Museum Hopper

i went to the whitney museum of american art with a friend from college today. this is the first one i have been to in a while since i sprained my ankle and was somewhat immobilized for a while. i had dinner with my friend, mike, this week and we decided to go! neither has an extensive (aka: any) art background. the top floor currently displays art that had been previously shown in the biennials. this included some beautiful peaces of art including one of the hopper paintings that i like. it was interesting to see how often certain artists had been shown (hopper had been shown over 15 times). the rest of the museum showed the current biennial. i am not sure what the current rules were, but i believe it was that they could not have shown something previously. the art was...interesting. i was happy to have mike there with me; otherwise, i am not sure that i would have spent quite as long at the museum. some of it was just beautiful/enjoyable. i loved this huge room of pa...

i went to the queen mary last week after landing at the long beach airport with my boyfriend. he timed the visit very well; we arrived right before sunset. we could see the city skyline from the boat...it was beautiful. they have converted this old ship into part hotel, part museum and part restaurant. the non-museum parts of the ship seemed well worn except for this beautiful art-deco bar lounge. the museum was really interesting! we saw the isolation area, which housed sick passengers. it had a lot information about stow aways and health conditions on board the ship. we had a tour of all the decks as well as the huge anchor! it was interesting to see how the ship transforms over time through world war ii when it added gun and armoury. the captain's rooms and uniforms was another interesting part of the ship. the most important people of the ship were the captain, the captain's steward, first mate and the head engineer. it was really interesting to see the ship....

i stopped by the asia society museum after my visit to the frick . if i had not been able to get in for free (through my corporate ID), i would not have stayed. the weekend i was there, they only had 25% of their exhibits open. the first exhibit was yoshihiro suda: in focus . the artist takes an ordinary object and intricately carves it out of wood making it look unbelievably lifelike. this exhibit had two flowers, a rose and and an orchid. it contrasted the new art with old 12th century pottery. this exhibit, devotion in south india: chola bronzes was a definite contrast to the first exhibit. these were ancient bronze statues of various hindu deities primarily created in the 12-14th centuries. times visited: 2 time spent in museum: 30 minutes overall: B+

i went to the frick collection to see the recently renovated exhibit . it was amazing to see how a coat of new paint really changed the way paintings look. it was a pretty short visit to the museum, mostly to view the few paintings. i also stopped by to see the renoir and this hans holbien the younger 's painting. worth a quick stop. times visited: 4 time in museum: 20 minutes overall: A-

i was home for the holidays and knew i had to go see at least one museum in detroit. it was such an obvious choice, the detroit institute of arts , which had been recently renovated. my boyfriend and i headed over there on a chilly sunday afternoon. we decided to just see the museum , not the special exhibits, since we both had not been there in so long. next time we are back in the city, we will probably try the detroit science center . the parking was very convenient and just a short walk to the front of the museum. i liked the museum layout. the rooms were small and i found it easy to move from room to room. i think the best part of the museum, which i have never seen in a museum, were these descriptive signs in almost every room. the signs seemed to unite all the objects in the room (i.e. the paintings, sculptures, sketches). there were throughout the entire museum from the modern to the neoclassical to the egyptian art. a visit to the dia is not complete without mentioning...

i went to the fashion institute of technology (fit) museum on saturday. it was strategically planned to overlap the newly opening night & day exhibit as well as the soon closing american beauty . the night & day is in the exhibition space that the other two exhibits i have seen is in. the american beauty exhibit was downstairs in the basement. i had never been down there for an exhibit before. downstairs was quite open feeling with tall ceilings, but was rather factory, minimal and industrial. the night & day exhibit was well done. it followed the similar pattern their other exhibits working through the periods comparing and contrasting the different style of outfits. it was interesting to see how they progressed. the largest change seemed to occur between 1920-1945. they had some beautiful dresses. i was not quite as impressed with the american beauty exhibit. they seemed to preface the exhibit with stating that they had to expand their vision of what an "...

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