Essay #1 The Met

 

 

                                            Navigating the Metropolitan Museum of Art  

            The way one experiences artwork can be influenced by many factors, some already predetermined by the artist in the way they choose to create their piece like in the choice of colors they utilize, the specific ways they use their brush or chisel or the manner in which they chose to present the subject matter of their piece. Before my trip to the Metropolitan Museum of Art last Tuesday I was convinced that the way a person views art was totally dependent on the choices made by the artist in their execution of their work. After my visit to The Met I now have developed a completely different opinion in how artwork is experienced by viewers and who exactly is responsible for that experience. I have learned that museums too heavily influence the way someone experiences artwork.

            Upon entering The Met I was first taken back by the size of the building, it was very large and a what I thought to be a bit out of place considering it was located in Central Park. I then focused on the outside steps leading up to the building entrance which were filled with people of all different ethnicities and ages participating in various types of activities like eating, utilizing electronic devices or simply just socializing. Once I finally got into the museum I was definitely overwhelmed by the amount of people gathered in the main hall, it took a second for me to figure out where I was going or where to walk. I decided on walking up the grand staircase to second floor as it seemed that’s where the natural flow of traffic was going. When I arrived at the top of the stairs I had the option of heading in three different directions, it was then that I determined I would absolutely need a map to get around the museum, after receiving a map from one of the information booths I decided I would really like to check out the exhibit on Modern and Contemporary Art. In my attempts to locate the exhibit I planned a route through the European Paintings rooms.

The first room I entered was filled with paintings hung on grey walls, to bring out or accentuate certain colors of the paintings. The paintings I noticed were hung off of wires that seemed to be easily movable, they were also fenced off by small barriers to protect people from getting to close to the paintings and possibly damaging them. This small detail made me feel a little bit hesitant about getting close to the paintings as I felt it was implied by the presence of the barriers that I should not. While trying to view some of the paintings I really gave a conscious effort to try and immerse myself into the artwork, unfortunately this was harder to accomplish than I thought. In the midst of viewing some of the paintings, the amount of people trying to move or take pictures around me made me feel as though I was being rushed and had to be conscious of the time I spent in front of the artwork as there were other people trying to view it as well. I believe the noise level also played a big part in distracting a person’s concentration from the artwork. In one of the rooms I traveled through there was a man who went around taking a picture of every single piece in the room with his iPhone camera, normally that wouldn’t be something that should bother anyone but he proceeded to take every picture with the shutter sound effect on, and very loud.

Antoine-Laurent Lavoisier (1743-1794)
and Wife
by Jacques-Louis David
1788 Oil on Canvas

The museums use of signs and labels was also something I thought changed the way I personally viewed some of the art pieces as well. There was one particular painting I viewed that at first stuck out to me just because the female in the painting seemed to be the focal figure even though she was depicted by someone who seemed to be her husband (as suggested by their body language). The man, who I presumed to be her husband, was sitting at a table with all these types of scientific instruments laid out across the table. In the glass of these instruments you can see the artists’ specific detail to the lighting as they have painted white marks on the glass, indicative of the light shining through the windows not visible in the painting. The artists’ use of lighting on the dress of the female in picture was something I also took note of as they did an amazing job of depicting it as natural as possible. I came to all these conclusions before reading the information provided by the museum on the piece. After reading the information on the piece I was now able to analyze the piece biographically and historically rather than just formally and stylistically. The man depicted in the painting is Antoine-Laurent Lavoisier and his wife Marie-Anne-Pierrette Paulze. Lavoisier was known for his studies of oxygen, gunpowder and the chemical composition of water. He authored a treatise on chemistry that was illustrated by his wife Marie, who was involved in his studies. Lavoisier was unfortunately involved in a political scandal that would cost him his life as he was ordered to the guillotine because of it. After learning this information, I looked at the piece of art completely different. I viewed the painting in a more romanticized way know that I knew Lavoisier, who involved his wife into his work during a period which this was not normally acceptable, was sentenced to death in a horrific way. It gave the painting a little bit more emotion and depth as the seemingly happy couple in the picture now had a very real and tragic story.

Throughout my visit at The Met I became more aware of the smaller details which played a big role in how I viewed and experienced the artwork. I believe now that I was more educated in the ways to look at art (based on the last few classes) I was more in tuned with the things that prohibited me from fully immersing into the artwork and those decisions which had been purposely made to influence the way I view the piece. I believe coming to this realization has made me more aware of the physical setting when viewing a piece of art and making a conscious effort to learn the true intended environment for the piece and more of what the artists had originally saw for the piece rather than just accepting the present setting as it’s true intended home.