Memorial Day at the MFA

Yesterday my friend LM and I went to the Museum of Fine Arts here in Boston to check out the open house.  To celebrate Memorial Day, admission to all the collections and the current exhibit, “El Greco to Velazquez: Art During the Reign of Philip III,” was free to the public.  We however, arrived too late to get tickets to the current tour and were given tickets to the 4pm showing, which we couldn’t make. 

The day at the museum was intended as a family day, with activities, exhibits, and music geared towards children.  This was made evident upon entry by the numerous amounts of kids swarming around every corner and hollering like crazy.  Due to this, and the glorious weather we were having, LM and I decided to make a quick trip of the museum and hit all the points of our interest.  This included:  British prints from the last century, musical instruments, European Old Master Paintings, Medieval, a tangent into 17^th and 18^th Century European that included a frilly bed and chairs, and ended with Oceanic sculpture.

 

So here’s my beef with museums.  They all have their own unique collection of art complimented by special exhibits, giving each museum its own character, apart from all the basic Greek sculptures and Asian artifacts.  What astounds me is the assortment of prints and other items available in the gift shop. Sometimes you’re lucky and can find prints of the current special exhibit, but rarely can you find prints unique to the museum unless they have some high profile Degas and the like.  They all have the same “generic” posters of works from Klimt, Monet, Renoir etc. that I find so boring and commercial.  Don’t get me wrong, I love these artists, but I would love to see something different.  Now the hallway we walked down to get to the gift shop had some really interesting abstract art from an artist I had never heard of before.  I would have loved to buy a poster with those loud, energetic colors on it.

 

Museums have this funny way of falling into a safety-net of offering the same books, cards, jewelry, etc.  This may work for first timers at a museum, but once you’ve been to a few you realize how commercialized they are.  I would like to see more involvement from local artists and even contemporaries.  Museums are a good way for local artists to become more involved in the community arts as well as get a wider range of people to view their work.  How cool would it be to start a collection of artwork and prints from major museums who support their local arts?