Under-Appreciated African art and Metaphysical Matisse

I have been many to the Metropolitan Museum many times in my life before.  It is an enormous museum with many collections.  But I never really zoomed in one aspect of the MET’s many works of art.  Because of our IDC class, we got to focus on two: The 100^th anniversary of the African Art exhibit and the Matisse display.

I have to say that the African Art show was a disappointment.  In our class, Professor Bernstein talked about how important this expo was.  It radically changed how artists used to do paintings or other works of art.  With such high expectation I walked into the MET museum.  What I got instead was a little exhibition space.  That has to be the fault of the MET.  They are the ones who decide how everything is set up.  Such an influential group of works needed a larger venue where people can come and appreciate them without being crammed in like a clown car.

But if you looked at the individual pieces, they were amazing.  The woodwork done was amazing.  The sculptures were symmetrical and each had its own characteristic to it.  For example, “Sculptural Element from a Reliquary Ensemble: Head” looks like a bland piece from the straight.  If you were to look at it from the side, you would see a different view.  The chin and jaw are elongated.  The ears are very circular.  I believe that this is the first time modern artists saw that not everything has to be straight and perfect.  Shapes and geometry could be used.  As a result, many artists incorporated these ideas into their work.

As we went inside the Matisse exhibit, it was a stark contrast.  By reading the captions, it showed how Matisse painted everything in pairs or triplets in the beginning in his career.  When I first saw this.  I thought that he might have Over Compulsive Disorder.  But I kept in mind the point of this exhibit: “In Search of True Painting.” It seemed strange at first why the curator called it this.

The first painting that hit me was that of “Le Luxe.”  Matisse painted three versions of this masterpiece.  Each version was different.  Going from left to right, you can see that there is an inverse relationship between color and definition.  The clearest picture was that done by pencil.

After a while, it seemed that Matisse didn’t like to keep painting the same image.  This was the case with “Apples”. This pair was completely different from each other.  First, the background in one was green.  It provides a sort of cool color.  The other painting had a powerful red background.  It represents a hot color.  The angles at which the two were painted are different.  In the former, you see the legs of the chair.  While in the latter, there are no legs. It indicates a different point of view

http://www.oilpainting-frame.com/upload1/file-admin/images/new8/Henri%20Matisse-352563.jpg

Honestly, I believe the theme of the exhibit represents an idea that is metaphysical.  How can one person judge which is the “true” or not?  By giving such an idea, the curator was trying to express that there is no such thing.  Matisse it seems realized this after a while and that is why he paints the pairs and triplets of the same work.  Maybe out of one of them, it would really speak to us.

Or on a more cynical note, maybe it was good marketing plan by the museum to get people to go all the way to the end and then to be hit with the gift shop.