Rubin Museum of Art

by victor.zhang

When I walked towards the spiral staircase to begin my exhibit, I thought that the staircase and the unique sculpture dangling down was very unique. There was also a strong smell that reminded me of curry. Kind of reminded me of  curry food, so I got really hungry. Each level in the Rubin Museum displayed different kind of art involved with different kind of culture. As I walked around the floor, i saw the amazing paintings. I learned that each painting contains narrative or stories related to the main subject. I thought that the way they designed their sculptures were very amazing. The intense amount of detail they put in was remarkable. And for them to design that back in 13-15th century is just amazing. I realized that the names for the sculptures was just weird and I could not understand them, like: Reliquary Stupa, Guhyasamaja. As I progress in the exhibition, I learned how they developed the sculptures. It was called the Nepalese Technique of Hollow Metal Casting. This technique was passed down for thousands of years. The technique is comprised of many steps. The first step was to create the wax model, then made the mold by dipping it in fine clay mixture. After that they drain the wax by applying intense heat to melt the wax. Then they pour metal into the spacing that was drained out by the wax. After letting the metal cool, they break the mold sculpture and apply details on the final piece.

I thought that the Rubin Museum was a great place for students to realize how much culture and religion means to people. I had a lot of fun to go with my class mates who also had to go to the Rubin Museum. The paintings and sculptures were very amazing and I had an amazing time.