Sunday, while not the coldest day we had this weekend, was cold enough for us to eat soup for two meals and need an indoor activity (that was not staying in to watch the How It’s Made marathon) to keep us occupied. After that first bowl of soup, we headed up to the Met for our indoor portion of the day.
It was the last day for Faking It, which we wanted to see but hadn’t yet seen. It showcased early manipulated photography, from painted photographs to images that had been stitched together from a variety of negatives. I had assumed going in that the exhibit would be comprised of images that were manipulated to be purposefully absurd or for commercial purposes (like this one of a woman in a champagne glass), but many of the images were altered simply to capture the scene in a way that wasn’t possible with cameras at the time. It was difficult to capture clouds or flickering flames, so these elements were painted in, and it was hard to keep everyone in a group still long enough to capture the photograph, so negatives were put together.
It was also the last day for Extravagant Inventions, which was pretty wild in its own right. It was a collection of furniture by the Roentgens (whom I had never heard of), most of which contained a dizzying number of hidden drawers and compartments.
We were only at the Met for a few hours, so we didn’t see the Matisse exhibit. (We intended to go see it during a Young Members event a couple of weeks ago, but the event was so unbelievably crowded that we took off.) We still have time for that one, though – it doesn’t close until March.
