Museum Exhibition in New York

Museum Exhibition in New York City

The Metropolitan Museum of Art

Exhibition:

The Steins Collect: Matisse, Picasso, and the Parisian Avant-Garde

Visiting the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New Your City is an excellent excursion for our class. From February 28th through June 3rd oine of the most interesting exhibitions this year is happening at the museum. It is called the Steins Collect: Matisse, Picasso, and the Parisian Avant-Garde. This is an exhibition of 200 paintings collected by noted literary critic and writer Gertrude Stein and her brothers Leo and Michael. The 200 paintings provide a fascinating glimpse into the art being produced during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Admission to the museum is $25 for adults, $12 for students and the operating hours are Tuesdays through Thursdays from 9:30am to 5:30pm, with the operating hours being 9:30am to 9pm Friday and Saturday. On Sunday the museum is open from 9:30am to 5:30pm.

Why This Exhibition Is a Good Idea for the Class

Gertrude Stein knew Pablo Picasso personally and often watched him paint the works shown in this exhibition. There are a few self-portraits of Gertrude Stein as well in the collection. In 1903 Gertrude Stein arrived in Paris and opened her bookstore on the South Bank of Paris. Over time she made friends with the leading artists living in and around Paris, including Henri Matisse and Pablo Picasso. Both of them were unknown and struggling to make ends meet, often painting pictures of wealthy Parisians for pay, staying with Gertrude Stein and her brothers when they could not afford their own apartments. it's stories like this that make the exhibition so fascinating to look at, as these world-famous artists were creating these works of art before they were globally recognized and much more wealthier. This exhibition shows the artists as young men struggling to make it on their own, showing the influences of their key friends including the Stein family.

In addition to Picasso who would go on to become world known and the most famous of all artists living in the area of Paris Gertrude Stein was living at the time, Paul Cezanne, Edgar Degas, Paul Gauguin, Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec were also regular visitor to the Stein's apartment. The influence of Gertrude Stein as a benefactor of their works is evident in how they portray the Stein family in general and Gertrude specifically. Two of the most celebrated French painters of the 19th century, Edouard Manet, and Auguste Renoir, are also included in the exhibition. Seeing paintings from these two French impressionistic masters is worth the trip to New York alone. Their work is exceptional and technique so unique no one has been able to imitate it.