I've been LOVING Paris' museums (as evident by all the blog posts from the wide variety of them). I've been in Paris for 35 days, and I've gone to a museums or beautifully decorated church 20 times thus far. Most of Paris' museums are too big and overwhelming for just one visit, and I'm making sure to go back to them as frequently as possible.
This Wednesday, we traveled to the Grand Palais with great hopes of seeing an amazing collection, but we were met with Paris Fashion Week. Now, I'm no fashion-ista. I dress well enough, but Paris Fashion Week isn't something I was anxiously anticipating. Paris Fashion Week limited our access to the museum and made the wait well over two hours. Let's just say that I am no longer indifferent to Paris Fashion Week. As my sister lovingly said, "your museums will be open again next week". So perhaps I'll try for the Grand Palais next week.
Since plans are never really ruined in Paris (even with Fashion Week), my friend and I jaunted over to the Georges Pompidou Centre, one of modern art's most famous galleries. We spent our remaining 2 hours on one floor of the incredible museum. We'll be heading back to see the rest of it soon!
The outside of the Centre is quite different from the rest of Paris' typical 8 story white stone buildings. I'll be sure to take more photos of the outside during my next visit. I was focused on photographing a project you'll see within the next couple weeks!
As a whole, I LOVE modern art, but occasionally, there are pieces that I really struggle to like. But as my professor says, "Just because you like something doesn't mean it's good. And vice versa." I'm working on remembering that when staring at some of the pieces.
But most of them, I quite enjoyed. It was an excellent albeit eclectic exhibit of modern art.
Without a doubt, my favorite piece was Andreas Gursky's 99 cent. I've read about this in countless textbooks, and it has been in most of my professors' lectures. Since it's one of the highest selling photographs ever sold at $3.34 million, we've studied it. Believe me, we've questioned and stared at it and pondered whyyy. But standing in front of it was an entirely new experience and opened me up to a new view on Gursky's work. He has been at the forefront of Photoshop, and he's creating near photographs in my opinion. They're composites and altercations of photographs he's taken. He's also a whiz at large printing. His work is never small.
Most people walked by it, not really taking in the 99 cent store or its significance. I'm sure I missed the significance and the importance of the balloon/ball chain on the right of this image, but at least I saw Gursky.
Up on the agenda for Friday: Buying a coat and a tour of the Catacombs! (One of those is way more exciting than the other, and based on my views on Paris Fashion Week... Which one do you think it is?)
Wait until you see what's on the agenda for this weekend!!
