Museums are kind of like Disney’s Epcot: They make it possible to travel around the world in 80 minutes. In a great museum, as in Epcot, trips to Norway and Morocco fit into one afternoon.
For me, going to a museum is also like shopping.
It’s not so different from browsing Nordstrom, or even a really big Anthropologie. Beautiful things are on display, and I get to spend hours admiring them. In a museum, however, they won’t let me take anything home.
Over winter break, I explored quite a few art museums. The best of these were in Vienna, but I also returned to some enjoyable ones right here in Baltimore.
In Vienna, they take art very seriously, so museums are naturally a big deal. Not only does the city have a whole section dedicated to museums — appropriately titled the MuseumsQuartier — but in 1897, a group of artists started a kind of revolution because they took umbrage with contemporary aesthetics and art-displaying practices.
And so the Secession building was born. It is a beautiful white structure adorned with a glimmering dome of gold and iron laurels. The radiant new museum was dedicated to a more democratic and progressive kind of art.
This story exemplifies what I love about Vienna: culture really matters in this city. It’s hard to imagine most Americans getting this worked up over an art exhibition.
The Viennese are also experts at integrating palaces and museums. My favorite site in the city is the Belvedere, which doubles as both an impressive imperial estate and a museum.
Here, you’ll find some of Austrian artist Gustav Klimt’s most famous paintings, including “The Kiss.”
When I entered Vienna, I’d barely heard of Klimt, but after spending a few days there, I declared him to be my new favorite artist. This may be because the Viennese do an excellent job of promoting him: Klimt is in every gift shop and on the tip of every tour guide’s tongue. However, it’s not hard to see why: Klimt’s world is a gilded paradise.
Another great Klimt exhibition can be found at the Kunsthistorisches (Art History) Museum, where the walls of the magnificent foyer are adorned with his mythical paintings. This museum is also an impressive architectural feat, brimming with marble and gold-leaf.
Of course it’s difficult to top Vienna, but Baltimore doesn’t compare too poorly. Museums here are certainly a lot cheaper. You can get into our neighbor, the Baltimore Museum of Art, for free. The Walters in nearby Mt. Vernon is also accessible for a surprising sum of zero dollars.
My favorite spots in the Walters are the Collector’s Study and the Chamber of Wonders, where the curators have synthesized how a wealthy European would have displayed “exotic” art in his own home. The Asian art collection in the Hackerman house is also quite interesting. It has an impressive display of Japanese arms and armor, including samurai artifacts.
I love the Walters, but if I have a few hours free, it’s fun and easy to spend them at the conveniently-located BMA. It’s a nice place to wander around aimlessly. I like their collection of modern art, especially the Andy Warhol room. There, you can see an example of his oxidation series, which Warhol created by having some of his friends urinate on canvases primed with metallic paint.
As Warhol himself said, “Art is what you can get away with.”
Another good museum in Baltimore is the Evergreen, located near Loyola. Last year, I attended an interesting exhibition there on the tragic life of Zelda Fitzgerald.
In short, I love museums. They’re an alluring blend of fantasy and history. You can get lost in cavernous rooms and pretend you’re in another century. When the bleeding crucifixes from Medieval Europe start to bring you down, head over to admire the dreamy Impressionist landscapes.
A museum is also a great place to people-watch. You’ll find the serious intellectuals examining one painting for twenty minutes, and right behind them, some bored teenagers on a field trip staring blankly at their iPhones.
In fact, I think some of the most fascinating people in the world can be found at the Museum of Modern Art in New York City.
A friend and I went to MOMA over the summer and discovered some of our fellow patrons intently studying a glass case that displayed a dirty napkin from the 70s. This work of art depicted various types of blotches, and included supportive descriptors such as “blood” or “oil” to help the viewer understand the nature of the various stains. Despite the inherent absurdity, everyone around the exhibit was so very serious about the whole thing.
If confused, refer to the above Warhol quotation.
Of course, MOMA is also wonderful because of Van Gogh’s “Starry Night,” Dali’s “The Persistence of Memory,” and a score of other breath-taking pieces. But I’m never going to forget that 40-year-old napkin.
Aren’t museums great?
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