Last Wednesday, I finally had a chance to see Impressionism, Fashion and Modernity at The Metropolitan Museum of Art. This exhibition explores art, fashion, and social change in Paris from 1860 to the mid 1880s. As someone that is interested in the interrelationship between fashion and art, I was dying to get to this show! Images from the exhibition kept appearing on my Instagram feed, which really put the pressure on me to get to the museum. I just had to see these amazing works of art in person!
Image of the Impressionism, Fashion, & Modernity exhibit now on view at The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Image courtesy of the museum’s Instagram account.
Image of the Impressionism, Fashion, & Modernity exhibit now on view at The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Image courtesy of the museum’s Instagram account.
For those of you that may not know,
The Met has an Instagram account. I love the images they post, and look forward to seeing pictures of the galleries show up on my feed. Museums from around the world are joining Instagram, hoping that it will bring people in the doors. I think this is a brilliant idea. First of all, the institutions are able to reach people they ordinarily wouldn’t be able to through traditional marketing. But really, traditional forms of transmitting information are dying out. Newspapers and books are available online. Most young people don’t have cable or radios. Technology is changing so rapidly, that most people get news and information online on computers, tablets, or via mobile devices. Anyone can join a site, select a few preferences, and receive information on subjects of their choice. But sharing information through social media brings attention to topics people might not ordinarily pay attention to.
A simple hashtag or check-in search shows the level of social interaction at any museum exhibit. Images courtesy of the Instagram Community members: mrosenfeld, jclarkbell, claibourn, ajlm, natmonte, karlaacayo, and erik_a.
I placated myself until I could schedule my visit to the museum by searching for photographs of the show. The press had some wonderful images, but honestly I was finding more compelling shots on Instagram. Lovely! And all available by searching for a hashtag or check-in at the museum. The collage above, all photos uploaded and tagged on Instagram, really put attending the show to the top of my to-do list.
Exhibition entrance for Impressionism, Fashion, and Modernity.
So, I have to admit, I was a bit confused when I arrived at the exhibition. Photography was not permitted. Yet everyone was taking photographs anyway. This happens in just about every museum I’ve ever attended. A no photography policy is stated, and everyone breaks it. And now with stealthy cameras in phones and sites like Instagram and Twitter, images abound are published in real time. Even press preview events leak photos. Just look up the magazines invited to the events, like Vogue and Glamour.
Young girls sketching a day dress from 1865-68. Dress on loan from the Manchester Galleries. Image courtesy of The Metropolitan Museum of Art.
The social pressure was just too great. Guests snuck about, dodging guards to take pictures. All in all, it became a very fun game. People were helping one another to take pictures. A person would stand just so, to cover for another guest taking a shot. Others would sort of laugh after getting reprimanded by the guard for taking a picture. Really, maybe this no photography rule is a way to engage visitors in social interaction. I found myself more engaged with objects that other people found important. I wanted to spend extra time observing the objects I saw on Instagram. I also wanted to take pictures of the objects other guests found important.
Young girls sketching a day dress from 1865-68. Dress on loan from the Manchester Galleries. Image courtesy The Metropolitan Museum of Art.
Particularly, I was really interested in these two young visitors that brought their sketchbooks. They ran about the galleries, drawing objects that caught their interest. What fun they seemed to be having! I paid more attention to what they were looking at. In fact, many visitors did. We were all desperately trying to get a look at their sketches. I felt a bit sad that I didn’t have my own art materials.
Day dress1865-67 of gray silk faille with Indian paisley shaw, 1865 (Above and below). Costume Institute. Image courtesy of The Metropolitan Museum of Art.
The exhibit is accompanied by wonderful text. The curators were brilliant in selecting excerpts from literature at the time that focused on Impressionist artists desire to capture the modern. Modernity is what the Impressionism movement was all about. It was a rejection of religious painting and contrived staging of scenery. It was a desire to capture and record everyday life. Everything was important, particularly social customs and fashionable dress.
As I read this quote in the exhibition, I was struck by the irony of the situation:
“At last, the subject matter of art includes the simple intimacies of everyday life in its repertoire.” Edmond Durante, The New Painting, 1876
Social media sites are ways of sharing art in the intimacies of everyday life. But it has become increasingly unclear who can share what and where. Traditionally, press had special access to photograph events for publicity’s sake. But now with the rise of blogs and photo sharing sites, there seems to be no standard of who is privy to take photos and exactly how they should be cited.
Monet’s “Luncheon on the Grass” and a white cotton piqué day dress with black soutache trim. Image courtesy of Suzanne DeChillo/The New York Times.
Hopefully, institutions everywhere will adopt and clearly explain photography policies that encourage socially sharing images. The Scientific American recently published an article explaining the importance of posting on sites such as Facebook. Sharing images via social media are influential. Here is why:
“One of the big ways that the people around us exert these influences is through the use of norms, those messages that we send out about what’s acceptable, appropriate, and…well, normal. Descriptive norms simply describe the way that things are, whereas prescriptive norms offer a mandate about how things should be. . . .Quite possibly the most important takeaway point from all of the research that’s been done on norms is just how powerful descriptive norms can be. When people try to change behavior, they often focus on prescriptive norms, telling people what they should do. We often underestimate just how strongly we respond to what other people actually do.” (Quotation from The Scientific American)
Mme. Bartholome by Albert Bartholomé, 1881 and the actual garment it portrays. Image courtesy of Habitually Chic.
The article goes on to explain studies conducted on signage at the Petrified Forest in Arizona. Signs discouraging tourists from taking samples of the forest were more effective if they included a descriptive norm that most people left the environment intact. Melanie Tannenbaum, author of the article, sums up why rules that include descriptive norms of social behavior work:
“We don’t really care so much about what we should do. We care about what other people do. And then we really, really care about not being different.”
Hopefully we can embrace modernity, and rules to go along with it.
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