Metropolitan Museum of Art

METROPOLITAN MUSEUM OF ART

NEW YORK, NEW YORK

APRIL 13, 2007

So I went to NYC on Friday, the 13th! It was a good day, but a long day. My feet were killing me! I left the house at about 6:30 am and did not return until 8:15 pm. My niece and I navigated the subway well.

Our route? Grand Central to 86th street on the subway, walked to the Met, walked to 77th to take the subway back to Grand Central. (We then took a side trip and took the express shuttle (S train) to Times Square, ate lunch at the Hard Rock Cafe, visited Madam Tussaud's Wax Museum, then took the shuttle back to Grand Central in time for rush hour!)

The Metro North was so packed on the way back, we had to stand from Grand Central to South Norwalk! My feet were burning and my legs felt like Jell-o! I had a fantastic day though!

Here we go - a ride on the illustrious Metro North. Two hours to NYC!



Grand Central Station, New York City





Subway to 86th Street...


Here it is!!! The Metropolitan Museum of Art (it's MASSIVE, about 8 or so city blocks and is bordered in back by Central Park). There were school children everywhere. I remembered how boring I thought museums were when I was that age, but how nice it was to be on a field trip! The number of museum visitors swelled as the day progressed. Later in the day, it actually became difficult to navigate many of the main halls.

Upon entering, there is an information desk with pamphlets, maps, and exhibit information. Of to the sides are cashiers where you pay your fee to enter. (I believe I payed $10 for the student rate, although I don't exactly recall.) They then give you a little metallic purple clip to clip onto your shirt. It has to remain visible at all times. (You can leave it in a container at the door when you leave and they will recycle them.)

The flash photography police were out en force in the museum. I was not addressed, but I saw dozens of others who were...don't forget to turn off your flash! I found the lighting in much of the interior portions of the museum to be much too inadequate for clear photos. Many of them came out too blurry to use, unfortunately. It may just be my camera. I have an Olympus, but my niece's Sony took much clearer photos in the darker rooms. A few of mine came out yellow, but since they were taken in the Egypt exhibit, it actually adds to the photo!

I thought the museum was very much like a maze and had a somewhat difficult time navigating. I also found myself trapped in a dead-end in the Egypt exhibit (which was phenomenal!). The jewelry exhibit went around the corner, but you had to double-back to get out. We were stuck behind a group of children - very scary to imagine the possibility of escaping in case of fire.

Here are some of my miscellaneous photos inside the museum:

The Temple of Dendur - a gift to the United States from Egypt (double-click on the plaque)

Museum photos:

Look at 5th Avenue from inside the Met...)

Photos from the Louis Comfort Tiffany exhibit:


"Peaceable Kingdom" by Edward Hicks

Oil on Canvas

1830-32

"The Rocky Mountains, Lander's Peak" by Albert Bierstadt

Oil on Canvas

1863

"Approaching Thunderstorm" by Martin Johnson Heade

Oil on Canvas

1859

Inside one of the halls:

My featured artist is Jean Tinguely, a Swiss sculptor who began as a decorator of shop windows at a department store in 1940. He studied at the Kunstgewerbeschule in Basel (where there is now a museum in his honor http://www.tinguely.ch/) from 1941 to 1945 and later experimented with space and movement by creating his machine-like sculptures that had motors and moving parts. He moved to Paris in 1951 and began exhibiting his works. He made machines with "pre-programmed" elements of chance, fantasy machines called "Metamatics." They were capable of producing drawings or self-destruction. In 1966 and 1968, his "Machine" was on exhibit at the Museum of Modern Art in New York. He died in 1991 and worked/exhibited up until that time.

The plaque reads: steel bars, metal wheel, tubes, cast iron, wire, aluminum, string, 220-volt electric motor.

The description of his works on his website reads: "The machine sculptures engage in a loud and multi-coloured conversation with the onlooker: through his works, Jean Tinguely communicates and interacts with the spectator – the machine works and it becomes art. Tinguely’s works sparkle with wit, vitality, irony and poetry. But seen against a deeper background they reveal also a feeling for tragicomedy, for the enigmatic and inscrutable. "

I found this piece to be quite interesting and I was compelled to look at it for a long while. I saw what looked mostly like car parts (but with a white rubber tire and a saw attached!), but it was also adorned with quizzical wire and shocks of color. It is curious-looking to say the least. I imagined it's creator to be a lonely tinkerer who, obviously, saved everything! I loved the composition of all the parts to make an aesthetically pleasing sculpture. I have done a few sculptures, so I know this took quite a lot of work. I am glad the Met has given it a fantastic spot with lots of room, height, and light. I only wish I had seen it in action!

More of the Met:

Hey - I can do this!....

(The one on the right, at a glance, looks like the cover of Les Miserables!)

Andy Warhol (Self portrait, Mao)

"Tantric Detail I" by Jasper Johns
Oil on Canvas

1960

"Lola de Valence" by Amadeo Modigliani

Oil on paper, mounted on wood

1915

"Vampire" by Edvard Munch

Oil on Canvas

1894

YOU ARE NOW EXITING MY MET PHOTOS!

We had lunch at the Hard Rock Cafe...remember these Beatles outfits?

Times Square

A man with a deer head coming out of his chest (I couldn't make that up)

I saw this famous photographer, Annie Liebowitz at Madam Tussaud's!

Look who else I saw..Jimi!

I saw Andy Warhol and asked him about his self-portrait...he didn't really have a response.

Back out to Times Square...

Finally headed home...subway station band..

That's all! Hope you enjoyed my trip to the Met and NYC!