MacGougan at Large
Notes from NYC - 5
The Met
Referring to “The Met” is potentially ambiguous. It could be the Metropolitan Opera. It could be Tom Seaver or Darryl Strawberry. Chances are, however, you’re talking about that fabulous palace of art and culture, the Metropolitan Museum of Art. The place is overwhelming. It’s not just the stuff you expect in an art museum - European oil paintings from Medieval times through at least the French impressionists. It’s also Egyptian temples and Assyrian statues and armored horses and Chinese courtyards and everything in between.
One thing at the Met that’s changed over the years is the gift shop. It was once a modest nook primarily devoted to postcards of famous paintings. Now it’s roughly the size of an Ikea and sells housewares and clothes and books and toys and you-name-it - all on a spectrum from explicitly art-related to maybe a little bit colorful.
It would be easy to fault the Met for this change, to accuse them of selling out, of allowing their great temple of culture to become a den of thieves. But I give the Met credit for walking a line between “high” culture and what ordinary people want. They devote plenty of space to exhibits that are challenging or esoteric, but they also, as you may have heard, host the most eye-catching gala anywhere.
The reality is that when people go to museums these days, they want the experience to include some shopping. Somehow, it isn’t enough for us anymore just to see something. We need to take a selfie with it. We need to take it home on a coffee mug. That sounds judgmental, but I have this same feeling. It might have to do with technology. In the age of smartphones, we rely less and less on our own memories.