Monet and Boston: Lasting Impressions
Over the weekend, my mom and I went to the Monet and Boston: Lasting Impressions exhibition at the Museum of Fine Arts Boston. I had been trying to get to the exhibit since it opened, but with CoVid-19 and living on an island, it was a bit difficult. The exhibit was ticketed and required reserving tickets back in January. The tickets also include entrance to the MFA. You are given an hour window to enter the museum and are asked to go to the exhibit first before exploring the rest of the museum. I assume this is to limit the amount of people in the actual exhibit at once and keep the museum in compliance with CoVid-19 guidelines.
The exhibition focused on Claude Monet’s work and his ties to Boston. The museum displayed all of its paintings by the artist, as well as a few paintings on loan and comparative works. The space the museum used was on the second floor of the Linde Wing for Contemporary Art. Normally, the museum has a specific room that a few of the Monet paintings will be in. I found that the exhibit’s layout felt much better than the room did. It was much bigger and more open than their usual Monet room, which was currently being used to display a Cezanne exhibition. This was a good move in my opinion. I find that I enjoy Impressionist paintings most when I’m able to view the paintings from close up and far away. Unlike other styles that focus on extreme and fine detail, Impressionism is less about being able to capture every tiny aspect of a specific scene and more about the light, color, and feeling of a general atmosphere. Having a larger space allows for a person to view the paintings from different distances, all of which bring different experiences.
The exhibit was spread out over three different sections. The areas went chronologically from Monet’s beginnings to his later works.
The first section focused on Monet’s early works and brought it some comparative images that were relevant to the development of his style. I really enjoy when curators add works by other artists that help add context. It reminds me of taking an art history exam where I have to write a quick comparative essay, but in real life and someone has already done it for me.
The next section of the exhibit was Monet and Japonisme. It also had a fair amount of comparative works that directly correspond to pieces by Monet. The pairings were placed near each other, making it easy to look back and forth between the works and compare them. You could easily see the influences that Japonisme and Japanese Ukiyo-e had on Monet’s style and compositions.
The third section was focused on what I would consider to be his more famous works. This zone featured paintings from his Water Lilies series, Grainstacks, and Rouen Cathedral paintings. Once again, similar paintings were placed near each other for ease of viewing. One issue I had with this area was a disconnected wall that was in the middle towards the entryway to the room. It felt disjointed and out of place. There was a painting on either side of the small wall. It was off for some reason, like it didn’t make sense being there. You would need to get out of the general pattern you had already made from the first two rooms, going around clockwise to view the works chronologically, in order to see the two paintings. It’s a small thing, but it did stick out to me.
One of my favorite aspects of the exhibit was the labeling. I felt that it was one of the best labelled exhibits that I’ve been to. There were large introduction labels in every section. They were informative, but not boring. Each object label was also really great as well. They were interesting and enjoyable to read. I found myself reading each and every one, which rarely happens for me. The morsels of information they chose to include were great. They featured a description of the work and it’s relevance. On top of that, they added a history of the item to most pieces. That’s really where the “and Boston” comes into the exhibition. The labels told the stories of how works were acquired by collectors or the MFA. They explained a lot about specific Bostonians that knew Monet or collected his work, as well as how the MFA got a hold of the pieces. It was a really interesting look into how a museum can turn the donation of art works into a full fledged collection and exhibition.
One area that I felt was a bit lacking was accessibility. It was a bit hard to get tickets, as the museum had been closed for a month and the exhibit closes in March. We were able to get tickets because we were members, but there wasn’t a ton of availability. It’s also fairly expensive for non-members above the age of seventeen at thirty dollars for entrance to one special exhibit and general admission. It seemed to be okay in terms of physical accessibility. I do not have a physical disability, so there may be problems that I didn’t see because of this. I did see someone in a wheelchair going through the exhibit with no visible problems. There wasn’t a ton of seating for those who may get tired easily or can’t stand for long periods of time. They did include an audio reading of the labels on their phone application, but I could only find it in English. There was also a lack of visible materials for non-English speakers. I didn’t see any exhibit pamphlets at all, possibly due to CoVid-19 but I’m not sure. I would have liked to see either materials easily accessible in other languages or labels in other languages. I’m generally of the mindset that museums should offer guides in other languages for free if they do not have labels in that language. With Boston being a major city with lots of colleges and universities, I doubt it would be hard to find a few bilingual people to translate the exhibit to other languages. Even more so during the pandemic when people are looking for jobs they can do from home.
The exhibit was really enjoyable overall. The curator did a great job with the layout of the exhibit as well as the positions of the works. The labels were well made and informative without being boring. I would definitely recommend someone to go see it, if they have the chance and the ability to.
Written February 23rd by Emily Moore for Professor Denatale’s
AR 690 Spring 2021: The Art World