{"id":201,"date":"2026-06-29T04:01:17","date_gmt":"2026-06-29T08:01:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/openlab.macaulay.cuny.edu\/pentangelo26\/?p=201"},"modified":"2026-06-29T04:02:21","modified_gmt":"2026-06-29T08:02:21","slug":"visit-to-the-met","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/openlab.macaulay.cuny.edu\/pentangelo26\/2026\/06\/29\/visit-to-the-met\/","title":{"rendered":"Visit to The MET"},"content":{"rendered":"

Before my visit to The MET or any other occasion, I barely remember questioning myself about art or how I feel towards it. Up until now, art to me was something precious and therefore untouchable, as if it were meant to be exercised by those who capture only good feelings: happiness, joy, and peace. I guess the art I have observed never made me question anything. I had consumed art to delight my eyes but not to feed my mind. It was interesting to wander around the MET and observed many pieces of art that were far from what I was expecting to see. Some pieces didn’t invoke joy or happiness, and I had to stop more than once to carefully observe all the elements involved instead of quickly passing by and nodding to assert likeness.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

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During my visit, I stopped to observe B\u00e9lizaire and the Frey Children. I was quickly intrigued because it was the first non-white person I found in a painting while wandering around the American Identities hall. It\u2019s a nondebatable fact that America is a country built on multiple identities; whether all identities are mentioned and recognized is up for discussion, and nowadays there is a stronger push to exalt one specific identity, the \u201ctrue\u201d American identity. Because of such unique times we are living through, stopping to analyze the painting was necessary.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

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I saw B\u00e9lizaire, an enslaved Afro-Creole teenager, simply resting against the tree trunk. In front of him were three white children that were part of the family that owned him. This painting was particularly impactful for me because it challenges both of my ideas about art. I looked at it and didn’t feel joy, and I couldn’t simply nod in the spirit of likeness while moving on to the next, so I stood in front of it. I felt heavy as I looked at B\u00e9lizaire\u2019s expression and the overwhelming pain of his condition. It got worse when I found out he was painted over, as if removing him out of the picture would eliminate a part of history, a selfish action to remove his history. Thankfully, through conservation efforts it was restored. Moreover, his expression is distinct in comparison to the other children. You could say that at his short age, he has lived through things that a child shouldn’t have. Sadness and regret filled the room, and I swallowed once again the painful truth about the history of America. It doesn\u2019t matter how many times I have read it or seen pictures of atrocities committed towards minorities in the name of “God,” “values,” or many other nonsense explanations. I would never fail to be utterly saddened by the past that hurt millions. Lastly, I believe this painting relates to New York City, as the history of this city has been configured, hidden, concealed, restructured, torn apart, and made new throughout the years. This relates to B\u00e9lizaire being painted over to perhaps (and what I think is the reason) remove a part of history because it also happened in New York City. In this case it wasn’t a painting; it was a neighborhood. Seneca Village, home to one of the city\u2019s largest concentrations of free African American property owners, was seized by the city centuries ago to create what we now know today as Central Park (the west side).\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\"Belizaire<\/p>\n

\"Description<\/p>\n

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Another painting I found impactful was The Death of Socrates. Again, I didn’t feel happy, nor did I quickly look away to see something else. I actually felt refreshed; I think it\u2019s funny to simply read it but imagine the feeling of seeing someone you know in a place where you don’t know anybody. Socrates was one of the very first things I learned when I went to high school, and the endless debates about whether \u201cyou know something or you don\u2019t\u201d flooded my mind with a familiarity I didn’t know art could evoke. All of a sudden, I was transported back in time to my 15-year-old self, who was on YouTube looking for people that could explain Socrates\u2019s philosophy. I think now that art can make you feel at home. Lastly, I\u2019m \"Deathnot completely sure of how it relates to New York City, as Socrates’ death is something he could have avoided by simply leaving Athens, but I think he considered staying as a final act of love towards what he had believed throughout his life. But. I think there could be a small relationship, as there are people who are so deeply intertwined with the city that it seems impossible to leave. <\/span><\/p>\n

\"Death<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Before my visit to The MET or any other occasion, I barely remember questioning myself about art or how I feel towards it. Up until now, art to me was something precious and therefore untouchable, as if it were meant to be exercised by those who capture only good feelings: happiness, joy, and peace. I … Continue reading Visit to The MET<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":964,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"portfolio_post_id":0,"portfolio_citation":"","portfolio_annotation":"","openlab_post_visibility":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-201","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-blog-post-1"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/openlab.macaulay.cuny.edu\/pentangelo26\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/201","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/openlab.macaulay.cuny.edu\/pentangelo26\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/openlab.macaulay.cuny.edu\/pentangelo26\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/openlab.macaulay.cuny.edu\/pentangelo26\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/964"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/openlab.macaulay.cuny.edu\/pentangelo26\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=201"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/openlab.macaulay.cuny.edu\/pentangelo26\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/201\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":218,"href":"https:\/\/openlab.macaulay.cuny.edu\/pentangelo26\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/201\/revisions\/218"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/openlab.macaulay.cuny.edu\/pentangelo26\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=201"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/openlab.macaulay.cuny.edu\/pentangelo26\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=201"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/openlab.macaulay.cuny.edu\/pentangelo26\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=201"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}