-Liam Fuller
The Georges Labit Museum is a museum of oriental art that is at 17 rue du Japon. Georges Labit;a man interested in ethnology, world religions, and art; founded the museum in 1893. The museum’s collection is a little modest, from my point of view, because I come from the greater New York area and I’m used to the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Museum of Modern Art. But with this lack of size in the collection, the museum makes up for it with the quality and diversity of its pieces.From my point of view, it’s refreshing to visit a museum specialized in Eastern art because museums in the Western world, in general, focus on Western art, with a tiny section of Eastern art, if any at all.
One can compare this museum with the Museum du Quai Branly in Paris, which was named the museum of first arts, which has a connotation that its articles are the first examples of art (which, in my opinion, connotes that they’re primitive) even if the took place during the same time period as impressionism, post-impressionism, or modern art (which were very influenced by Eastern art and by Eastern subjects in a certain way, i.e. Picasso, Basquiat, Degas, Monet, Toulouse-Lautrec, or Gauguin). One must ask why Western art piece and Eastern art pieces are not on the same exhibit if they took place at the same time. I learned from this visit that Eastern art is as detailed and thoughtful as Western art but it’s shown in a separate section like it’s not worthy of sharing the same room as Western art. It’s a shame because I’m sure this museum does not have the same amount of visitors as the Museum des Augustins. In the Georges Labit Museum, multiple countries are represented, which shows different styles. There, one can see the styles of East Asia, South Asia, South-East Asia, and Egypt. My favorite pieces were the Book of the Dead, the bronze cranes, the gold Buddha, and the Indian stele. The architecture of the building is ornate, with an Arabic influence, which shows arabesques and horseshoe arches. Also, there were pretty gardens which featured bamboo. My visit to the Georges Labit Museum was very agreeable and I think it’s worth it to go there.
Indian stele
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