May 18 has
been International Museum Day for 35 years! It is a great way of increasing
public awareness of their role in society. Therefore it is important to know
that this year’s theme is: Museums in a
Changing World: New challenges, New inspirations.
As the main
idea of my blog is to introduce my students to English-speaking cultures, I
decided to search my photo album to look for some photos taken during my visit
to museums (of art, because they are my favourite) in the Americas. Since one
of the New York museums I find more interesting - The Frick Collection - doesn´t allow photos to be taken, I can´t
include it. Yet there are other great museums in the Big Apple.
Van Gogh. Starry Night. Moma
Duccio di Buoninsegna. Madonna and Child. Met
I still recall
my enthusiasm when I saw “Starry Night” by Van Gogh for the first time in
the Museum of Modern Art (MOMA,New
York) or when I watched “Madonna and Child” by the early Renaissance master
Duccio di Buoninsegna in the Metropolitan
Museum of Art (Met). In fact this painting was purchased in 2004 and was
the biggest purchase Met had ever made. At the time Met paid more than 45
million dollars!
As for other museums in that big city, the Guggenheim Museum of Art owns one of
the most beautiful works of Braque I know.
When we talk
of art in the USA, New York can’t be given all the credit. We mustn’t forget
the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston,
or the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum,
the former house of an eccentric millionaire woman.
Philadelphia Museum of Art
In the Philadelphia Museum of Art, one of the
biggest museums in USA I made acquaintance with a painter who was born in
Portugal: Manuel Joachim de França
(1808-1865)
Manuel Joachim de França. Portrait of Matthew Huizinga Messchert.
Gustave Courbet (1819-1877) The Rock of Hautepierre. c. 1869.
In Chicago I
was very much impressed with the Art
Institute of Chicago with its huge collection of European painters.
Tom Thomson. In the northland.
In Canada I
was overwhelmed with the Musée des
Beaux-Arts Montréal, where I found the beautiful painting by Tom Thomson,
who influenced the Group of Seven, a late impressionism movement that
revolutionized art in that country. (read ART IN CANADA in my blog.)
If you really
want to know a city well you have to visit its museums! Despite being excellent
sources of knowledge, they can also be a lot more. For instance, one can always
have a pleasant stroll along a Museum’s exciting galleries. Moreover, although
I love art, other exhibition halls can also show amazing things, such as dinosaur
fossils or scientific innovations. So, when entering a Museum we are not just
learning; we are also indulging in the culture of a city/town, relaxing,
looking bemusedly at what most fascinates us and recalling details which we
might have accidentally put out of our mind in our busy day-to-day lives!
very memorable trips indeed:)
ResponderEliminar