Round We Go: Visiting Art Museums Around the World
Welcome to the latest adventure with the Fiidaa Art team! March is here, and we're gearing up for a journey around the globe as we dive into the realm of art museums. From New York City’s bustling streets to the vibrant energy of Tokyo, we've packed our bags and buckled up for an artistic escapade like no other. We are excited to reflect on our visits to the Museum of Modern Art (MoMa), the Tokyo Metropolitan Art Museum (Tokyo Met) in Japan and the National Art Gallery in Singapore. During our travels, we gazed upon the beauty of each artwork, contemplating on how museums serve as a spatial bridge between past and present, tradition and innovation. To us, it was a chance to discover first-hand the progression of art through the ages.
With this issue, the Fiidaa Art team invites you to join us as we share our unique experiences from our trip. We hope to ignite your passion for art, encouraging you to broaden your artistic horizons by taking the chance to visit art museums and experience artworks from a different time and space. Whether you're a seasoned art enthusiast or a curious novice, we urge you to take your first step into the world of art museums.
As you embark on your own artistic journey and add more art pieces to your collection, we hope our stories will inspire you to seek out new experiences and deepen your appreciation for the beauty surrounding us!
MOMA: Where Modern Art Comes to Life
We start off in New York at MOMA, which is renowned for having the best collection of Western masterpieces in the world as it boasts an extensive collection of more than 150,000 artworks. Organized around six curatorial departments such as Architecture and Design, Drawing and Prints, Painting and Sculpture, and Photography, the museum is home to famous works like Vincent Van Gogh's "The Starry Night" and Andy Warhol's "Campbell Soup Cans"
Given the size of the Museum and the multitude of exhibits on each floor, we focused on "Life Cycles: The Materials of Contemporary Design" which was located on Floor 1, 1 South of the museum. The exhibit focuses on art and design's sustainability, examining how design can be innovative while also respectful and responsible for the ecosystem. The exhibit showcases how artists and designers have explored new ways to utilize art materials and mediums in ways that balance the ecosystem.
We were intrigued by Formafantasma's informative and interactive video still Taxonomy - part of their ‘Ore Streams’ collection, which showcases how e-waste can be properly recycled and handled. The installation educates viewers on the poor working conditions handlers are subjected to and how these components have been disposed inappropriately, hoping to inspire lawmakers to see the recycling potential of these materials through art.
We were also fascinated by how designers make use of unique recycled materials to design furniture that is both innovative and practical. The Living's "Mycellium Brick" showed us how organic bricks can be made from corn crop waste and fungi mycellium to create carbon-neutral bricks, offering a creative response to the current material sustainability crises.
Our visit's highlight is seeing Issey Miyake and Fujiwara Dai's "A-POC Queen Textile" life, where meets sustainability. Issey and Fujiwara's designed is slightly oversized, allowing any wearer to customize the fabric to their personal preferences. The art piece focuses on the everyday rather than the trendy, showing how textile technology can be rapid, efficient and tailor-made!
Tokyo MET: Impressions and Impressionism
Next on our checklist is the Tokyo Metropolitan Art Museum located in Ueno Park, Tokyo, Japan. The art museum is renowned for temporary exhibits which showcase modern art from Japan and beyond. The Fiidaa Art team was fortunate to be able to visit the museum when the ongoing exhibit "Frontiers of Impressionism: Paintings from the Worcester Art Museum".
Celebrating the 150th anniversary of the first Impressionist exhibition, the collection boasts artworks from historic Impressionist pioneers like Claude Monet, Pierre-Auguste Renoir and John Singer Sargent! The exhibit allowed us to get up-close with Impressionism's innovation and expansiveness, providing us the rare opportunity to gaze upon the fascinating world of American and European Impressionism.
As we walked through the exhibit, we were astounded by the impressionists' ability to capture how light reflected off surfaces, where objects were depicted as bound by light rays. Famous pieces like Monet's Water Lilies and Sargent's Catherine Chase Pratt were more astounding up close in real life!
National Gallery Singapore: The Local Art Scene
We end our journey with the Nationally Gallery Singapore, an art museum closer to home. Frequently visited by both tourists and locals alike, the museum oversees the world's largest public collection of Singapore and Southeast Asian art, displaying an expansive collection of more than 9000 items in its walls. We toured the inaugural exhibit of DBS Singapore Gallery named "Siapa Nama Kamu? Art in Singapore since the 19th Century," where Singapore's development is visualized through the artwork adorning the gallery's walls.
Walking into the exhibit, we were greeted with David Medalla's kinetic foam sculpture, where water and soap interact. We were impressed how the sculpture was able to retain its shape despite its medium and almost thought it was made of ice. Inspired by Filipino culture, Medalla's sculpture depicts how environments are ephemeral because they are ever-shifting.
As we toured the exhibit, we came across Liu Kang's oil paintings. A founding member of the Nanyang Art Style, Liu Kang's artwork often depict idyllic scenes of the Kampong which come to life due to his expressive brushwork and masterful understanding of perspective.
The Singapore National Gallery is also home to local abstract artworks, which showcase how popular art trends in the West like abstract expressionism can be adopted and adapted by Southeast Asia artists to convey messages unique to the continent!
That concludes our journey through various art museums around the world. We hope that our experiences have inspired you to similarly reflect on the artwork you have come across in your everyday life and broaden your artistic horizons when you go travelling! Want to add art pieces from around the world to your collection? Visit our website here!