Our next Bridge Project is “Displace.” To begin the process of thinking the subject matter of our displacement, we visited the Metropolitan Museum. Before the visit, we have brainstormed about objects and actions that we are interested in. I had the following in mind: objects- nail polish, mirror, lamp, and toaster; actions- bathing/showering, manicure, kissing, crying, and dining.
For Seminar, we were asked to find two pieces of artwork that demonstrate one action and one object from our brainstorm. I have chosen my action as bathing and my object as lamp. Before visiting the museum, I have thought about what kind of artwork would feature the action of bathing or the object of a mirror. The mirror wasn’t hard to think about and to find, as the Met has a huge collection of artifacts from the Medieval era and also times before. I have seen mirrors exhibiting in the Met from Asia and Europe.
Bathing was a harder one to think about. I considered from medium to medium. Sculpture would be rare to feature bathing or showering as it normally involves water dripping in the air and is very hard to portray. So either modern sculpture or ancient sculpture would not be the place for me to find the action. Painting is the one to that is most likely to feature bathing as painting has many possibilities to it.
- Action: bathing
- Title: The Tub
- Artist: Edgar Degas, French, Paris 1834-1917 Paris
- Date: modeled ca. 1888-1889, cast 1920
- Medium: bronze
To my surprise, I went through all the European painting sections but still haven’t encountered a single one portraying someone bathing. When I was about to leave, I saw this sculpture (again, surprisingly a sculpture). The gesture of the girl makes me think of me being in a bathtub when I was little. So I stopped in front of it and read the panel. The title says “The Tub.” I immediately documented this piece with my phone and looked for other works by Edgar Degas, hoping he would be interested in making other works regarding bathing.
- Action: bathing
- Title: Bather Stepping into a Tub
- Artist: Edgar Degas, French, Paris 1834-1917 Paris
- Date: modeled ca. 1890
- Medium: pastel and charcoal on blue laid paper
Around the Degas’ area, I have found four paintings on a woman bathing. I documented those works and moved forward to another hall. In this hall, I found three more paintings by Gustave Courbet that features woman bathing in the nature (streams and rivers).
In the end, I chose Degas’ painting as the second artwork for my action because I think it would be comparable to the sculpture also made by him. As I am interested into different ways of portraying one action, to look at these two works by the same artist on the same subject but with different media will help.
In order to look for mirrors, I also wandered around in the European painting halls, however, I didn’t manage to find any mirrors in the paintings. I guess it would require more technique as a painter to add a mirror in the scene he or she is painting. Therefore, I went to the European decorative art hall.
- Object: mirror
- Title: Mirror
- Artist: silver by Johann Valentin Gever, ca 1662-1737; medallions possibly by Johann Andreas Thelot, 1655-1734
- Origin: Germany (Augsburg)
- Date: ca 1710
- Medium: oak, pine, tortoiseshell, silver, silver gilt, green-stained ivory, mirror glass
This mirror I found was placed in a room mimicking a 18th century European bedroom. While the bed is placed in the middle of the room against the wall right in front of the viewer, the mirror is placed on the wall on the left. This is also why the image I took was a little tilted. I chose this mirror because it contains various materials and as the panel suggests, was probably made by the commision of Louis XIV.
- Object: mirror
- Title: Mirror
- Artist: attributed to Johann Michael Hoppenhaupt
- Origin: Germany (Potsdam or Berlin)
- Date: ca 1745-60
- Medium: pine, lindenwood, painted and gilded, mirror glass
This mirror was chosen because it has used simpler materials comparing to the previous one–possibly because this is not to serve the royal member. Also, it is made in Germany around the same time as the previous mirror.
Bathing & Mirror
As mentioned earlier, I initially had many actions on my brainstorm list. Despite I have chosen the action of bathing, I took the entire list to the Met. I wanted to see which action I can find and what would be interesting to work with. I had the list of actions of bathing/showering, manicure, kissing, crying, and dining. Dinning, kissing, and bathing were the ones I found that have at least two artworks featuring. Then I thought about what I would be interested in investigating more into later in this Bridge Project. Bathing end up to be the one. I personally love water and love to bathe in hot water. SO I would definitely like to know more about the history, different ways, different costumes of bathing. Also, one of my favorite books is Perfume by Patrick Suskind. The book is based on a time period in Paris where no one showers and everywhere smells awful, I would also like to dig into that time period more.
For the object, I chose mirror out of all simply because I find it to be a very fascinating art form. As an artist, I have been working with mirrors multiple times. It provides us with new perspectives of the world, it creates a reflection of anything in front of it. Many literature, film, and contemporary art works all have used mirror as motif or to create some kind of illusion. Therefore, I think it would be interesting for me to look further into mirrors and especially the effects it has brought to humans.
Choosing the Artworks
I have mentioned some of the artwork looking process previously. However, it was not very difficult overall because I have already thought about what kind of work I will be looking for and around what time period they would be created. Having these in mind definitely helped me a lot in the huge world of art at the Met. It was really easy to be carried away by other enchanting works and the interior structure of the Met is also a little hard to get a way around.
Choosing the artworks from the ones I have gathered was a little harder. I like all the works I documented for my object and action, however, we were only to choose two. So I considered based on medium, time period, artist, country, and historical background. Therefore, the two works featured in this post can have a certain connection and can be compared and contrasted to a certain degree if one wishes to do so.
Follow Up Research Questions
- When was the first mirror invented?
- When was the first bathtub invented? What was the motive behind it?
- Why are women featured in paintings of bathing while men aren;t?
