For this blog assignment, we needed to go to two different galleries/museums in the city. I chose the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Guggenheim Museum. The thing that struck me the most about these two museums were how different they were from each other just in the type of building each one was. The Met was very traditional while the Guggenheim was not.
The first place I visited was the Met. I had never been to this museum, so I was kind of excited to see what it had in store. It was very big with a bunch of different types of work. I didn't get to see all of the museum, because it would take me days to go through the whole thing and actually be able to enjoy all of the art in it. I was mostly interested in the armor and musical instrument displays that they had there. It was very awesome to see how different instruments started out, and evolved to what they look like today. Being interested in music, this obviously held my attention. I also got to see some of the European works ranging from 1300-1600. For me, this was less exciting. every single painting seemed to be done in the same way, and I could count on one hand the amount of paintings that DIDNT have the Madonna and Child in it. It just seemed repetitive and boring.
The thing I liked the best about the Met was the 'Guitar Heroes' exhibition that they had going on. It showed a documentary of how local italian guitar makers made semi hollow guitars. They were all made by hand, which I think adds beauty to the pieces because most things nowadays are machine made. Also, along with the documentary they had a bunch of guitars on display, ranging in size, type, and color. I thought is was nice, being a music addict and all, to see all the crazy things people do with guitars, and also see such a wide variety of the instrument. I also liked the idea of viewing an instrument as a visual art rather then an auditory art.
Over all the Met wasn't as awesome as I had hope it would be. Mostly because what I did get to see was only mildly interesting to me. Also, I think the nastiness of the staff members also took away from my experience there. They all seemed to be quite rude.
The second museum I went to was the Guggenheim. I was happy to see it, just for the architecture. We have learned about the museum multiple times in various art history classes, so it was nice to actually see it in person. This museum, unlike the Met seemed to be a lot more open and friendly. It had less art in it then the Met, but I thought it was more interesting in content and in display.
Another thing the museum had going for it was the simplicity of it. In the Met I felt lost multiple times, and wasn't really sure where I was headed. In the Guggenheim, there is only one direction. You take an elevator up, start at the top and walk down the spiral. I didn't really get to see much of the art in the museum as I would have liked however, because of time constraints.
Overall I was glad I got to see both places, because like I said I have never been to them before. If I would get the chance to go back, I would like the check out the Guggenheim some more, but I would probably bypass the Met. Also, I think it would be interesting to go find some smaller galleries in the city and see how the art differs from the places i've seen.
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