Art: 365 Days of Masterpieces 2020 Desk Calendar
Also Available: Masterpieces 2020 Engagement Book, Masterpieces 2020 Deluxe Engagement Book (hardcover)
Reviews (144)
I wanted ART
A photo of a high-heeled shoe with feathers on it is not a masterwork. A photo of a fairly drab looking outfit on a mannequin is NOT a masterwork A solid yellow square with rounded corners is NOT a masterwork. I could go on. I wanted some great art to enrich and lift my spirits in my technological nightmare of a cubicle farm. If every 5th day is going to be the equivalent of some postmodernist haranguing me that this non-art, too, CAN BE ART, then it has failed at that purpose. I don't mind the format too much... it IS a little silly to have a margin, leaving less room for the actual art, a margin which contains a tiny picture OF the picture. That would be like if you had a bed & breakfast, and you put a sign with a picture OF your bed & breakfast advertising it like 10 feet in front of the actual building. The loose-leaf format makes it easy to pin ones I like (when they show up...) to my cubicle wall. Don't spill the thing though, or you'll be spending the next 365 days re-ordering the pages! The days are on unattached sheets sitting loosely in a tray. Again, I was hoping to see a bunch of masterworks. The actual selections are often depressing. There seems to be a recurring theme with the photos of modern sculptures - half a head here, half a head there, bodies with parts missing. The reason ANCIENT masterpieces have missing things is they had to make it through hundreds of years of economic upswings/downswings, wars, accidents, disasters, weather, etc. Not sure why truncation of the human form rated so high for modern sculpture with the calendar's curators. Almost half the "artwork" is kind of depressing in various ways. I may just pick out the good ones (there are 365 to choose from, there will be some) and hang them up immediately, then replace the calendar so I have something uplifting to look forward to daily.
Excellent improvements in the last two years.
I wrote my original review (below) in Jan of 2015. I need to update because the calendar has been improved since that time. Happily, the silver grey "frame" is gone, replaced by a simple brassy colored cardboard frame. It is a huge improvement. An much appreciated addition in the last couple of years is the inclusion of the original size of the art work. I would still like to see the calendar go back to the old system of turning the calendar just once during the year, rather than having to turn each page every other day. I still would like that "surprise" feature, but I can live with this with the improved frame. As others have pointed out, the calendar "frame" is no longer the clean, clear "frameless" plastic. It is now a wide silver grey frame which reduces the page size to only 68% of what it used to be. (I did the math twice because that reduction even surprised me). A wide silver grey frame does NOT enhanced the art. It detracts. But if aesthetics had been the only difference I wouldn't be writing this. It is the decreased functionality that is the big disappointment. First, it is not as easy to changes the pages. Second, the size of the date on each page is greatly reduced and the date and day of week are in black but the month is in very light silver grey, all of which makes it harder to read. And the very worst part of the changes made in this calendar is that you now pull the page up and turn it around and reinsert for the following day. And as you are doing this the page for day-after-tomorrow is revealed until you re-insert today's page. I don't want to see that page. A lot of the fun is to NOT look ahead. To be surprised each day as I change the date. So what is good about this calendar? The art, of course. And also the new pages are exactly the same size as the old pages, which is making it possible for me to use last year's plastic frame for this year's calendar. All I had to do was remove the "foot" from the back of the frame and turn the calendar 90 degrees and then attach the foot using double sticky-back tape. I have enjoyed these MET calendars for years but next year I might have to make a change.
My favorite page-a-day calendar
I LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE this calendar! I saw it a few years ago in the gift shop of a local museum, and frankly I bought it to support the gift shop. The wide arrange of art objects is fascinating!!! It sits on my desk, and I stare at it during conference calls while people yammer on. To say it transports me to a different place would be a stretch, however it is a continual reminder of a few things. Many things are art: painting, sculpture, furniture, frescoes, jewelry, clothing, musician instruments, etc, etc, etc. People in every culture, in every corner of the globe, throughout every period of history, have made art. I don't like every object in the calendar, but what a tremendous example of the range of human creativity! These wonderful objects, whether ancient or modern, have survived and can be appreciated by the public either in person at a museum, or even just on a page-a-day calendar while listening to a conference call. It's in a good sturdy display box that you just unfold, and it's self-supporting. I was afraid it would be the same pictures every year, but it's not. There are some repeats from one year to the next, but most are new. Get out of your rut and be surprised to see a new piece of art every day! Update: This is STILL my favorite page-a-day calendar; I still look forward to turning the page each day. Every day something new and different, and sometimes the pleasure of seeing again something you’ve seen before. Some reviewers have a narrow view of what is “art” and therefore don’t like this calendar. Well guess what, no two people will ever like or appreciate exactly the same things! There are things in the calendar, and in every museum on the planet, that I don’t like, and occasionally roll my eyes and say to myself “You’re kidding me that qualifies as art”, but THAT’S OK! Expand your horizons, consider something new, and tomorrow is another day! Enjoy the wonderful diversity of art :)
Beautiful Artwork & Wonderful Design
This is my first year having purchased this one-painting-a-(week)day (N.B. Saturdays and Sundays share a page) desk calendar, and I'm very happy to have done so! It brightens my work day to look at a beautiful work of art each day. There are several complaints about this calendar's design, but I'm a fan of it! To people reading this review (and possibly others) on this product, this is how it works: You open up a rectangular box into an easel-like set-up, and there's a clear, plastic container through which you can view the heavy-paper image that's in front. At the end of the day, either flip the paper to view the next day's work of art, or move the paper to the back of the pile. I like this set-up, as I find it ugly whenever tear-off desk calendars means there are bits of paper left behind--not to mention this encourages you to keep all the papers with the images (which is a boon, I think, because this means you always can revisit something you like)! There have been complaints about the plastic covering getting dirty: I haven't had this problem. To that objection, I will point out that making sure your hands are clean when you handle this calendar will help it last long. Mine still looks as if I've just received it. This product is a blessing to own, and I hope it will be around for future years in this design!
Now they're down to plain glossy paper that bends and tears easily, and the display base is now a cheap-looking ...
I've bought this calendar for several years now, and have steadily watched the quality degrade. First it was the thickness of the pages getting thinner and more cheap-feeling. Now they're down to plain glossy paper that bends and tears easily, and the display base is now a cheap-looking cardboard box in a dull silver color. It detracts from the artwork, it makes the artwork smaller (in previous years the base was an open acrylic design - far nicer) and the silver goes with almost none of the pieces. It's like looking at artwork matted by a fool. The MET has lovely artwork and this calendar has a great idea - they just need to step it back up again and make it look like something from the MET. Not something from a farmer's market.
Beautiful desk calendar
I like to have a calendar on my desk at work. I've already gone through the 100 Places to See Before You Die and the Atlas Obscura calendars. I thought I'd branch out into an artwork calendar. I am so glad I did! The calendar is a little bigger than traditional desk calendars and the sheets are loose (you don't tear them off day by day). Each sheet is double-sided (yay for saving trees!) and very good quality heavy, glossy paper. The artworks are absolutely stunning! I haven't been able to throw out any of the sheets yet because they're of such good quality (please help, I don't know what I'm going to do with a year's worth of mini artworks). The "stand" of the calendar is a very nice rose gold/copper-ish cardboard frame that folds to support itself. There is a clear protector that was used to hold the sheets in place for shipping but I just left it in to protect the sheet that is currently displayed. Get this calendar - you won't regret it!
2016 is a Disappointment
I have purchased this very calendar for years, I actually recycle it and my brother enjoys it the following year. However, 2016 is such a disappointment. The quality of the paper is poor, the art chosen is excellent but then we are talking the Metropolitan Museum of Art. But to get back to the calendar, the "Day" and "Date" are so small it is questionable how it can function as a calendar. When I got to the first duplicate, on Wednesday, January 27th, I put it away. The holder for the pages is cheap and a bit cumbersome to negotiate. Last notation, flipping the daily calendar over versus just replacing the page in the back of the holder, is a poor decision. I would rather see the entire calendar being flipped over for the second half of the year. If this is the "New and Improved" calendar, I have purchased my last one.
one flaw
I like this calendar mainly for the variety of art included. There is one major flaw. The printing. At least one page every week has printing smudges. It's very distracting and frankly, ugly. Not something you want to see when looking at art. Imagine you're at the gallery and there are fingerprints on part of the wall. Rather disappointing. I thought it might have been only on one or two pages, but they keep coming up. Is it enough to keep me from buying it again? Probably not, but...
I have gotten the Metropolitan Museum of Art day calendar for years because each new day's art added a little bit of culture and
I never write reviews but the redesign of this product this year (2016) has consistently bothered me enough to share with others so that they might make a more informed purchase decision. I have gotten the Metropolitan Museum of Art day calendar for years because each new day's art added a little bit of culture and joy to my life. I never thought twice about the plastic holder once I had assembled it each new year's day. As of this year, 2016, the holder has been redesigned and now, two months in, I find it has become a tiny nuisance each day to switch the cards. I also miss the extra space the new holder now takes on my desk. That's it. Read on if you want the details. It is very difficult to switch days for two reasons. First, the holder is now a cardboard box with a tight opening. This makes it difficult to gracefully pull the old day out and either flip it over to the new day or move it to the back (I like to hold onto the old ones to peruse in the future). Second, the cards for each day now are double-sided in order of days instead of in order of stacking (i.e., Monday the 1st is on one side, then Tuesday the second is on the other side, where as in the past Jan 1 - Jul 2 is one one side of each card, then you flip the whole stack and go from July 3- Dec 31st.) That was much easier to do because you didn't have to think about whether to flip the card over each day or move it to the back. You always moved it to the back. Lastly, the container takes up more area on my desk. The design has been changed to "landscape" orientation from "portrait" orientation which causes a larger width footprint compared to before. Also, the box itself still forms an easel for putting the pictures at a reasonable viewing angle, but, now the easel is cardboard and the design takes up more depth on the desk than the previous design. I do appreciate that they moved from plastic to cardboard since it is more recyclable, but, the design has really become a downside and I am not sure I will buy it again even though I do enjoy the art each day.
Nice but the design needs improvement
Love all the art pictures on the calendar. Very classy. But it is hard to remove each date picture and put in the back of the calendar( as I don't like to throw the pictures after the dates). All the pages are tightly packed so to get each page out it is very tricky. Also, we have a cardboard mount. It is meant to be on the desk or a flat base to be beautifully displayed. This is a great piece. Request the people who sell it to make the structure of the calendar to be more ergonomic.
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