Day 4

Today was by far the most exhausting, art-overloaded day of the week, but well worth it!I We ventured off to the Metropolitan Museum of Art followed by the Guggenheim. I have been to the Met before, but it was so many years ago I had no knowledge of many of the artists and their pieces. What I loved most about the Met was the diversity in exhibitions it has, and that is something there for everyone to be drawn to, and seen. I wanted to see everything I could in the time we had, but my favorite exhibition there by far was the Modern Art exhibits. I tended to linger around the avante-guarde artists works more than others, such as Bridget Riley’s “Blaze”, and Jackson Pollock’s “Lavender Mist”. That was my first time ever seeing a Pollock painting up close, and I was in utter awe of it. To some people who don’t know about Pollock it was entertaining to hear their reactions to it, “Mom, I could paint that myself! That’s not a hard painting!”. I probably stood there for a good 10 minutes just staring at it before I moved on.
I also enjoyed seeing some of the classical sculptures and French Revolution paintings such as, Jacques-Louis David’s, “Death of Socrates”. For me, after I study a specific painting or work of art for a long period of time in class, it is so rewarding to finally see it in person and appreciate it even more than before. A very exciting thing that was happening were guest artists who set up an easel and were painting the most beautiful, realistic versions of other paintings in the Met. I always love seeing Andy Warhol's work, he is one of my biggest inspirations, and favorite Pop artist ever for his ability to use consumerism and mass culture to create works of art unlike anyone else.

Next, we headed off to the Guggenheim which unfortunately had the exterior under construction, but the inside was just as neat as the outside! Although I enjoyed the series of works from “el Greco to Picasso”, they are absolutely phenomenal artists, I must say my favorite exhibition today at the Guggenheim was the photography exhibition, “Family Pictures”. Sally Mann is one of my favorite photographers of all time, and her photographs of her children are so breathtaking. I noticed a lot of humor and comedy in many of the photographs which was a nice break from the seriousness of the paintings I had seen all day. What an amazing art experience! Two of the best museums in NYC, all is one day! I am POOPED!