So I woke up with basically no direction whatsoever today, not wanting to spend a whole lot of money but just not quite sure what to go do. It occurred to me after a little while, though, that the Packard Exhibit of Japanese Art exhibition was going to be taken down in a matter of days, and that I should probably go see it today lest I actually get an employment call tomorrow. It's about an hour trek, so I only managed to get out there around 1, but I also knew that I wasn't even going to try to see more than a single wing of the Met this time around, if even that. I adore all the art, but it's better to take my time and experience it slowly than to go and get totally burned out by four hours of intensive amazement.
I hadn't even actually been in the Asian wing before, which turned out to be probably the most glorious thing on earth. I've always had a distinct fascination with Asian cultures - their weapons, their ornaments, their art - but never really had an opportunity to geek out in this grand a fashion before. Everything in it was absolutely awe-inspiring. I started off trying to take pictures of the things that inspired me the most, but I ended up realizing that there was just no way to take that many pictures, or to do the subjects even half the justice they deserve. The way the Tang Dynasty envisioned their horses - dynamic, powerful creatures with beautifully exaggerated features - amazes me every time I see it. It's all just brilliant.
Entering the Packard Exhibition proper was breathtaking. I've never seen any art that spoke to me with quite the soul that this did. Something about the delicacy, the intricacy of the lines, and the way each stroke so elegantly suggests a shape made me fall in love. There's no way to describe how beautiful some of these scrolls were, and even the pictures fall short - the scroll itself, the fabric it's anchored on and the patterns that tie it all together are absolutely stunning. I can't even begin to describe the desire I feel to buy every single print I can find of them, to build an entire decor around some of it. I just don't think I've fallen for art quite like this before. If I ever find a Nakabayashi Chikutô or certain of Kano Sansetsu's prints for less than five hundred dollars, make no mistake I'll go without eating for two months to own it.
I think on some level I'm actually really sad that I'm not a part of that culture, that I can't claim that my people have been a part of something so spectacular. I'd really like to find some books on the Kano school of painting, which seems to have trained some of the best Japanese artists that I could see.
What really strikes me at any museum, though, is seeing something so . . old. There's a poetry to it that I'm finding hard to put into words, but the fact that something can be preserved essentially from the dawn of human civilization is so amazing. There are parts of the Met devoted to the Sumerian, Mesopotamian and Syrian cultures, from as far back as there have been civilizations. It's such a humbling experience to see what human hands made thousands of years ago, both how far we've come and yet how little changes.
Anyway. Still no call from Naidre's, which is worrisome. Show tonight, two tomorrow, last one on Sunday - after that? It's an entire book of blank pages.
No comments:
Post a Comment