Today, November 17, I attented an exhibition in the Mishkin Gallery. The exhibition is only opened for this month and is called the Mercedes Matter Retrospective Exhibition. I found her paintings very interesting because it looked very unique. Our tour guide showed us Mercedes’ work from when she was nine, to when she was fifteen, to her most recent work. As we went from room to room, I noticed a change in not only the size of her paintings, but also her style. As we kept walking I noticed that her paintings became more modern and abstract, and although the tour guide told us it was a painting of fruits, I did not see the fruits, and instead saw something else. But that is the beauty of art because everyone has their own interpretation of it. The tour guide explained to us that Mercedes painted whatever she felt, and at the end gave it a name from what she saw. For example, there was a painting with a whole bunch of fall colors, and the title was Still Life in Autumn. She explained to us that Mercedes just painted what she felt and then after it was done she looked at it and thought it looked like Autumn so she named it that.
All the paintings were really interesting to look at. Modern art is very abstract and many people get their own impression out of a painting. I learned that most of Mercedes paintings sell for about $85,000, which I think is really great for her. The guide told us that her paintings wouldn’t show up at the MoMA but most definitely would show up in many colleges as well as other museums. Overall, the Mercedes Matter Exhibition was a great experience because being an art lover myself, it was great to see a different style of paintings.