The Most Arrogant Man in France
Last night I went to a great exhibit, the Gustave Courbet retrospective at the Met.
I'd seen a few of these before at the Met and at Smith, but this was a big, impressive show. I wish I could speak intelligently about art, but alas I can't. Actually, the moment that stands out to be was when I asked I, with whom I went, "Do you want to get an audio tour?" She looked at me as if I'd said, "Do you want to smear peanut butter on the paintings?"
I've been to a lot of museums with I over the years, but apparently had never asked this most hideous of questions. "No!" she cried. "You look at paintings! You don't have someone tell you what you're looking at! If it were up to me I would banish them. And also these!" She points violently at the cards next to the painting that tell you something about it. She was also disappointed in the new European galleries--the museum has a lot more paintings out now, but they did it by carving big rooms into smaller ones, until it really is a lot like looking at somebody's stamp collection. "You can't even walk back far enough to get a good look at the painting without running into a bench," she says, then more grumpily, "but then, who needs to look at the painting from a distance? You just have to be close enough to read the WORDS on the card that TELL YOU WHAT YOU'RE SEEING FOR YOU! It's a symbol, not a sign!!! SYMBOL, NOT SIGN!!"
Ah, it was like I was meeting her in X-Files fandom all over again.:-)
This actually made me think about reading those little cards. I've been going to museums since I was really little and I think I started reading them because I thought it made me look mature. Seriously--because as a kid it would sort of be like...how long am I supposed to stare at these paintings? Sure some of them I'd want to look at a lot, but sometimes you just want to get to the cafeteria. But I always wanted to look mature so I started reading the cards, schooling my face into a look that hopefully said: "Very interesting. How delightfully enlightning! Ah, I thought as much about this painting. Dreamy and sardonic gaze. Yes."
It makes me want to take one of the courses I has taught--like the one where she apparently made students sit in front of a single painting for over and hour and then write about how they felt and what they were seeing.
Anyway, the point is the paintings really are great. Realistic, but with a surreal twist--my favorite! Like this one, that I got a print of, The Desperate Man:
Isn't that great? Especially that everybody walks up to it and the first thing they say is, "OMG, Johnny Depp!" If they ever make a movie of his life, JP would be great.
I's favorite painting in the museum is already a Courbet, Woman with a Parrot:
Looking at it last night made me think about that Project Runway Met challenge--I want somebody to make a dress out of this painting. Maybe Jillian. Or Christian. It seems like the dress should mostly be ivory, like the woman's skin, and giving the impression of pink nudity as well, but then there's be parrot color swirling around it or peeking out in different places, because the paintings got a swooping feeling? Like I likes it because first, the woman has hair like hers, more importantly, she's not fainting or fallen, she's very active even though she's lying down. There's a modern dance-quality to her pose, and then her hand is lifting up to this bird--also like a dance pose.
Then there's Courbet's most notorious work--and there were a lot to choose from in his catalog: The Origin of the World. I felt like I had new appreciation for it since being on livejournal where people actually post X-rated art and appreciate it. The painting's awesome--I almost think you lose something seeing it reproduced rather than in person. There's a cover to it that he had his brother paint that looks like a landscape sketched in white lines--but it sort of follows the contours of the painting it's hiding. When you pull back the cover you get--voila! The Origin of the World! Which he could also have called Cunt!!!111!!:-DDDD
You can see it here.
It's just kind of cool to look at a big picture of a vagina and get the feeling of: Yay this!!! Especially with that title because, yeah, that's totally what it is!
So the upshot is: Gustave Courbet: Good show according to me.
I'd seen a few of these before at the Met and at Smith, but this was a big, impressive show. I wish I could speak intelligently about art, but alas I can't. Actually, the moment that stands out to be was when I asked I, with whom I went, "Do you want to get an audio tour?" She looked at me as if I'd said, "Do you want to smear peanut butter on the paintings?"
I've been to a lot of museums with I over the years, but apparently had never asked this most hideous of questions. "No!" she cried. "You look at paintings! You don't have someone tell you what you're looking at! If it were up to me I would banish them. And also these!" She points violently at the cards next to the painting that tell you something about it. She was also disappointed in the new European galleries--the museum has a lot more paintings out now, but they did it by carving big rooms into smaller ones, until it really is a lot like looking at somebody's stamp collection. "You can't even walk back far enough to get a good look at the painting without running into a bench," she says, then more grumpily, "but then, who needs to look at the painting from a distance? You just have to be close enough to read the WORDS on the card that TELL YOU WHAT YOU'RE SEEING FOR YOU! It's a symbol, not a sign!!! SYMBOL, NOT SIGN!!"
Ah, it was like I was meeting her in X-Files fandom all over again.:-)
This actually made me think about reading those little cards. I've been going to museums since I was really little and I think I started reading them because I thought it made me look mature. Seriously--because as a kid it would sort of be like...how long am I supposed to stare at these paintings? Sure some of them I'd want to look at a lot, but sometimes you just want to get to the cafeteria. But I always wanted to look mature so I started reading the cards, schooling my face into a look that hopefully said: "Very interesting. How delightfully enlightning! Ah, I thought as much about this painting. Dreamy and sardonic gaze. Yes."
It makes me want to take one of the courses I has taught--like the one where she apparently made students sit in front of a single painting for over and hour and then write about how they felt and what they were seeing.
Anyway, the point is the paintings really are great. Realistic, but with a surreal twist--my favorite! Like this one, that I got a print of, The Desperate Man:
Isn't that great? Especially that everybody walks up to it and the first thing they say is, "OMG, Johnny Depp!" If they ever make a movie of his life, JP would be great.
I's favorite painting in the museum is already a Courbet, Woman with a Parrot:
Looking at it last night made me think about that Project Runway Met challenge--I want somebody to make a dress out of this painting. Maybe Jillian. Or Christian. It seems like the dress should mostly be ivory, like the woman's skin, and giving the impression of pink nudity as well, but then there's be parrot color swirling around it or peeking out in different places, because the paintings got a swooping feeling? Like I likes it because first, the woman has hair like hers, more importantly, she's not fainting or fallen, she's very active even though she's lying down. There's a modern dance-quality to her pose, and then her hand is lifting up to this bird--also like a dance pose.
Then there's Courbet's most notorious work--and there were a lot to choose from in his catalog: The Origin of the World. I felt like I had new appreciation for it since being on livejournal where people actually post X-rated art and appreciate it. The painting's awesome--I almost think you lose something seeing it reproduced rather than in person. There's a cover to it that he had his brother paint that looks like a landscape sketched in white lines--but it sort of follows the contours of the painting it's hiding. When you pull back the cover you get--voila! The Origin of the World! Which he could also have called Cunt!!!111!!:-DDDD
You can see it here.
It's just kind of cool to look at a big picture of a vagina and get the feeling of: Yay this!!! Especially with that title because, yeah, that's totally what it is!
So the upshot is: Gustave Courbet: Good show according to me.