New Year's Day at the Museum

On New Year's Day of 2008, I met up with ML to visit the National Museum of Singapore to catch the Greek Masterpieces from the Lourve exhibition. It was the day of the museum's Open House, and admission was free. There was a lot more people at the museum than usual. We even had to queue, though just for a very short while, to enter the exhibition.

Possibly, people in Singapore do have some interest in supporting the museum, it is just that they need a good reason to do so? It looks like some of the factors to draw people in Singapore to the museum are: non-working day, affordable admission (in this case, free), activities to engage both the young and old, and a rare or special exhibition?

ML shared with me that she finds the write-up of the Greek Masterpieces from the Lourve exhibition to be well-written and useful. Indeed, the write-ups that visitors could find at the exhibition lend insights to the lives and worldview of the ancient Greeks.

One of my favourite exhibits from this exhibition is the tall sculpture of Ares. His feautures are well crafted, especially his lips and nose.

I also like the sculpture titled Aphrodite, the Venus of Arles. It was interesting to look at this work from various viewpoints. I did not like the frontal view, but when I looked at it from the left of sculpture, it looked particularly beautiful.

Of course, there were many other exhibits worth viewing. Each exhibit lends us a clue to the world of the ancient Greek. Many of the sculptures in this exhibition were Roman copies of the original Greek works. Nevertheless, considering that many of original Greek works were cast in bronze and many were lost to the world, the Roman copies proved to be the next best alternatives to understand the ancient Greek. For those visitors who must see the originals, most of the funeral related items and pottery works in the exhibition are the originals.

ML and I also had the opportunities to dress ourselves in ancient Greek fashion wear, the Chiton and Peplos while we were at the exhibition. Many thanks to the museum's personnel who had helped us with the wearing the costumes.

I'm glad I could have some time to catch up with ML and also visit the museum together with her. After our visit to the National Museum of Singapore, we headed for the Singapore Art Museum to catch the exhibition, Re-woven: Contemplation, Remembrance and Reminiscence. The fabrics felt as if they came alive.

Meantime, Greek Masterpieces from the Lourve will be showcased at the National Museum of Singapore from 9 Dec 07 - 16 Mar 08.