April 03, 2007
Jonathan Richman, Running Through My Head.
If I were to walk through the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston
Well first I'd go to the room where they keep the Cezannes
But if I had by my side a girl friend
then I could look through the paintings
I could look right through them
because I'd have found something that I understand
I understand a girl friend
that's a girl
friend
that's G-I-R-L-F-R-E-N
that's a girl friend baby,
that's somethin that I understand
From top to bottom: the Chinese furniture gallery (I don't think I was supposed to take pictures though, sorry); the Koch Gallery (though it's the European Old Masters room, and therefore no Cezannes); Thomas Couture's "A Widow" (1840); Catalonian chapel; Catalonian chapel (2); Kara Walker's "The Rich Soil Down There" (2002); a Brian Considine side chair from 1979 (I think); the scholar's room in the Chinese furniture gallery; sorry, can't remember this one; Joan Miro's "The First Spark of Day III" (1966); Paul Delvaux's "The Greeting" (1938), which I actually liked because of a Breton quotation by the painting, where he describes Delvaux as "[turning] the whole universe into a single realm in which one woman, always the same woman, reigns over the great suburbs of the heart;" a Roycroft hanging lantern (1908). Lyrics from The Modern Lovers' "Girl Friend" (1973), of course.
Posted by the wily filipino at April 3, 2007 09:53 PMYou have made my day! Berklee students got into the MFA free and it was right by my T stop (I used to live on the other side of the Fens) so I spent many a day there, whenever I needed to just think and be around art.
The Catalonian chapel is one of my favorite rooms there; the Egyptian rooms are also second to none. Oh, what fun! Hope you had a lovely time!
Posted by: Rebecca Maglangque on April 12, 2007 02:45 PMYeah, it was great, though I really was wandering all alone, wondering if the pictures would be different if I had by my side a girlfriend. Ha!
Never been there, and wished I had more time -- didn't get to go to the Egyptian room, alas.
The walk from Copley Square to the museum and back was great (beautiful weather, in the low '50s and sunny), though I had no sense of what that area was. (I always try to take a walk when I'm in a new city.)
Posted by: the wily filipino on April 16, 2007 09:48 AM