The Brooklyn Museum

I had visited the Brooklyn Museum a few weeks prior to our trip on Thursday. While I had already seen most of the works already, I got a full understanding and appreciation of the pieces when I got a look at them a second time. I also realized that there were so many wonderful pieces that I had missed before.

I was amazed when I first saw the overall architecture of the museum. The small shallow puddle of water at the sides of the museum reminded me of the white house from afar.

Now onto the exhibitions! I really enjoyed the Great Hall on the first floor. They looked like geometric clouds all lined up against each other. The vast amount of space corresponding to the structures was a perfect fit. The artist seemed to take both a classical and modern approach to this piece. The bottom part of the structure seems to resemble the ancient Greek columns and the top part looks like a closed up circus tent.

The next exhibit that we visited, Sanford Biggers: Sweet Funk-An Introspective, was kind disturbing but nonetheless, I enjoyed trying to interpret and understand it. The piece that I thought was the most interesting was “Blossom.” It was a tree wrapped around a piano that was playing by itself. The music was very dramatic and it fit perfectly with this somewhat ominous setting. There was also a giant fluorescent smile on top of this tree. At first, we did not understand the smile but then when we went into the dark room next to it, we realized it was in the video of a man who kept putting white powder on his face. The video showcased an African American man putting white powder on his face and I was taken back by it at first. However, we soon realized that it attempted to address race. The man was trying to mask his face with white powder because he wanted to be white. I found this take on race interesting and it reminds society of the racial pressures that not one, but many groups may have.  There was also a statue that was projected against a wall. The shadow on the wall looked like President Obama but the statue looked like Martin Luther King. It showed the progression of powerful black leaders in American, both old and new. I also thought the play on lighting was genius.

Finally, we came across “The Dinner Table.” I actually wanted to see this piece for a long time and I am glad to say that it did not disappoint.  The whole setting was very grand and I could actually feel the presence of all these important female figures throughout the history of the world. My AP Art History told our class that the plates had sexual connotations. When I saw it for myself, I did not see it right away but as I kept looking at the plates, the sexual reference became pretty obvious.  As women, became more powerful, the plates more 3-D, more real…  I appreciated this because it showed the rise and increase in strength of women over the years. I could just imagine all these women sitting right before my eyes.