Philadelphia Museum of Art

                                            (Ben in front of the Philadelphia Museum of Art)        
                               

When I was in Vietnam, I was not interested in going to museums because I thought museums were very boring and I didn't know much about art. But since being in America, a lot of people have told me that museums are very nice and interesting here which has made me more interested in going to museums. Two weekends ago we were in Philadelphia for Ben's friend's wedding. One of Ben's friends said that Philadelphia is very famous for its Museum of Art. So Ben and I both said we will definitely go to visit it. It was very nice to visit the museum because it was free for the 1st Sunday in October.

Before we went inside, Ben told me that I needed to take a picture with the Rocky statue. I turned to him and asked: "Who is Rocky? Was he an American hero?"  Again, I have a very poor knowledge about history and art. However, Ben told me that Rocky was a very famous, fictitious boxer played by Sylvester Stallone. The sculpture is now a real-life monument to a celluloid hero.

                                             (I am in front of The Rocky Statue)

My first impression about the museum was that the museum was HUGE! The building itself has such beautiful architecture with tall white poles and organized exhibition sections. The museum design makes it very easy for people to visit. To be honest, I have no idea what are the differences between different kinds of art. I just might be able to tell only Asian Art from other parts of the world. Sometimes I just felt some art was very weird looking and made no sense. On the contrast, Ben has much more knowledge about art. He pointed out to me a lot of famous paintings and explained to me about some of the famous painters such as Picasso, Van Gogh and Jackson Pollack. To me, the most interesting part of the museum was the Asian Art. I total felt like I was in Asia when we visited this area. The museum even has whole Japanese houses.

                                                      (Ben in front of Japanese house)

Ben's favorite area was the Arms and Armor. It looks pretty crazy to see the outfits used by European princes, kings and knights. I felt like a kid experiencing a movie about ancient time in European.

                                                      (This is Arm and Armor Area)

The weirdest part for me was the Modern Art section, which Ben was really interested in seeing. Every time I saw a modern artwork, I turned to Ben and said: "What this is ART? I think I can do that too." I saw a painting with just stripes with different colors and it did not look special or artistic at all to me. Modern art is weird because I think it exhibits super normal and non artistic subjects. I saw a bottle of Coca-cola in the museum with somebody's handwriting on it (whom I even don't know). Ben laughed at me a lot whenever I reacted to a modern art work. On the other hand, he loves modern art. So I think that is why they have those kinds of works here.

                                       (Please tell me what are the artistic ideas from above artworks)

Besides the Modern Art part, I really loved Philadelphia Museum of Art. After visiting the museum, I think that things we study at schools in Vietnam are so different from here in America. I did not learn at all about any specific artists at school, and this is my excuse when I say I don't know who the artists are. But I think it is really good thing to learn and understand about art. So I highly recommend if you are in Philadelphia, go to visit the Philadelphia Museum of Art.