The (currently defunct) musical audioguide at the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts paired different artworks with various musical selections. I was a big fan of the experience, and I was particularly moved by the pairing of a painting and an aria inspired by the tragic fates of two women [...]
Read MoreThe Montreal Museum of Fine Arts offers a musical audioguide, which pairs different artworks with various musical selections. One of my favorite combinations is that of a Polish princess and a Chopin Polonaise. Paul Delaroche, the Romantic French painter, was a big deal in the 19th century, as famous as his contemporary Delacroix. When he wasn't traveling, he [...]
Read MoreI went to the Toulouse-Lautrec exhibition looking for calm. It’s been an intense week; the semester is halfway over, which means the projects for my seminars need to be at a certain point of completion. When I saw that I had an hour-long pocket in my schedule on Tuesday, I decided to fill it with some Toulouse-Lautrec [...]
Read MoreI recently had the pleasure of visiting the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts with its musical audioguide. The first stop on the audio tour was a French statue of the Virgin and Child from the 14th century. The cult of the Virgin Mary was very common in both the visual and musical cultures of that time. This [...]
Read MoreA year ago, I was preparing to move from Paris to Montreal. A major strategy in emotionally processing this big change was to visit as many Parisian museums as possible. One of the museums I visited was the Musée Picasso, recently reopened after being closed for a five-year renovation project. After following the dramatic saga of the delays for the opening, there was no way I could leave town before [...]
Read MoreIs there anything more luxurious than slowly absorbing a sublime work of art? I can easily forget this. When I visit a new art museum, I can get in a manic state. I don’t want to miss anything, so I am tempted to methodically make my way through every gallery. And by seeing everything, I see nothing. So, when I gave myself three days to retreat in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, I made a conscious effort to [...]
Read MoreElisabeth Louise Vigée Le Brun was a celebrated 18th century French portraitist and one of the most important women artists of all time. I had the pleasure of seeing the exhibition dedicated to her life and work at the National Gallery of Canada in Ottawa (the exhibition also took place at the Grand Palais and the Met). This is the first retrospective and only the second exhibition devoted to Vigée Le Brun in [...]
Read MoreSeptember's museum theme is WOMEN. All month, I'll be highlighting women in museums: women as subjects, women as artists, women as museum workers. The mascot for this month's museum theme is this utterly celebratory Nana by Niki de Saint Phalle. According to Tate Liverpool: "The Nanas, large-scale and [...]
Read MoreThis is part of Photo Safaris, a series that focuses on details found in artworks around various themes, with the aim of looking at everything differently. In honor of Mother's Day, I spent an afternoon in the Orsay on the hunt for representations of mothers. I did not have to look far. Moms surrounded me: from symbolic figures of maternity to [ ... ]
Read MoreThe Niki de Saint Phalle exhibition at the Grand-Palais is a joy, a pleasure, a celebration. Before this exhibition, I only knew Saint Phalle as the artist behind the Stravinsky Fountain by the Centre Pompidou, and other such colorful creations. I was not expecting to be blown away (as I was) by the force of her artworks’ color, form [ ... ]
Read MoreI've always been intrigued by the series of statues of French queens and saints that surround the basin of the Luxembourg Garden. These women are look strong and purposeful, each unique in her pose and attitude. The statues make up the Reines de France et Femmes illustres, a series of twenty notable women from French [ ... ]
Read MoreShould you find yourself looking for a delightful way to pass a spring afternoon, might I suggest visiting Joséphine at the Musée du Luxembourg. The exhibition is short and sweet, giving you a glimpse of the life and influence of the first wife of Napoléon, via Empire-waisted gowns and bee-encrusted [ ... ]
Read MoreI don’t know much about Madame Récamier, but that hasn’t stopped her from becoming one of my role models. I’ve come to know this nineteenth century literary and political hostess through her portraits scattered in Parisian museums, including David’s portrait in the Musée du Louvre. [ ... ]
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This blog is a personal blog written and edited by me. The opinions expressed here represent my own and not those of my employer.
IMAGINIBUS is a blog about playing in museums, with a focus on imagination and creativity.
This blog is a place to be inspired to use your imagination around artworks—and to see the art of your daily life.
When we engage creatively with art, museums can become playgrounds and laboratories to experiment with attention, mindfulness, and imagination. Interesting things happen when we use that museum gaze to look at our daily lives like a work of art.
Find more inspiration for playing with new ways of paying attention to your daily life here.
Hello! I'm Marina Gross-Hoy, a writer, Museum Studies PhD candidate, and mother currently living in Quebec. I take playing in museums very seriously.
Read more about the blog here.
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