I’ll be the first one to admit it.

I hate museums — so much so that as soon as I got home from this event, my mom sarcastically asked me, “How did it go?”

To her astonishment as well as my own, I absolutely loved the experience. Now, this is saying a lot coming from the person who has been to the Louvre and found her time better-spent shopping around towards the entrance of the museum. Perhaps it was a sudden change of heart or a newfound appreciation for art due to this class, but I found myself contemplating ideas that I wouldn’t have otherwise. I truly looked at the pieces and commented on just about everything — unlike my other museum experiences, I certainly had a lot to say.

I’m also pretty sure I’m suddenly an art snob.

Just a quick example: 

Take this painting here, for instance. It may be hard to see because this photo is relatively low res (thanks, iPhone) but the man’s body is fairly hairy. Now, this is an unusual sight in art on its own, as we have discussed — men’s bodies are rarely captured in this way and are more commonly portrayed in a “nude” style (ergo, hairless, if even portrayed at all.)

Now, take a look at this travesty:

 

Again, hard to see, but the description describes these two figures as NUDE. Now, I’m not claiming that I’m suddenly an art connoisseur or an art historian, but I’m fairly certain that the man’s body is not portrayed as a stylistic nude. Naked, yes. Nude? Definitely not.

I found this interesting for two reasons:

  1. Men are almost never portrayed simply naked.
  2. The woman could be considered a nude. Which begs the question, why was she nude but he was naked? Maybe some sort of social commentary?

This next one reminded me of the painting we discussed in class of Olympia and the one by Taira Rice. She’s looking at us looking at her — and she’s looking fierce as she does so! I particularly liked the glitter accents on this piece.

The painting above was also very intriguing to me due to the ribbon fitted around the woman’s neck. I found it faintly reminiscent of one of the short stories from “In a Dark, Dark Room” that I would read as a kid. The story, as far as I can recall, discussed a girl who always wore a green ribbon around her neck and never took it off. The reason for this was because this was the only thing keeping her head attached to her body, and if she were to take the ribbon off, her head would fall off her shoulders. Now, these two things are definitely unrelated — but I think it exemplifies what good art is supposed to do: evoke an emotion, trigger a memory, or draw out any response from the viewer at all.

And I must say, I saw a lot of good art that day.