'Tis the Season for Museums

'Tis the season to visit Museums. Many major museums plan terrific blockbuster shows around the holidays when traffic is high. We wish we were visiting the Metropolitan right now.  The Met has three exhibitions that would be worthy of a trip to New York to see. The exhibitions are old school painting, photography, and sculpture at their height.

Matisse: In Search of True Painting: 

If we've learned anything, it's that you have to see a Matisse in person.  The rich color Matisse used was purposeful, and difficult to capture in photography.  

 This exhibition has 49 drawings and paintings. Some are familiar, and others are new. 

Read the New York Times review here: http://www.nytimes.com/2012/11/30/arts/design/matisse-exhibition-at-the-metropolitan-museum-of-art.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0

Seated Nude, 1909

Oil on canvas; 45 9/16 x 35 1/16 in.

Drawing for "Le Luxe," 1907

Charcoal, squared for transfer, on paper mounted to canvas; 

Interior with Goldfish, 1914

Oil on canvas;

Faking It: Manipulated Photography Before Photoshop

Sponsored by Adobe, this exhibition shows photos with influences of collage and Surrealism in over 200 photographs.  It features prints made from altered negatives; seemingly realistic images made by piecing together two or more negatives; hand-colored black-and-white prints; and Surrealistic montages. They date from 1846 to the early 1990s.

Sealed Power Piston Rings

John Paul Pennebaker 

See more images of this show here: http://www.metmuseum.org/exhibitions/listings/2012/faking-it

Bernini: Sculpting in Clay

Although not considered a major exhibition, some have been impressed by the exhibition which includes terra cotta studies, notes, and drawings of Gian Lorenzo Bernini that were used as studies for his marble work. 

Writer Thomas Micchelli describes his visit to this exhibition here: http://hyperallergic.com/61995/what-makes-a-blockbuster/ and says he prefers Bernini's terra cotta work to finished marble work. 

 "Scraped, squeezed and gouged by the artist’s fingers, the clay’s inert mass mutates into rippling manifestations of pure energy. Architectures abound: angels’ wings become ramparts; the robes of a Virgin and Child sweep upward like a Gaudi bell tower."

Gian Lorenzo Bernini, “Angel with the Superscription” (detail) (ca. 1667–1668). Terracotta, 14 1⁄4 x 7 5/8 x 7 1/8 inches.

Gian Lorenzo Bernini and Pietro Bernini, “Head of Saint Jerome” (ca. 1661). Terracotta, 13 13/16 x 11 5/16 x 9 inches.