The Metropolitan Museum of Art has always been a personal favorite of mine. Having already been there several times before for high school projects, I had always thought of it in an academic sense (I had one teacher who made the class go on a scavenger hunt in the museum). I never really thought of going to the museum as something that one could do for fun as a pastime. Through our recent trip there, I discovered a newfound perspective of museum-going. Walking through and looking at all the exhibits can be a sort of therapeutic and relaxing experience especially when you’re with friends.

My group, which consisted of Alex, Karen, Nick, and Professor Eversley, wanted to view the Balthus: Cats and Girls–Paintings and Provocations from the get-go, but the journey to get there actually might have been more fun than the exhibit itself. First of all, my horrible navigation skills got us lost for a while, but on the way, we got to walk through many interesting exhibits, including the Egyptian Wing, the American Wing, and the European Art Wing.

The Egyptian wing was pretty interesting, especially the Temple of Dendur, where the entire hall is lit up by the sunlight to create a really relaxing and nice atmosphere. The light beautifully emphasizes the structure in the middle–a piece of the Temple of Dendur from Egypt. On the past trips that I’ve made to the Met, I never realized that the structure was not complete. Some parts where the original pieces could not be found were substituted by plaster molds to create the temple that we see today in the Met. I think it’s very impressive that archaeologists are able to reconstruct a whole structure using only fragments from thousands of years ago.

After visiting Egypt, we walked through the American Wing and saw some monumental paintings of the colonial period. I noticed some of the same paintings that we had seen in the Brooklyn Museum on the “Macaulay Night at the Museum” event, namely the portrait of George Washington and the famous “Washington Crossing the Delaware.” I was momentarily confused, because I thought, there can’t possibly be two of the same painting, right? That was before I realized that some of the paintings displayed in the exhibit were copies of the originals hanging in the Brooklyn Museum. Before this, I thought there was only one copy of each painting–guess not, huh?

When we finally got to the Balthus: Cats and Girls exhibit, I was so excited to get to see the works of this artist that Professor Eversley liked. Little did I know, the focus of this particular exhibition was of Balthus’s works centering around his obsession of young girls and cats. The first ever picture I saw of Balthus’s was titled, “Therese Dreaming,” and features a young girl, around the age of 11, lounging with one leg standing up on the chair, leaned back with her eyes closed, and arms on her head. This description might paint a relaxing Sunday afternoon scene in your mind, but that was not what Balthus’s interpretation of the scene turned out to be. I was shocked at the sexualization of this young preteen girl, whose undergarments were clearly and noticeably visible as the center focus of the painting. To be honest, I was a bit shocked that this piece, which was considered  child pornography by some art critics, was viewed as fine art. This first work that I saw essentially gave me a blunt introduction to the artistic vision of Balthus and desensitized me so that I was able to view his other artworks with this newfound piece of knowledge and exposure in mind. The other works in the exhibit were pretty interesting as well, but I still found myself shocked by the themes displayed in the first painting.

Overall, the spontaneous trip to the Met was fun, and allowed me to see what I hadn’t noticed before. I found the simple act of walking and wandering about the exhibits to be such a relaxing and fun experience that I’m thinking about going to the museum more often in my free time! Special thanks to Professor Eversley for giving us so many fun facts and insight to the artwork!

—Joanna Huang

It was by chance that I happened to come across the work of art I enjoyed the most. The initial plan was to visit the Sackler WIng and move on from there. The Temple of Dendur is always such an amazing sight to see despite it being so familiar to me. Every time I came to the MET, I would make my visit to the Temple of Dendur, it defined what the MET was for me. Whenever anyone mentioned the MET, the Temple of Dendur was the first image that came to my mind. After I took a large number of pictures of the Temple of Dendur and its surroundings, however,  I decided that this was not what I wanted to focus in on for my review. As magnificent and grand as it was, I felt it was be too popular or well-known. Thus, I went on my search for a piece of work that would pop out at me and say ‘this is it!’

Browsing through a number of different wings and exhibitions, I felt that I was done. It was by chance that as I was looking for an exit, I found the Autumn Landscape by Louis Comfort Tiffany. Famous for his favrile glass works, it was an amazing sight. Louis would use iridescent art glass for his works, which was different from other artists. This is because the color of the glass was not only on the surface, but actually embedded into the glass itself. Its bright lights and wonderful scenery was definitely a sight to behold. The bright lights behind the glass that so wonderfully displayed the different colors of the glass really amazed me. However, I wonder why the wooden frames were built on top of the glass and not around the work on its borders. I felt that the wooden borders were distracting and took away from the richness of the scenery.

One of the first things I noticed during my past visit to the MET was the beauty of the building itself. The entire museum is renowned as one of the biggest art museums in the world and the amount of detail that went into constructing it was really brought to my attention. A lot of the people who visit the MET often go to appreciate the main art work that is inside and being displayed. Some of the work may be displayed for a period of time and then be moved but, there is one form of art that has remained in the structure since it was built; the architecture and design that went into creating it. The high vaulted ceilings, the multiple pillars, and various designs that are everywhere through out the building truly caught my eye during my past visit. Having been founded in 1870, the Metropolitan Museum of Art has not only become an icon of New York because of the quality of the art work inside but also because of the independent grandiose and opulence of the structure. Stretching for basically an entire city block the MET is something that catches the eye of anyone who walks by it. It stands out for its size at first and then for the amount of detail that went into it. Once you go inside it also truly does not disappoint and maintains a high level of quality as you walk around inside.

Much in the same way art galleries are made to be completely white in order to highlight the works being displayed, the MET acts in a similar fashion by exhibiting various art works in a work of art to reinforce and essentially create an aura supporting the artistic and historical importance of everything in the room. While walking through out the MET through the hallways and large arced entrances into each separate section it became very clear to me that many people go into the MET not only for the art being displayed but for the actual structure where they can appreciate and gaze in awe. One of the main rooms that I had walked into was displayed statues that were large in size but in comparison to the height of the vaulted ceiling with intricate designs etched on to the surface made them look relatively small. Other rooms displayed pillars that were huge in size but still managed to look small when I looked left and right upon the openness and space of the area.

As I walked outside and down the steps in front of the MET and turned around the pillars that were part of the structure looked surprisingly similar to those that I had seen inside. Of course this is because of the incorporation of different styles of architecture that were used in creating the MET, but isn’t that the point. To display art in such a place where it can really be appreciated for what it is. After doing an in depth analysis of architecture in New York I now have another structure to site whenever I talk about architecture as an art.