The Brooklyn Museum has been on the mind of late due to its Monet and Venice exhibition that’s scheduled to run until the end of January. Although the exhibition has been running since October, the museum was packed with fellow Monet fans. I know I stopped by the museum just to see the art, too!
Monet and Venice
This exhibition costs an additional $10, bringing the total admission cost to $30. In my opinion, it’s worth it.
The Monet and Venice exhibit is located on the 5th floor and opens up in a dark theater featuring multiple screens displaying the city of Venice. I’m particularly fond of experimental video displays, so this was a great start for me.
The paintings themselves were interesting, with a focus on Venice for obvious reasons, but there were still a few water lily paintings I’d never seen before. I don’t care how many pieces I see from Monet, water lilies are always my favorite of his subjects.
Be aware that there aren’t as many Monet’s as one may expect from such an exhibit, but the space is bolstered nicely with works from Sergeant and Whistler, so make sure to take the time to enjoy all of the artwork!
The exhibition culminates in a circular room featuring several nearly-identical paintings of Venetian buildings at varying angles and times of day. I wasn’t particularly impressed with the duplicated images but I liked that the museum was playing classical music inspired by those very paintings in the room- it was a cool way to engage multiple senses with the works.
Museum Highlights
While the Monet and Venice exhibit closes at the end of the month, it’s by no means the only thing worth seeing at the museum! I particularly liked the 5th floor’s American Art collection and open storage rooms. Open storage always makes me feel like I’m picking through an antique store!
This floor is also displaying Christian Marclay’s Doors. This experimental film is the spiritual successor to The Clock, which is my favorite art film of all time. As with most sequels it wasn’t as good as the original, but it was still cool to see. (The Clock is currently being displayed in Berlin, if anyone’s interested!)
Other highlights of this museum for me was Judy Chicago’s Dinner Party, which I’d been looking forward to seeing for ages, and the Shrine Room featured in the museum’s fairly extensive Asian Art’s collection.
Although a bit overshadowed by its compatriots on Museum Mile, the Brooklyn Museum is a top notch museum that’s definitely worth the trip out of Manhattan.
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