Great Museums: Great use of Youtube

GreatMuseums http://www.youtube.com/user/GreatMuseums
MOMA http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0oly6d0zlZM

Check out some of the other videos

Glitter, Doom, and the Weimar Republic

The exhibit, now archived, Glitter and Doom: German Portraits from the 1920s, at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, has an excellent set of accompanying web pages, as do most from this museum.

The Exhibition Overview describes the historical background of the era - the Weimar Republic in Germany which lasted from 1919 to 1933, and the response of the artists, here called the Verists, featured in this exhibition. For a brief history of that period, you have to read both the Wikipedia entry (above) and the description on the Met's page. Since the Weimar Republic followed Germany's defeat in World War I and preceded Nazi Germany and World War II, it was a period of discordance reflected in the art on display.

Surprisingly, Wikipedia doesn't have much of anything on the Verists, mentioning them under New Objectivity. The article has a few links but nothing extensive. The entries for three of the artists, Max Beckmann, Otto Dix, and George Grosz provide some useful links with images of their art.

In Janson's History of Art, 5th ed. rev., these three men are described as Expressionists who became the "principal representatives" of the New Objectivity, with " the meticulous verism" of Dix defining its "essential characteristics". [p. 816]. Incidentally, Google books has the 6th edition of this textbook, or at least parts of it. Anyone who has an earlier edition (or any edition) will know the real thing weighs a ton.

The NYT review 'Amid Shadows of War, a Cultural Decadence' by Roberta Smith has good descriptions of the art and artists, as well as an historical background of New Objectivity. The accompanying slide show has better, but not as many, images of the portraits than does the Met website, now found through the title link at the bottom of the page. As you can tell from the pictures, this art movement produced some bizarre portraiture, more than likely reflective of the time.

Is your mind elastic?

http://www.moma.org/interactives/exhibitions/2008/elasticmind/

videos at http://www.moma.org/explore/multimedia/videos/12/123

Try to describe how to get around the site - just exploring might be best. mention annoying beep.

Louis XIV

http://www.louisxiv-versailles.fr/versailles.html

Get history of king.

See if Versailles has past exhibition sites archived - perhaps start on French site.

Urs Fischer at the New Museum

http://www.newmuseum.org/exhibitions/417/urs_fischer

A wide range of media for the exhibit - mention especially the tongue Noisette and the audio for it.

Halifax Explosion - N.S. Archives

http://www.gov.ns.ca/nsarm/virtual/explosion/

Site has film. Explore other parts of site and the main Archives pages.