2022 Life Logs, Day 311: Newcomers Field Trip to the MFA
Date: Monday, November 7, 2022
Weather: Partly Sunny, Cooling Down; High 68, Low 41 degrees F
Location: At Home in the Cottage, East Falmouth, MA
Early this morning, I was off to Boston with a few Newcomers on a field trip to the Museum of Fine Arts (MFA) in Boston. When we arrived, Jane Woodin wanted to find the ruby and amethyst starfish brooch once owned by actress Claudette Colbert.
It is about four inches across and very red, much like the sea stars I admired so much in Madagascar. Our next stop was a quick run through a favorite for both of us, the Impressionism galleries. I had to see my favorite, Monet’s Water Lilies (1907),
and today I was fascinated with a much earlier painting, Flower Beds at Vétheuil (1881).
As with the sea star brooch, it was the bold red blossoms that caught my eye. I left Jane in the Art of the Americas galleries as she toured Art and Jazz as I had a timed entry to a LIFE Magazine exhibit.
The LIFE Magazine and the Power of Photography special exhibit was a display of the work and thinking of former LIFE contributors, subjects of photo-essays, and contemporary artists that addressed LIFE’s collaborative editorial process. I was especially impressed with the work of Alfredo Jaar, a Chilean-born and New York City based artist, whose work is a deep criticism of the media in questioning the ethics of representation and the politics of images—role of the photographer as witness. I loved the quote on the wall above Jaar in a video presentation. “Never be afraid of the enormity of the possible.” Then there was the display of Alexandra Bell, whose work challenges how the news is reported, giving a critical view in this era of fake news. Alfredo Jaar and Alexandra Bell offer, through their work, a new way of thinking about contemporary media today. Needless to say, the exhibit was thought provoking.
There were two car loads of us visiting the museum, and after lunch, my group met outside the museum and asked someone to take a photo of us before we headed home.
I made a pledge to return to the MFA more often. A quote from a book I read this summer sums up the feelings I had as we left. “Beautiful art opens our eyes to the beauty of the world. It repositions our sight and judgement.”
