The Met - Paper #4

I went to the Metropolitan Museum of Art with my mother. I had never been and was very excited about the experience. This is a museum you can truly get lost in for the entire day or more. Walking up to the Met you are surrounded by Upper East side Manhattan with the morning dog walkers and runners of central park. The buildings are beautiful and when you are walking up to the museum it is a beautiful sight. I went near opening time so that I could have the least busy experience since it is quite the tourist attraction. The entrance outside and corridor inside are very grand and beautiful. They do their best to create an easy map and sign system, but it could still be very overwhelming without guides and extra help.

The style of the galleries takes the personality of the exhibits. They do a great job of making you feel like you are having a full cultural experience. In some of the rooms you actually feel like you are in an Egyptian tomb or a Byzantium cave. With the not so elaborate rooms there is specific mood lighting or natural light, colors of the walls, design of the room, and the framing of the pictures that is all made to create a better art experience for all the pieces.

I went on a guided tour for this experience, and I am very happy that I did. The tour guide did a great job of explaining different pieces, tying together similarities and making artwork that I would not normally be drawn to come to life. They had every art you could think of. European from all time periods, early American to present day pieces, Asian, Egyptian, Greek, Roman, Middle Eastern and more. They truly have an extensive collection. I was excited to be able to see in person very famous pieces of art or things I have learned about in prior art classes. The largeness of some pieces was breathtaking. Their special exhibits were also numerous. Some were Japanese art, American Indian art and galleries of Islam.

The specific piece I chose was by Chuck Close. He was born in 1940 in America. He is well known for his portrait paintings. He was very interested in people’s faces and is still alive today doing art. He actually has gone through a serious accident, which has left him mostly paralyzed. Today, he is still creating art with his disabilities. He is a modern American painter who is interested in the everyday, normal imperfections of the human face.

The piece that I loved the most by him is called “Mark’ after the subject himself and was painted in 1978 – 79. Yes, I said painted. Maybe you think that a picture does not help the piece, but in real life, inches away, you still cannot tell that this piece is a painting. It looks like a photograph from far away and close up. I was marveled by Close’s skill. It was made with acrylic on canvas and was not made with a paintbrush, but by being airbrushed on. The detail in the man’s face, the shine in his glasses and teeth; these are all so well placed and made that it still looks like a photograph to me. It is so life-like, and real. I was truly impressed. Close’s talent blew me away through this piece of art.

The Met was an amazing experience and going on a tour made it so much more interesting. I was guided to paintings and sculptures I might just pass by on my own and each piece was brought to life. I had a truly amazing experience and the museum is very breathtaking.

The Yale Art Gallery - Rebecca Samuels #3

The Yale Art Gallery

Mr. Louis I. Kahn designed three different art museums—one of them being the Yale Art Gallery. As said on the Yale Art Gallery website, “[this museum] was designed while Kahn was a visiting critic at the Yale School of Architecture.” This museum originally opened in November of 1953as the “Yale University Art Gallery and Design Center.” This particular building was said to have been “A radical break from the neo-Gothic buildings that characterize much of the campus.” Not only did it have a different look, but it was also constructed of brick, concrete, glass, and steel. The Yale Art Gallery was Louis I. Kahn’s first significant commission.

Just like the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Yale Art Gallery didn’t force the price of admission. This area of New Haven reminds me of New York—so the building looked humungous. When my father and I walked into this gallery, I was quite confused. We walked through one big room of things that didn’t really interest me and I thought that was the whole museum. What seemed weird to me was that the entranceway almost looked like a dance floor. Also, on the side was unique furniture that was very comfortable. I sat there to start writing my paper and could already feel my creative juices flowing! Near the furniture were numerous hallways that my father and I walked through to find “more gallery,” but we didn’t find anything because the gallery is on different floors (not just one).

Anyways, the first thing I noticed besides the artwork was the lighting. Often times museums (or in this case, art galleries) use lighting to accent the artwork but in my opinion, the lighting was terrible. Drawn to look up, I saw cement triangles trying to hide pipes and little lights randomly stuck in crevices.

            In the first room there were a lot of portraits that were painted with oil. What interested me the most in this room was the frames and how detailed it got. The first piece of art that took my eye was Mt. Ktaadn by Frederick Edwin Church. This painting is oil on canvas and the detail in it is phenomenal. As a painter, it is interesting to see other painters’ techniques and how they can go so small but still put a whole lot of detail in their works. I noticed the very small but very detailed wagon in the corner and I also noticed a man in the far left corner watching. The layout of this painting is also interesting. It goes from the animals, to the trees, to the mountains, to the sky.

            I never thought of this before this “Museum Experience” course: How come most paintings I see in museum(s) are painted in oil and not acrylic or watercolor? It suddenly makes me wonder if it was a privilege to even have oil around or vice versa. Was acrylic hard to find, too expensive, or was it just too hard to work with?

            The second floor was all about African Art. It contained several pots and sculptures—nothing I’m that into. I was told to find something that interests me and then go with it. The one thing I thought was interesting about this floor was that it made me realize different cultures have different depictions of what people look like. Many of the African sculptures were sculpted to appear as they saw their people. This included many sculptures of naked people.

Okay so maybe I lied—there was one piece of work that did catch my eye on this floor. Even though I knew most of the floor wouldn’t interest me, I usually always walk around just in case. Good thing I did, because I found a head with a really fascinating shadow. Even though I somewhat complained about the lighting in the first couple of paragraphs, the lighting on this Headdress in the Form of a Female Head was PERFECT. It casted a beautiful crisp shadow against the wall behind it. It shows every outlining detail of the swirls to her hair and the shape of her head.

On the same floor was also Asian Art. It was weird to have two different cultures on the same floor with complete opposite views of what people look like to them. The bodies and faces of this Asian Art have drastically changed from the African Art next door. I also took note that the Asians had an advantage over the Africans with the material they used. Many of the Asian’s artworks contained white marble. One in particular is An Altarpiece: A Figure of Rasudhara. Like the white marble, the Asians also used other uncommon materials like porcelain, metallic silver glaze, and green lead.

The third floor contained European Art and American Art from 1200 to present. Roy Lichtenstein has to be one of my favorite artists. He was an American artist from 1923-1997. The painting in the Yale Art Gallery is called “Blam” and it is oil on canvas. This painting shows an airplane crashing and in big red letters says “BLAM,” to show the sound of the accident. I love Roy Lichtenstein’s work because it reminds me of simple comic books. I also love when art spells out the sound it is making. Bruce Everett also had a painting that fascinated me. Although the painting is such a simple object, it has so much detail that it looks real. It is an oil painting of a gum wrapper! It shoes the shadows on what I believe is a table and all the highlights/lowlights of the wrapper. If it wasn’t such a huge painting, I would think that it was a real gum wrapper and try to throw it out!   

The fourth floor showed “Study Objects.” One painting on this floor that caught my eye was a humungous work of art which was half painted.  It displayed a beautiful African American woman painting a picture with her paint pallet on her hip and numbers on the picture. Each number was meant to be painted a certain color. This painting was done by Kerry James Marshall in 2009 in acrylic paint. Finally someone decides to paint with acrylic paint—then again it was painted in 2009.

All in all I think that this museum (in this case, art gallery) was a wonderful experience. It wasn’t too big and wasn’t too small, and like Goldilocks, I found my perfect match. I didn’t get overwhelmed and was able to see the whole museum without having an anxiety attack. I would definitely recommend this to other arty students.

For access to my pictures, click here.

Or you can go to www.photobucket.com/mytriptoyaleartgallery

Not class related :)

I had a lovely little daughter 3 weeks ago! :) She was 8 lb 6 oz and her name is Isla Joy. Just figured I would be a proud Mom and share!!

Yale University Art Gallery: Paper #3

I went to the Yale University gallery on my own. I am most familiar with this museum. There was construction when I arrived, but it did not ruin any first impressions since I know I love the place.

It is hard to get a full view of the building since it is such a congested area of New Haven. I love the sitting area when you first walk in. There is plenty of books and chairs. One can just come in and sit or read about history and art if they have the interests or the time. The Wadsworth and British center both had libraries of books, but they were closed at the time I visited, even though this is a smaller selection it is always available, which is nice.

Louis I. Kahn, who also designed the British Center across the street, designed the Yale University gallery building. You can see the cold, stone and glass similarities. There were also courtyards, but the courtyards were outside and closed off from the museum. There is less natural woods and more stone and white walls. But the natural lighting is used as much as possible in the majority of the galleries.

There selection is the smallest of the museums I have visited, but it is still very diverse and well rounded. There is large African and Asian galleries, Greek and Roman art, Modern European and American pieces, European and American pieces that take part in the Renaissance, medieval and baroque periods, and much more. The two special exhibits are on the first floor. I was able to take pictures of one, but not another. There was a photographic and written exhibit of 9-11 by Leo Rubinfien. He took photographs of people from cities all around the world who were affected by or victims of different terrorist attacks.

The larger special exhibit was called “Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness”. This has been an evolving exhibit by many different artists that portrays the different aspects of American life. There are three installations, which started in July of 2011 and will continue to this July. The art is supposed to represent different cultural changes, victories and struggles from colonial times to the Industrial Revolution and more.

The specific piece I chose was from the Asian gallery. I have seen this piece once before in a prior visit to the museum and I could look at it all day long. The first time I saw it, it was placed in a different area then this visit. I liked the first placement because it was right when you walked into the gallery from the African entrance and it was a great way to be brought into the Asian pieces. The art is a ceramics piece by Fukami Sueharu. He was born in 1947 in an Asian region known for kiln production and manufactories. His father was a ceramic craftsman and he learned the trade. He began to be influenced by modern art from the western culture and began to create unique pieces. He desired to create works that expressed continuity of space. Sueharu was fascinated with concepts of eternity and continuity. He did a lot of ocean and wave works, which the piece I chose is a part of.

The work is called “View of the Distant Sea II” from his Showa period. It was created in 1985 and is made of a bluish-white “half-porcelain” substance called seihakuji with a celadon glaze. The depth, width, length and dimension are completely attractive to me. In my pictures you can see the smooth lines and curves. There is hardly any detail, but it truly captures the modern thought that was influenced from the 1960’s - 1980’s. You feel the motion and the consistency. It feels at certain angles that the piece never ends. It truly does express space and eternity and you get a real feel of the artist’s personality and desires.

The Asian and African galleries were my favorite in the Yale galleries. Though it is a smaller museum, it is still very diverse with a lot of information and facilities available. I went on my own, without a tour, but I think my second visit I will go on a tour because I have never been in this museum. Here are some more pieces from the Asian section of the museum.

Caravaggio at the Atheneum!

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