During my trip to the Metropolitan Museum of Art I had time to explore three exhibits. The first exhibit I went to was the “Schiaparelli and Prada: Impossible Conversations.” This exhibit was basically an exhibit showing the different fashion styles of both these designers. The exhibit’s title included “Impossible Conversations” because Schiaparelli is an old fashion designer from the past whereas Prada is a more recent fashion designer. The conversation is a conversation that we think these two might have had if they were to have a chance. The first thing that I noticed in this exhibit was the way the museum set up the conversation between these two people and the way the subtitles appeared. There were many different screens displaying the same conversation, but one of the displays stuck out to me. This display was shown into the a corner, where each corner had a person. It gave me the feeling that the two were really looking at each other and closer to each other than they really were. Also the subtitles of the conversation did not look like normal subtitles. They appeared in a more “fun” bubbly way and this really engaged me to read and listen to their conversation. When looking at the fashion pieces, I knew that they were not stolen because each piece’s description told us where the piece was from.
The next exhibit it checked out was Roman exhibit. I thought it was ironic how I was looking at Roman sculptures and art after watching the movie Gladiators on the bus. While looking through this exhibit I couldn’t help but think “How did the museum get all these sculptures and pieces of art?” One piece, the giant pillar, really got me thinking and I couldn’t help but doubt that the museum bought all the art. Also I noticed that many of the pieces were not in the best condition because many of the sculptures were chipped and broken. As I have mentioned in my first blog, I feel like replicas of these pieces wouldn’t have taken away from the experience. I would have never known that they were replicas if they were to have been.
The last exhibit that I explored was the African art exhibit. This was my favorite exhibit because I really liked the artwork of the Africans. They are so intricate, meticulously designed, and beautiful. As I was looking through the art pieces and reading the descriptions one thought came to my mind, “Are these descriptions really accurate of what the art pieces were actually made for?” Of course, I realized that there were experts and professionals who devote their whole lives to study this kind of art, but I really wondered if the descriptions were accurate. I always looked at the pieces and if I had no clue what the piece was I read the description. After reading the description, I always thought “Oh that seems possible, but is that really what it was made for? What if it was just made during the maker’s free time for enjoyment or a hobby?”
Overall, I really enjoyed my experience at the MET and in my opinion I really think more time should be spent in the MET than MOMA.
