What We Saw at the Metropolitan Museum of Art
The Met is an all-day affair. Too much to tell, so here are a few highlights of our recent visit.
Leonardo to Matisse: Master Drawings (on through Jan 7, 2018)
As a fan of Renaissance art, I reveled in this show, mounted in the pleasant Lehman Wing. Pollaiuolo’s study for the Sforza monument — once owned by Giorgio Vasari — intrigued me, with its pricked holes for transferring the design to another surface.
Albrecht Durer’s preparatory drawing of his 22-year-old self was highly unusual at the time, considered to be one of the earliest independent self-portraits in Western art. This piece is an example of artists’ careful use of scarce paper in those times, with numerous additional studies of a pillow on the reverse.
The drawings represented draughtsmanship spanning four centuries, and among the 19th-century works that captured my fancy was a Seurat illustration for the French journal La Vie Moderne. I was intrigued by the way he layered dots to achieve varied tonal intensity and to render weight and volume.
Gilded Age Drawings (on through December 10, 2017)
This was a lovely exhibit, with this watercolor standing out as my “favorite.”
We ended out day at the Met on the roof, strolling through Adrián Villar Rojas’ site-specific installation, The Theater of Disappearance.
Rojas integrated many aspects of the Met’s history and collections into his installation by creating a fantastical event in which white tables are punctuated by black sculptures, all coated in a layer of dust. I would have liked some signage to explain the components that I didn’t recognize; but it was an engaging setting for meeting friends for a drink, and — oh by the way — enjoying the panoramic city views.
