MFA—A Feast For Your Eyes and A Brain Workout by Lisa Li

A gigantic beige building located just 10 minutes west of downtown Boston, the Boston Museum of Fine Art (MFA) is home to 5,600 works of art. It collects pieces in a variety of styles and cultures—from Ancient Egyptian Art, Chinese Art, Medieval European Art and American Art, all the way to contemporary art. Each style of arts is shown in different forms. The museum is organized by continent of where an art is from into different wings. Each wings contains 2 or 3 levels of exhibition galleries. In addition to these styles, there are always special exhibits displayed throughout the museum. You’ll be dazzled by the huge amount of art displayed. If you enjoy being artsy, the MFA is the place for you. It not only satisfies your craving to feast your eyes on brilliant artwork, but also enriches you with diverse cultures and encourages you to examine the artwork closely and think deeply about their true intentions and significance.

            A painting in the European Wing, Slave Ship, by J.M.W. Turner, especially caught my eyes and kept me awake at night thinking about it. When I first noticed the painting, standing far away from it, it looks like just a beautiful painting of sunset at the ocean. Indeed, a yellow sun and its orange rays are in the center of the painting. Along with the red evening cloud, the sun covers the majority of the canvas, and is the brightest object of the painting. This image of a beautiful sunset is the first thing that caught my eye because of its bright color and central location. This is only Turner’s trick, however. Painted in 1840, the painting portrays an image that is the opposite of beautiful. It is based on a true story in 1781, when a British slave ship, Zong, is caught in typhoon, the captain of the ship deliberately threw the slaves into the ocean to attain insurance money. In the painting, on the left of the beautiful sunset, a grey slave ship is overwhelmed in the rushing waves. Behind the ship is a dark cloud, sending forth white lights almost like lightening, indicating an approaching storm. A gust of whirlwind, painted in white, knocks the slave ship into the waves. In front of the ship are numerous pairs of hands, caught in shackles and buried in the green waves dyed brown by blood, shouting for help. On the left, a shackled leg is bleeding, becoming the dinner of thousands of carnivorous fish. Through these violent images, Turner conveys the extreme inhumanity of slavery, pushing people to feel the painful struggles of the slaves. He made the “beautiful” sunset more obvious than the drowning slaves to remind people that the struggle of the slaves was overlooked. He sets such big contrast between the beauty of sunset and the ugliness of slavery so that he could show that humanity of not perfect. He encourages people to recognize that slavery is a mistake and should be abolished. The bloody image of drowning slaves in Slave Ship will never leave my mind. The thought of humans being abused because of their social or racial status makes me cringe in my sleep. The painting reminds me of the flaws of humanity that are constantly being ignored because they are too ugly to look at.

            There are so many more fantastic pieces of artwork like Slave Ship throughout the MFA. If you are curious about what they are, come visit yourself! Whatever style, form, or culture of art you like, you will find in the MFA. I encourage you to bring a map, just in case you get lost in such a big museum. If you do not have much knowledge about art history, don’t worry. An audio guide is provided at the front desk, and there is an introduction posted next to almost every piece of art. No matter who you are, what you are, or how old you are, I encourage you to go to the MFA and have your favorite piece of work stuck in your head.