Truth be told, I've been feeling so burnt out lately. Wearing so many hats in the business and family life is taking its toll. And being inundated with product after product, there is barely any room to be inspired. After a frightfully disastrous day in the rain wandering around Soho, we went to Plan B to pursue indoor endeavours at the museums and then realizing they were all closed!
We tried again the next day (sunny, of course) at the MET. After a quick tour around the European galleries, a gallery employee informed us of the Superheroes exhibit and the Jeff Koons exhibit on the roof top. The view totally made up for the rain!
I wanted to set up camp up there, or in this gallery surrounded by sunshine, marble and statues everywhere.
I don't go to galleries as much as I should, but if I lived in New York, I would definitely wear out my membership to the MET.
I'm much more a Classicist when it comes to art, although my appreciation for modern art (and I'm talking the last century, I still have Contemporary art to tackle) is definitely on the rise. Even before my fashion days, I wanted to study Fine Arts, and dabbled in Art History, eventually wanting to do a M.A. in Art Restoration. Funny thing, what paths our lives take. If I were independently wealthy, I would do nothing but study Art History.
But I discovered and rediscovered these artists:
Jean-Leon Gerome, a new discovery for me.
I wanted to absorb all the details in these paintings. And of course, the photos do not do them justice. They are not what you would call photo-realism, but the intimacy of the precision of details set among the slightly blurred backgrounds made the contrast that much more concise.
English portraitist, John Singer Sargent
The stoicism of these figures and the beauty of the fabric (all the folds, the sheen, the weave), and the sombre colours drew me to these life-size portraits by Sargent.
Again, I love the sobriety of this figure by Edouard Manet, His demeanor and clothing is a sharp contrast with the wonderful details of the patterned papers in the picture frame and botanical illustrations. I couldn't get over how modern this looked.
Same treatment as the figure above, but this Post-impressionistic take by Vincent Van Gogh.
Alice seems to have taken a liking to Rousseau. She kept returning to it. She was also obsessed with Rousseau's Sleeping Gyspy at the MOMA, luckily for her she was able to take that one home in a view finder.
I know still lifes are always a popular medium but this painting (I think by Pablo Picasso, the man was a genius in all the styles he mastered, so I'm having a hard time remembering) of a pair of shoes oddly reminded me of a Camper ad campaign in its stark simplicity and lack of other details with the exception of the details of the parquet floor.
I never had any aspirations to be a dancer, but these charcoal drawings by Edgar Degas may have prompted my love affair with fashion illustrations, line drawings and the illustrated human figure.
What an appropriate segue into the Superheroes exhibit (which unfortunately I was not allowed to photograph, too bad I didn't have a spy camera). Real costumes worn by Linda Carter in WonderWoman and Michelle Pfeiffer as Catwoman (my goodness, she is TINY), beautiful, fantastical creations by contemporary fashion icons.
Truly inspiring!
