The Brooklyn Museum

Yesterday we decided to at least pretend that we understand and appreciate culture by visiting the Brooklyn Museum. We made the trip in order to see two visiting exhibits: Annie Leibovitz: A Photographer’s Life, and Ron Mueck. In our humble opinions, the building itself ranked as a work of art. It’s really spectacular the way the entryway has been built around the building’s original beaux-arts facade.

Leibovitz is an incredibly prolific artist, perhaps best know for her photos of a naked, pregnant Demi Moore. Her exhibit had close to 200 photos, including both her professional work (celebrity portraits and some confronting pics from Sarajevo) and personal snapshots of her family and friends. It combined to give a real insight into what she values, and deems worthy of capturing. There will certainly be a more enduring, accurate record of how she has lived her life than how I’ve lived mine! Mental note: must take more pics of everyday life.

The Ron Mueck exhibit was, to be honest, downright weird. Ron is an Aussie sculptor who started his career fashioning children’s puppets for Sesame Street and the like. He now makes these incredibly realistic models of human beings from fiberglass and silicone. But when it comes to scale, he takes some liberties. For instance, with a 10m-long newborn baby. It’s really hard to take in, but even harder to look away.

If either exhibit pops up at a museum near you, be sure to check them out! I’d give our outing a gerrod.com rating of about 7/10.