Category — Visual Art

I’ve been to many museums throughout my  18 years of life. This is mostly because of my mom’s enthusiasm with going to museums and my internship that I had going into my senior year of high school. However, as a kid my mom and I always planned on going to the Brooklyn Museum, but it just never happened. I was very excited that the first major event at Macaulay was going to Brooklyn Museum, especially at night because it wouldn’t be overcrowded with other people besides the Macaulay students.

I am part of Monet and my group decided to head to the American culture part. I honestly wasn’t expecting to say much because I am not that into talking about art. I am more of the type to just look and appreciate in my mind. I didn’t know what to say and my comments were just so bland. After we finished with what we had to do, we decided to joke around and look at a sculpture by Malvina Hoffman called “Ivan Mestrovic.” Hoffman decided to dedicate an entire (bigger than life sized) sculpture on her mentor, Mestrovic. Using the tape recorder, we made analysis jokes based upon the work of art. However, as we kept going, it became serious. I had so much more to say and I didn’t know why. I had noticed things that I thought I would’ve kept in my head or wouldn’t have been able to express in words, but I did anyways and it was very exciting.

To be completely honest, this wasn’t an event that I was head-over-heels, crazy excited for. I was actually dreading it. Mostly because during the Tech Day workshop, analyzing the artwork proved to not exactly be my forte in a sense and listening to the videos were (no offense) pretty boring. I never really was into art anyways and until Night at the Museum, I’ve never actually been to an art museum. When the day finally came around, I just put on a good face and tried to have an open mind.

Pulling up to the museum, I was amazed at how beautiful it was from the outside. After going inside, we were lead into the main meeting room on the 3rd floor which was an jaw-dropping illuminating space and once again I was speechless. Then we had our share of fun with the whole “text the answer” thing, with me thinking on the inside that this would probably be the best part of the night. But in several minutes I was proved wrong. When we formed our groups, we began to explore and at first we tried to find pieces that would be easy to analyze. But soon enough we weren’t just trying to get the project done but we were each stopping at different artworks and didn’t have to think as much before we started recording our thoughts on a certain piece. We ended up analyzing four and a half pieces of art (half because we got kicked out in the middle of recording one), which was a lot more than we expected.

So first, we wandered around the Egyptian exhibit.

Then we wandered up to the (forbidden) 4th floor where we found our first piece of artwork.

This part of the floor was filled with quilts, but this one stood out to us in particular. It was made solely of neutral colors and tones of reds and blues. This was the epitome of disarray, but all of the features of the quilt had nature included in it.

Crazy Quilt, circa 1875-1900. Made of silk, brocade and velvet. Gift of Jean Mac Kay Herron.

Then we were able to very briefly see The Dinner Party by Judy Chicago. I didn’t know that each of the place settings represented feminine parts until Professor Ugoretz told us about it in class. But either way, our group found it beautiful and very unique (well, at least in the very short time we got to look at it before we were kicked out).

Afterwards, we went to the 5th floor. As we walked through to find our next target, I took a few pictures of the pieces of art that I personally found intriguing.

Here are the next three that we looked at:

Vivian St. George and Her Dog, 1924 by Paul Howard Manship.

This particular piece was something that we found most of the groups were drifting towards which I guess makes it especially captivating – probably from the expression of the girl’s face.

Tête-à-Tête Tea Set, circa 1876. Manufactured by Karl L. H. Muller.

At first, it seems like your ordinary cute tea set until you look very closely and see how messed up and racist it is…

Next was the Spacelander Bicycle. Designed by Benjamin G. Bowden in 1946. It is rumored that only about 500 were ever sold. I am not surprised. Garish and quite inconvenient. But it’s not like I can ride a bike anyways…

Afterwards, we finally called it quits. It was the end of a successful and eye-opening type of night for me.

But it was not complete without seeing Brooklyn Museum’s infamous “piano tree.”

*pictures taken with a fish-eye lens which is why they’re slightly “morphed”

Macaulay’s Night at the Museum was an experience unlike any other. This was my second visit to the Brooklyn Museum, the first being with my high school senior class. The latter trip was much more knowledgeable or more enriching than the former.

Visiting a museum is supposed to enlighten oneself. This is never the case for high school students, or students overall in that matter. A visit to the museum is just a time to get out of the classroom, hang out with friends, without many of the constraints placed upon them by their instructors. A school trip to the museum entails a more cursory glance at the art pieces, stopping at one for a couple of minutes, and simply “oooing” and “ahhing” at the pieces, without understanding, or trying to understand the piece.  Simply put, no one really cares about the pieces in front them.

This was not so at Night at the Museum. The over 500 Macaulay students that gathered at the Museum were there with a purpose: to thoroughly examine any piece of art they liked and discuss it. With  specific goal, I along with my group went on a hunt for pieces of art that peaked our interest. In this way, our eyes opened to the art in front of us, making us really look at what was in front of us. After thorough examination of three pieces of art we liked, we got into an intense analyses of the art, sometimes even digging into the artist’s intent in painting the work. Looking around, I could see everyone else doing the same. This was something that I had never experienced before.

My experience at the Brooklyn Museum was one I won’t soon forget. The amazing thing about Macaulay is that the events it plans for its students are ones that allow for amazing social and intellectual growth, and this was no exception. In the time leading up to our adventure touring the museum, I got to meet a number of students from different campuses and discuss with them, among other things, some of the highlights of the museum and what we hope to gain from the experience. When we split into groups, I had little difficulty finding students who were as eager as I was to begin observing the exhibits and sharing and discussing our on-the-spot perspectives.

Almost immediately, my group had a difficult time choosing a specific artwork to focus on for our recording, and only after our discussion came to a close on observing a peculiarly exquisite piece did we realize that its fluidity and natural delivery meant that we should have pressed the “record” button. We did, however, find a number of artworks to discuss with the recorder on. Yet again, we ran into another problem: we noticed that once our discussion got underway, someone always had an additional comment or observation to make, which usually sparked another wave of stimulating and exciting new ideas. (Curiosity is a sneaky and amazing tool, isn’t it).

Avarice, as was explained to me by my group members, means greed beyond measure for wealth and material possessions.

One piece in particular is a massive replica of the well known and widely studied Mayan calendar, titled Avarice. (An image of the piece accompanies this post). Of course this was not the original stone artifact, but instead it was one fashioned almost entirely out of corn kernels and other organic materials. Upon closer examination, we noticed that many of the details – some large and some nearly as small as a thimble! – were objects or symbols that only came into existence in the last hundred years (give or take a decade). The artist  featured many of the luxuries we take for granted, but also highlighted many of the social, political, and economic issues that our generation is now tasked with addressing head on. From this initial observation came one of the most exhilarating conversations of my recent academic career, and one that I am glad we recorded.

All in all, I am very happy that I had this experience and look forward to many like this one. If I ever come across incoming freshman students (including those enrolling in Macaulay) who have questions concerning how they should spend their free time or take advantage of what the city has to offer, I will be sure to mention that a few hours in the Brooklyn Museum is one of the greatest uses of one’s time.

When I first heard that this was to be our first event for Macaulay, I was actually quite excited. Although I don’t have much experience with art, I was looking forward to being able to have an open and intelligent conversation with my peers. I knew that this “museum going” experience would be different than the others I’ve had because I never really talked about the art in depth when I went to a museum. This lack of conversation made my museum experiences rather boring. Despite my initial excitement for this event, however, I also had my doubts. When talking to my other friends who would be attending Macaulay in the fall, I discovered that not everyone was as excited as I was. They were not looking forward to the event and thought it would be boring and awkward. Although this view did affect my attitude toward the event, I was still looking forward to it.

Upon arriving at the museum, I was amazed before even entering. The building itself is simply magnificent. It follows a Grecian model of architecture with columns at the center of the building. However it also has a modern feel with the glass ceiling over the entrance. The building was a very accurate representation of what awaited inside. Every section of the museum was absolutely amazing. The exhibits were very interesting and varied in what they contained. My group went from the Divine Feline exhibit to the Egyptians to the European paintings to the A World in Brooklyn exhibit. We had wonderful conversations about various pieces of art. One particular piece that is very popular at the museum and that amazed me was the piece entitled “Blossom.” It depicted a tree growing out of a piano and even played “Strange Fruit” by Billie Holiday. My group also had a very in-depth discussion about “Avarice” by Fernando Mastrangelo. This piece was an Aztec-type calendar made entirely of corn. Many of the things carved into the “calendar” represented the greed that takes over our world and the eventual destruction we will suffer because of this greed.

Overall, I have to say I was very satisfied with my experience. Despite the initial awkwardness, my group had great conversations, and the event lived up to a lot of my expectations.
~Nicole 🙂