aside from this thought, I genuinely did not feel any genuine excitement over seeing this piece of art.  I feel as if the media has desensitized me to it.  Having seen it in movies, cartoons, replicas, I felt as if I were just seeing another.

However it felt as if none of the other paintings compared to “Scream” and the other famous works by the renowned artists.  You only saw crowds gathered around the more recognized ones which, I suppose, is understandable to some extent.

The photography section seemed short though it was filled with tons of pieces.  I have never been very interested in photography so I was unfamiliar with most of the artists.  I regarded many as interesting and was left wondering about others.  There was one piece that made me wonder how it got into the museum.  It was in a large glass display case against the wall.  If I remember correctly the background was cut in half, the top was white and the bottom was gray.  At the very center were two pictures, one of a bright sky blue sky and another of a darker colored sky.  I’m going from memory however it was plain, ordinary.  It felt like anyone could have done it.

What stood out to me most in the photography section could be found in the part we viewed before the exit.  There was the face of a man who seemed like he was screaming, in some sort of pain, or just so moved by something.  His face was scrunched up, one could see his age lines.  This one photograph portrayed so much emotion yet it was black and white and quite possibly taken years ago.  The feeling I got from this one photo made me think that a picture really is worth a thousand words.

Source:

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/f/f4/The_Scream.jpg/220px-The_Scream.jpg