The Arts in NYC Fall 2012

Originally I was planning to visit the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Cloud City exhibit on the roof. Unfortunately it was closed due to the horrible weather. However, since I was at the Met, I reckoned that I might as well explore the museum. In my opinion I had a better experience at the met than MoMA. At the Met I felt as though I was walking into a different time period or subject matter whenever i went into a different room. The exhibits were also quite extensive and features many display pieces. The Arms and Armor exhibit was quite astounding. The armor ranged from samurais to knight and Islamic armors. Furthermore, there were many lavish and elgant weaponry from the Ottoman Turkish and Mughal Indian courts.  Owning such items must have shown that the owners were of high class. Today’s technology has shown significant progress but these items on display were the foundations for  modern armory. Knight’s chain mail protected them from swords while kevlar vests protect our soldiers from bullets. It makes me wonder when the people of the future will see our technology and think of how outdated and ancient it is to their advanced tech.

Although Arms and Armor piqued my interest I found Egyptian Art more interesting. There were thousands of objects on display ranging from the Paleolithic to Roman periods. It was one of the larger exhibits in the museum. The highlight was definitely the Temple of Dendur, which has an interesting history. It was built in 15 BC and commissioned by the first Emperor of the Roman Empire, Augustus. In 1963 Egypt gifted the temple and its gate to the US. Its amazing how this piece of history has traveled so far away from its home into one of the greatest cities of our time. Adjacent to the Temple was a sphinx. I thought I would have been awed to see one in person but because I have seen it so many times in movies it has lost a lot of value in my perspective. Besides the Temple and the sphinx there were many tablets and stones with hieroglyphics. I have to give credit to whoever deciphered hieroglyphics because it looked as though there were just groups or random symbols. There were also plenty of amulets, jewelery, jars, and statues. Furthermore, there were dozens of sarcophagus’ on display, but unfortunately I didn’t see any mummies. I was very impressed and amused by the overall exhibit. It was quite crowded, but that’s probably because of the quality of the exhibit.