Apparently, Caro is known for making sculptures that are self-supporting and therefore don’t need a base, leaving the art open to the viewers, so they’re free to interact with the sculpture from all angles. I think this feeling was accurately captured at the roof exhibit at the Met.
Although I was not at the Friday night exhibit, where people \ were able to leave their cocktails on the sculptures, I still felt the approachability of the pieces. The open space called for walking around the art, really getting a 360 view of it, and even peeking through the spaces to the other side. I felt I got the chance to interact with the pieces more so than the paintings that are the norm in the Met.
Of course the setting strongly affected my view of the art. Rather than the rest of the museum, which was clean and crisp in an almost sterile way, the roof had so much going on. I suppose on a regular basis, the clean white rooms that store the art are just that, rooms that store the art. They are kept minimalistic in order to focus your attention on the work. But the roof provides a whole new dimension.
In fact, for me, the view really carried the exhibit. Yes, the art was nice, and had the exhibit been inside, I might have stopped to look, but I probably would have looked rather quickly and been satisfied. But because the pieces were on the roof, I found myself looking at, in, around and through them finding the different angles of the view. Inadvertently, I was inspecting the art from all angles, and found myself enjoying the intricacies.
So honestly, the setting caused me to actually take notice of art that I otherwise would have probably ignored.
