This is a great time for the Metropolitan Museum of Art. The painting shown here is part of the period backdrop that makes the current August Rodin exhibit so meaningful. A large number of his statues in bronze or marble, are displayed surrounded by paintings of Puvis de Chavannes, Renoir, Sorolla, and Monet. I found this more enriching and even more impressive than the Rodin show in Paris at the Palais Royal of last year.
Just steps away, the enormous Michelangelo exhibit unites master drawings in the best-curated show I could imagine dedicated to his genius. The breathtaking Sistine Chapel ceiling is reproduced at ¼ scale above you, on an ingenious luminous installation, while below we discover renderings of the initial studies brought together from collections around the world…
Again, just steps beyond, we can see a retrospective of David Hockney’s paintings. Although a smaller dedicated space than the Paris Pompidou Center’s, which did permit displaying several colossal pieces and video installations, this is centered on the later works of the painter’s colorful genius and not to be missed.
A personal note, this museum is special to me since my first visit as a student (in Boston, in the 70s). I was able to study Italian Renaissance art at Harvard through exchange programs, while at New England Conservatory of Music. Preparing for a trip to NY to attend the Met, the opera house that is, my wonderful Italian teacher at NEC told me by all means to see the Veronese pieces. There’s a term for that visit: “life-changing.” No engagement to sing, from London to Sao Paulo to Venice, for over forty years, would be imaginable without a visit to discover each city’s best art offerings. These last months here in New York, I have, with a membership at the Met, made countless discoveries thanks to afternoon meanderings among these treasures, these “old acquaintances” which continue to inspire. To search for and to find beauty, and to help make sense of the world we live in.