Anyway, here are some photos from what I remember to be a really great afternoon spent museum hopping with Donald. :D The National Museum had a pretty awesome exhibition over the past few months that just ended in Feb - entitled, Dreams and Reality: Masterpieces of Painting, Drawing and Photography, it featured lots of well-known works from the Musée d’Orsay in Paris and I do think that a lot of people ended up going to check it out.
Man, who is that cool studious dude? :) I just had to take a photo and spend the rest of the day with him LOL.
So I didn't quite take a lot of photos of the paintings I liked (because ermm I did that with my iPhone)(but seriously, what do people do with the photos they've taken of the paintings they liked in a museum?? It's not like they can really print it out or remember to show it off? Unless they post in on their blog hmmm..!) but I did take some photos of the little bits and bobs that were happening inside.
Live sketching workshop going on! Though I think it was more of a bring your own art materials and do whatever you want session, with live model provided.
I really like how there was a rest area within the exhibition space itself. Ohh before I forget, a couple of things that I think make for a really good exhibit: 1. The total amount of time taken for a reasonably normal human being to get through it should be about 1 hour, maximum. Anything more than that is plain cruel because who wants to be made to feel like a total spaz for not being able to absorb all the goodness from beautiful artworks? Besides, I DO think that I remember reading from somewhere that a person's attention span for a certain activities lasts only a maximum of 40 mins after which is really dips to abysmal levels. (No idea why schools never adhere to such research and insist of having classes that drag on for hours and hours.) - On a side note, that is also why I really don't like the Louvre. It's incredible and all but... before I even start going through the first exhibit I'm already filled with fatigue/dread at the thought of not being able to complete even a fraction of the exhibitions even if I devote an entire day to it!! BAHH.
2. There should be comprehensive explanations about each piece of art, in terms that a layman would understand. I always think it would be so great if there could be an explanation for WHY the artist even came up with that drawing/sculpture in the first place because that's really the main question in my mind. What inspired the artist? Why on earth did he/she decide to do this?? And really, I actually quite relish reading the "Kids'" explanations sometimes because it really is a lot simpler to understand and there are often certain pretty wacky details they point out to kids that they don't do for the Adult explanation. Wonder why huh.
3. There should be resting points.
4. Photography should be allowed. :D To allow for people to at least prove they've been there so that they can show off to their friends. And besides, if they don't understand what they're seeing and they need to wait for friends, they can at least snap away.
So back to the exhibition. Pretty timeline!
Something I liked even more outside at the main lobby of the museum entrance.
These little things were the ones holding up the balloons in the previous photo.
skirt: Fancy French Cologne, top: The Everyday Life Store (TELS), necklace and flats: Tangs Studio
What I wore museum hopping. I have realized that on hot days, maxi skirts can't be beat!
Next, we went on over to SAM at 8Q, or if that isn't cool sounding enough, 8QSAM, which is really the extension of the Singapore Art Museum, located at 8 Queen Street. Kinda meh once its name has been demystified eh? ;p But really, it was my FAVORITE museum of the day! All its exhibits pretty much fulfilled ALL the criteria I listed above for what makes a good museum exhibit. It's actually quite a small museum but it's rather quirky in terms of its color (I'm all for superficial details like this) and it showcases exhibits mainly by local artists of much smaller scale. When we were there, there were quite a few by Singaporean performance artist Amanda Heng, under the title of "Speak To Me, Walk With Me". One that I quite enjoyed had photos of her donning the Singapore Airlines attire visiting places/parts of Singapore oft-forgotten/fast vanishing.
I wish I could give a better/more insightful commentary about this but... I remember Donald explaining a lot of it to me in detail. Sometimes it's good to go museum hopping with a well-read Lit student. ;p
Another really awesome installation featured piles of beansprouts on tables and I THINK it was supposed to symbolize a focal point around which women of the house would gather to peel beansprouts and have conversation. I just thought it was pretty darn cool. :P
LASTLY, we traipsed over to the actual Singapore Art Museum for a short bit to check out an exhibition featuring the works of artist Hyung Koo Kang. I'd not heard of this artist before but after seeing his work, I'm seriously AMAZED. I thought that his works were some sort of digitally modified and magnified works based on paintings of these artists (all of which were his muses, e.g. Leonardo da Vinci, Van Gogh) but NO - they are actually his own paintings.
Isn't it insane?? Doesn't it look like some sort of digitally enhanced image of a painting? I can't believe what a genius this guy is! Btw, anytime I look at a picture of Van Gogh, I'm reminded of an episode of Modern Family when Luke held up a picture of V.G and said to Phil, "doesn't it remind you of Uncle Mitchell gone crazy?" HEH. 
Apparently he chose to paint these artists because they'd all gone through a period of struggle in their artistic career (a.k.a. they were all pretty crazy and tortured perfectionisits) which he could identify with. Which makes me feel... kinda worried for artists everywhere. What sort of angst must they be going through their entire life in the name of creating something good enough for themselves? So just incase you were wondering, the 3 places we went to were: 1.The National Museum, 2.The Singapore Art Museum and 3.8QSAM, the smaller offshoot of the Singapore Art Museum. All of which are totally worth checking out! :D I definitely recommend 8QSAM because Food for Thought (nice cafe!) is right outside. You have to think about your tummy when you go on outings like these.
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