My daily blog hasn’t slipped, it’s time that has slid backwards.
I arrived in New York late last night and I’ve been on the most massive sensory overload and adrenaline buzz since then.
It’s hot, the area I’m staying in (Newark) isn’t salubrious, and I’m soaking it all up, both good and bad.
One thing I noticed in Athens is that as the economy worsened, the once wonderful street art degenerated into an angry sprawl.
In London the street art became more prevalent as the city became more slick and well off, and I’ve noticed that the area I’m presently staying in has none of the urban art that used to be associated with the dispossessed and now instead seems to exist in the better off areas.
I’ll keep looking, and continue mulling on that one.
Today though, was an establishment art day.
I’d planned to glut myself on various galleries and museums on Museum Mile, but managed to spend the whole day at only the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
What an incredible place. Beautifully curated so the art pieces are integrated into the appropriate surroundings of light and space (for instance the Greek antiquities are displayed in a way very reminiscent of the way they are displayed in situ, in Greece) the whole place blew me away.
Okay, some of it was a disturbingly opulent and crass expression of personal wealth as with the European decorative objects, and massive pieces of furniture from homes of the multi generational wealthy.
However there was also wonderful outsider work that was given as much pride of place as pieces by Chagall or Picasso, and the selection of African art was outstanding.
The reconstruction of the Dendur Temple I actually found to be more respectful, beautiful, meditative and moving than the art work created to remember 9-11, at Ground Zero.
I thought that Cornelia Parker’s ‘Transitional Object (PsychoBarn) on the roof of the building, worked beautifully as both a contrast and foil to the surroundings.
When I was in Hobart, Tasmania at the begining of this year I went to the antithesis of The Metroplitan Museum of Art, MONA. A deliberate inverse, that burrowed underground, both literally and figuratively.
Though my tastes veer towards the subversive and countercultural, I actually preferred the Met. The place is exciting, vital, stimulating and both comprehensive and diverse .
I’d love to go back, but I really can’t see it happening on this trip.Today I alternated intense bursts of inundation at The Met, with wandering the streets and being stimulated by the contrasts of architecture art….bouncing from one creative buzz to another!
Header Image by Jean Dubuffet.
