Museums and the History of the MET

Many museums were built in the late 1800’s and were structured to have a romantic and elite kind of feel, and were originally targeted and operated for  a higher class of people.  They came about in an unscrupulous way and were viewed for specific things. Artifacts from wars and specific times in history were primarily what were kept in museums which were used to educate and provide the public with evidence of past events. Some museums were publically funded and some privately funded, which still holds true to this day. However over time the way art was made and viewed evolved along with what was placed in museums. Art today is more accessible and is spread through a broader audience.

The Metropolitan Museums of Art known as the “MET” is an art museum located on the eastern edge of Central park in New York City. It was founded in 1870 by a group of American citizens; its founders included businessmen and financers along with leading arts and thinkers of the 1800s whose goal was to open a museum to bring art and art education to the American people. It officially opened on February 20, 1872. Its collection contains more than two million works of art and is currently divided into nineteen curatorial departments. Works of art that are stored in the met vary from artifacts from Ancient Egypt, painting and sculptures from many European masters, and a large collection of American and modern art. The MET also contains holdings of African, Asian, Oceanic, Islamic and Byzantine art and is home to encyclopedic collections of musical instruments, antique weapons and armor from around the world and costumes and accessories from various time periods.

Ai Weiwei - Sunflower Seeds

Ai Weiwei is a well known political artist in China; much of his work reflects anti-government sentiment and expresses the weaknesses and pit falls of events that have occurred throughout its history. His work, Sunflower Seeds, located in the Tate Modern in London, consists of 100 million hand painted sunflower seeds which cover the floor in main hall of the museum. The piece of work can be viewed from the Turbine Hall Bridge. Each sunflower seed is sculpted by skilled artisans from porcelain and later hand painted then baked, although each seed looks the same they are unique in their own way.  

Weiwei believes that art is a tool to set up new questions and to challenge the human mind. His goal is to make people who don’t necessarily understand art, understand what he is doing. More than 1,600 locals are involved with this project, in an interview he stated that everybody in town knows somebody working on the project. His work has brought business to the town, he states it is like the old time where people work together but have different positions. Weiwei plans for his work to go down in history of the town.

This piece of work is very unique and most certainly is mind blowing. We believe that it is highly impressive that so many artificial sunflower seeds were produced and scatted in a museum.

"The Pharmacy" By: Damien Hirst

Damien Hirst is an English artist, art collector and entrepreneur. His work is known to represent some type of human condition, mainly life or death. Although his work is very different from art that I have viewed, it is creative and intriguing in its own way.  One of his more famous works known as the Pharmacy which is a room-sized installation meant to represent not only a real pharmacy but also life. The room contains bottles and prescription drugs, along with four bottles that are filled with a blue, red yellow and green liquid placed on a counter. The four bottles are meant to represent the four elements, earth, air fire and water.

            In this particular piece of work we also find an insect-o-cutor, Damien believes that the most important aspect of this particular item is that it symbolizes some type of god. A god that kills without any mercy, emotion or choice.  

Other items in the installation are a desk which is meant to convey a message that this is a real pharmacy. A cabinet with bottles meant to represent bodies, or society, stools with honeycomb placed on top which made to represent a non-human world and is meant to attract flies to be killed in the insect-o-cutor. Lastly there is medicine which is made to represent dreams.

Matthew Barney

Matthew Barney serves as a very interesting performance artist to study. Barney uses role players, characters and narratives to display changes and endurance that the body goes through. His use of characters is a very effective technique in that it adds originality to his artwork. His characters and narratives are based specifically on experiences or ideas that have influenced his own life which allows the viewer to grasp a sense of his personality. It is also useful that Barney actually plays a role in the films and videos that he produces. By allowing the viewer to physically see the artist it not only portrays his passion for his work but allows the viewer to relate more easily. While we are able to see the artist firsthand it is important to note that Barney does not play the role of himself. His use of “alter-egos” to establish a being other than himself gives him permission to go beyond his natural beliefs and values. He is able to take his ideas further by masking them with another identity. His ability to refer characters as a way to express himself is shown particularly in his film production entitled “The Cremaster Cycle.” In this production he is able to follow imagination of his own work through the use of the horses and different characters. The expression of art through multi-narratives plays in the idea of the “alter-ego” that is seen in much of Barney’s artwork.

Performance Art

In looking at performance art it became clear to us that there are many different interpretations of this term. It is possible to relate performance art to abstract expressionism through the use of "space" as the artist’s canvas. Artists such as Jackson Pollock refer to their work as "action painting" because he uses the floor as his canvas which provokes more movement while creating his art. Another aspect that defines performance art is time. Performance art takes time in preparation and often time in which the artist is displayed in their own work. One very famous performance artist is Marina Abramovic who points out that performance art differs greatly from theater. Abramovic claims that theater is “fake” while performance art is very real in both an emotional and physical sense. Abramovic has been known to hurt herself in creating performance artwork which is likely to adds to the powerful effect her performances has on the audience. Abramovic has also developed an idea in performance art everybody is an artist. Just like Abramovic people such as athletes put themselves through a great deal of pain to obtain an outcome for a passion of theirs. This particular aspect of Abramovic's thinking allows for people observing her art (us) to relate more deeply as it creates a stronger energy.

Robert Ryman

Robert Ryman’s work is normally identified as monochrome painting and minimalism. He designs conceptual art and leaves his work open for interpretation. People may be drawn to his painting because of the white colors he uses and the quality of light within his work. Ryman finds himself experimenting with both the color and light before showing his work to the public. When viewing his work one does not need to know what it is or what it means to enjoy it. His work does not tell a story yet it is a visual experience that we personally find to be relaxing and pleasing. Although Ryman does not find his work to be abstract, it most certainly is. As shown below his paintings are mostly rectangles that do not contain things that we see or know.

Enter the Dragon: On the Vernacular Beauty

This article described the "beauty" as being "the issue of the nineties." This concept at first glance seems to be extremely out of the ordinary considering most people think that what makes art special is one thing: its beauty. While Edward Ruscha himself seems to think his initial statement is "off-the-wall" he continues to build his argument of the possibility that beauty truly was the issue with the nineties. Because art and its "beauty" is a very subjective concept however it is impossible to generalize these opinions as the issue of the nineties. Ruscha argues that beauty is based on how something looks while real art critics would be able to focus on the true meanings behind each piece of artwork. This particular piece of his argument does seem to be in keeping with our definition on "What is art?" We have previously described art as a piece of work that provokes a feeling inside the person viewing it therefore in this aspect we agree with Ruscha. On the other hand it is an extreme exaggeration to assume that artwork having beauty takes away from the meaning it serves.