On my way I saw this
And I wondered who put that there and why. Then lunch and onto the met Breuer and I ask myself who thought this was art, and why?
The first exhibit was one I was looking forward to. The write up seemed to indicate that they were pairing recent acquisitions with more well known pieces and making a connection – The title of the exhibition was Home is a Foreign Place – Recent Acquisitions in Context… Context???
Naively, even after reading the above I thought to myself how great, I will get to see something I will understand and that will make connections – Uh, nope. What I saw was not easily understandable. Some of it was pretty, some interesting, some curious even, but none of it was understandable.
It’s not the first time I have been left with the words “art speaks for itself” nagging at me
What is it saying? Crushed sugar bowls? String? A blue line that goes along the entire wall… behind other peoples art.
So enough of that, I head up to the 5th floor in the giant elevator to see whats going on there. Seems the MET has celebrated 150 years and in honor of that has received a few donations. Today its the collection of The Rubensteins. At least it wasn’t confusing.
The Met says “In developing an informed and discerning eye as a collector, Michael Rubenstein visited galleries and museums—including frequent visits to The Met that started in his childhood—attended auctions, and befriended artists. “The Rubensteins’ collection is not just the gathering over many decades of works by artists they loved,” commented Sheena Wagstaff, Leonard A. Lauder Chairman, Department of Modern and Contemporary Art at The Met, “but its significance is also a testament to their passion for connoisseurship and the desire to live surrounded by art.”
The exhibition will feature drawings, paintings, and watercolors by European and American modern and contemporary artists—both widely and lesser known—including Eve Aschheim (b. 1958), Pierre Bonnard (1867–1947), Philip Guston (1913–1980), Franz Kline (1910–1962), and Anne Ryan (1889–1954). The works on view, all acquired over the 65-year period from 1954 to 2019, represent Rubenstein’s wide-ranging taste, as they vary in style and subject matter, ranging from the abstract, geometric, and linear to the lyrical and figural. “
I think its fun to see how people had their art displayed in their homes. And most of what you see on the wall above was included in the what was on view in the gallery.
