The MET
We had to continue on our journey to find Starry Starry Night which of course (as we found out) led us to the MET (Read more about the start here). We did book ahead of time after what happened at the museums in Paris (read more about that here) but I’m not sure if we needed to. The museum was much less crowded and seemed to be better organized. We saw amazing things at the MET.
The museum is broken into different sections, like most major museums, there is the Egyptian section, medieval art area, a massive American section and an Asian section. There are more but those are the areas we explored. We started with the Egyptian section, which included a lot of Middle Eastern artifacts as well.
They have an entire temple in the Egyptian section, along with mummies, art pieces, relics, and so many vases. I would say the most memorable is the massive temple that has a little moat in front of it. You can walk through it and see the hieroglyphics on the walls. They were more intact than I had seen in most other museums. They had a whole camber filled with hieroglyphics, even the ceiling was done. It was really incredible to see. I remember in 4th grade learning the meaning of some of the hieroglyphics.
From the Egyptian wing we ended up in the American wing. Most of the American Wing is comprised of different styles of rooms. You can get a good overview of what life was like for (rich) everyday Americans at different points in history. There is a shaker room, a room by Frank Lloyd Wright, a gothic library, and many more. All of these highlight how interior architecture changed through the year and the different styles that we’ve gone through. Most of these rooms you cannot go in and explore but look from an area, sometimes instead the front of the room or just at the threshold.
There were 2 newer, I believe, exhibits on Native American art. They had beautiful clothes, decor and more to see. The beading was just amazing. It was so intricate and precise. Some of the art was new and others were old so make sure to read the dates to see when things were created. They had a lot of things I had never heard of before such as a soul catcher. I grew up with dream catchers by my bed but I had never heard of the soul catcher before. Each piece of art was decorated and carved with symbols that represent their lives and culture.
From the Native American art we detoured slightly to the panorama room. This is a circular room devoted to a panorama of Versailles. Yeah you read that right, in the American section there is a panorama of Versailles. T was very excited to look it over and find the place we had gotten engaged a few months earlier.
From the American section we cut through the medieval section, only stopping to look at the massive iron gates in the middle of the room before heading toward the room of statues. These rooms have always been my favorite no matter which museum I’m at. They are big rooms filled with light and so many different pieces of art. There are statues about myths, real people, tall tales, etc. It’s amazing to see them in life size and right in front of you.
Off to the side of this room is a little cafe. More cafeteria-like. We took some time to grab some food there and relax. They did have gluten free cake for T and I got a croissant, it was very buttery…I don’t like butter. We did have to wait about 10 minutes to be let into the cafe. They only let you in when someone leaves. After grabbing our snacks and some water, we went back up and headed towards the Greek and Roman section. We looked around but didn’t stay too long as we had recently gone to the British museum. From there we headed up
Cyprus Exhibit
This was one of the most thought out exhibits I’ve ever been to. Every piece chosen was carefully curated and you could see how each piece helped Van Gough develop into the artist we know him as today. The exhibit started out with a wall of text speaking about Van Gough and his struggles as an artist.
The exhibit starts with one of Van Gough’s first pieces featuring cypress trees. The story plays out through Van Gough’s life and his drawing and painting of the cypress trees that he seems obsessed with in his life. Did you know that Van Gough spent time in a mental hospital? He was suffering from auditory hallucinations and delusions. This is following when he cut off his own ear and presented it to a 17 cleaning girl at the brothel he liked to frequent. (That poor girl.)
He was frequently in and out of hospitals after the incident and eventually self committed to an asylum in southern France. During his time at the hospital he wasn’t allowed to paint much as the doctors felt it caused him stress. I can imagine they were worried about having anything sharp or dangerous around him as well. He and his brother exchanged a series of letters which can be seen in the Cyprus Exhibit. When he was eventually allowed to paint he continued his study on cypress trees.
It was at the hospital where he created Starry Starry Night along with several other look alike paintings. You can see how he progressed with the Cyprus trees throughout his life up until the last one he painted. I have never seen an exhibit explain a chapter of an artist’s life side by side with their art work and personal letters.
I am always a fan of special exhibits. I did an internship at the Peabody Essex Museum in Salem, MA and I worked on a few special exhibits while I was there. The thought and time that goes into each special exhibit takes months and often times years. It is often a collaboration between several museums if not several countries. It is almost always worth taking the time to go see.
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