The Metropolitan Museum of Art boasts some of the greatest art exhibits in New York City. The museum’s vast size and structure makes it virtually impossible to see all of the exhibits in one day. Just last Thursday, I went to the museum to see two particular exhibits: African Art and Matisse: In Search of True Painting. While very different from each other, both of these exhibits proved to be rather compelling.
While exploring the African Art exhibit, one piece of art immediately grabbed my attention. I could not exactly decipher what the artist was trying to portray in his sketch, so it made me curiously stop and read the description. The piece of art, known as “Seated Man Reading a Newspaper” was painted by the great European artist, Pablo Picasso. It turns out that Picasso was influenced heavily by African Art and looked for ways to incorporate it into his style of European Art. What struck me most about this work was the abstract nature of it. The various geometric shapes and shadings give each viewer the ability to interpret it differently from the next. But more importantly, it shows the significant impact that African Art had on many big name artists, like Picasso.
Seated Man Reading a Newspaper
At the time it was introduced, Negro Art was revolutionary. It went against all the conventional methods of trying to depict everything according to scale. The “Seated Man Holding a Vessel,” created by an unknown artist, epitomizes the idiosyncratic nature of this genre of art. I really enjoyed this sculpture because of its unconventional features: from the large forehead, to the chinless head, all the way down to the narrow torso. At times, part of being human is viewing things from radically different perspectives. By stepping outside of the norms (in this case European Art), we can ultimately appreciate the peculiar things of life, such as this early, 20th century wooden sculpture.
Seated Male Holding Vessel
After spending some time in the African Art exhibit, I moved onto Matisse: In Search of True Painting. What I found interesting about Matisse is that he has an image in mind and recreates it over and over using a plethora of techniques. Instead of calling the original works “drafts,” he values all of them equally in his quest for “True Painting.” According to the first description on the wall, he valued the journey of reaching his finished product to be just as important as the final painting itself. I think that’s important for him to recognize because we often just seek a destination, rather than the journey that accompanies it.
Although most of his work is done in doubles or triples, there is one particular scene that he recreates 15 times. The scene is a woman with a variety of patterns on her clothing, duplicated until perfection was reached. All 15 copies are hanging along one wall with the final, colored masterpiece in the center. We know that as a painter, Matisse was lost and trying to discover who he truly was. As his career progressed, he created more copies of the same work. Just as many elderly people do, Matisse could have been trying to rekindle the greatness that once burned during the earlier years of his life.
The Dream
Photo Credit: Stan Honda / AFP
