Meet with the Met

By Monica Gao'19
There were hundreds of visitors from all over the world waiting in front of the museum when I arrived there in the early morning. We all be here for the same reason—to visit one of the largest art museums in the world— the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

The Ballet dancers by Edgar Degas attracted my eyes, because they are so lively in terms of composition and movements. Degas was a French artist who was famous for his rendition of dancers. I also love a sculpture by him called Little Dancer of Fourteen Years. This sculpture was controversial when it was fist shown in Paris, critics considered the girl as “a deliberate image of ugliness”. Unlike older arts were made, the girl’s arms are taut, and the legs are quite twisted round, and there is tension in the pose. Degas didn’t idealize the girl; he just left the way it is, which is the reason why I particularly love this one.

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Over six hours of visiting, I can see why the Met is one of the greatest and finest art museums in the world. No only because it has the world’s greatest collections, but also the architecture, the arrangements, the lighting. I have been to many other museums before, the lighting in some exhibition room were so dark that I could barely see the exhibits or descriptions. The lighting in the Met is not bright enough to hurt the exhibits, but visitors can clearly see everything. The color of wall papers perfectly match with the exhibits, all those little details like that make the Met a great museum.
The Met has great variety of exhibitions, from the 19th century European sculptures to ancient Iranian daggers, I had truly experienced different cultures and arts in these hours. I have already started to look forward to meet with the Met again.