Free MFA admission
Sorry, this one won't be about driving.Even though I'm a guy's guy, I like culture. Or, as we say around here: culcha.
I read with interest in the Globe that Whistler's Mother was coming to the MFA as part of the Americans in Paris exhibit. Since it hasn't been to Boston since 1982, I figured it was worth it. My friend Jen and I made plans to go last night, which happened to be the first in a series of Thursdays that Bank of America has paid for free admission (PDF DOWNLOAD) to the exhibit. It was coincidental and fortuitous that this happened. We also got a meter spot on the east side of the museum!
We went to the main entrance and stood in line with the rest of the hoi poloi (to use a Brahmin term) in the rain to wait for them to roll out a cake with the image of John Singer Sargent's Madame X painting, which was accompanied by a live model. There was the usual rah-rah, thanks to BOA for its generosity, yada-yada. Um, hello, it's raining! Then they handed out the cake. Jen and I declined because I particularly prefer cake that hasn't been rained on. She just wasn't in the mood for cake.
Our tickets were timed and ended up having 45 minutes to kill. We hit a few other galleries first, including one with floor-to-ceiling photos. It was quite impressive, until we got to the ones with the disemboweled animal carcasses. I'm open minded with art, but I couldn't see how this was anything more than the artist's fascination with animal gore. I can go on about the composition, but it carry on too long for this post. At least it did what art is meant to: it got a reaction out of me.
We moved on to other galleries until it was time for our entry to the Americans in Paris. I was reasonably impressed with Whistler's Mother and Madame X, but generally disappointed in the rest. (It was also kind of creepy to have a live model of Whistler's Mother sitting in front of the painting, too. She did have an uncanny facial resemblance, though, too.) It almost seemed like one of the conditions of getting Whistler's Mother on loan was to have it as part of an exhibit. That's not to say the other pieces and artists were junk. I saw some that really intrigued me, but this wasn't the best exhibit I've seen at the MFA. Jen and I agreed we were really glad we didn't have to pay. |
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