An interesting trip to Menil Collection Museum

The first impression I had was the building harmonizes really well with its surroundings. The building does not stand itself but matches up with the colors, the architect, and so on with other smaller business offices. That first feeling may be due to the path I chose to go to the museum. I did not go straight to the main door of the building, but the smaller path leading to the side of the building instead.


The building is hid properly behind a huge and really old oak tree, which made me think of the tree, the green background, and the nature rather than the Menil Collection Meseum. I was so excited because of the trees that the building looks small compared with the place to me. Renzo Piano chose white and gray color for the building. The colors of the Menil Collection Museum forms the unity of its neighborhood with itself when every office is based on those colors too.

Another element creating this location unity is by the glasses siding around the building. Those high and the same size glasses reflect the place so well that when visitors walk on the side walks, they will experience another green-zone on the glasses. The space seems to be doubled by those glasses. Moreover, the main and back door are covered by big glasses, which makes the comers approaching into the inside see pretty well the trees and offices reflected on the glass-wall and feel like they are going into a house and expecting a lot of trees inside.
Another kind of unity that the museum visitors may realize is the exterior design of the museum.

 The white wave-ceiling runs along side with the building, letting the sunlight get through the building naturally. The wave-shaped ceiling also contributes another element of nature into the existing neighborhood.

By doing some research before I went to themuseum, I expected to see how Renzo Piano could make the small area look really big inside, “small on the outside, but be as big as possible inside”. A dark-stained pine floor seems to be opposite with the pure-white walls, but suitable and impressed with the first collection on the front wall that everybody will see when he or she comes in by the main door. The first collection insists of four different shapes made of wood and having the same color with the floor, creating the unity for the inside. The simple interior lets the collections to be emphasized perfectly. Dominique de Menil wanted visitors to enjoy the works as she see them in her house, and Renzo Piano achieved that goal. He applied waves-shaped ceiling, so the pieces of art can be seen with natural light from the sun. I spent a lot of time investigating the pictures or statues simply because I felt like I was at home. At night, they will be lighted up by lights placed along side with the waves on the ceiling. The glasses make the inside space be greater because the visitors can see the trees outside. Renzo Piano successfully widened the building. For example, by simply placing a small white certain letting a little of sunlight get through it, the architect made me want to go straight to an illusionary room to see other works. The truth about the small room was only revealed when I stood right in front of the curtain and identified it.
I was so excited while I was going around and experiencing the widened space by a collection consisting of significant black rectangular or square block painted by painstick. Placing those huge pieces of art makes the visitors experience different feelings of space. For example, in this room, the artist placed two black blocks parallel with each other, in the next room, two other black blocks perpendicular with each other, and so on. The section that best triggered my excitement was this.

 I believed I was going down a slope when I was going into the end of this room. The change of color into a darker one which is perfectly matches up with the black color on the walls on the floor also broadens the space so well. The sloped down black blocks on the walls “cheats” me again and again. Even I had realized that the floor never slopes down, I still believed that I was going on a slope. Art is so wonderful!

　

The work named Nocturne best awoke my feelings. Rene Magritte used oil to paint the Nocturne on canvas, and he finished it in 1925. It size is about 1.6 ft*1.5 ft. The picture is abstract. The artist reveals his loneliness, his efforts to get away from it, and his crying for help. Viewers may be confused which one is the real picture because he drew one picture inside his real work. The picture in picture brings a story with specific script on a show, telling its audience about Rene Magritte’s loneliness and escaping struggle. Its audience may think anything placed on a stage is unreal. Nevertheless, the artist uses the link between truth and untruth and reality and unreality to help the viewers see the short distance as a second between them. You can hardly tell what is wrong or right and decide what you should do. Main character of the picture, which may depict the artist himself, is a red bird flying out from the inside picture to escape from a burning house standing alone on water
. Rene Magritte chose dark-red color for the bird to show the pain that the bird or himself is suffering from. Also, by painting the bird with the same color as the curtain’ s, he creates the unity of the picture. The white statue with five stripes seems to be the focal point, due to the implied lies, which are the direction of the frame, especially the width of the frame, and the bird. That statue may be humans that the bird or himself is expecting to get help, or a musical instrument that can help him to relax and get away from the busy world that he is living at.