Art Museum Critique

Name__Natalia Wingo___________________ Class period/section_5:30 P.M._____

1) Which museum did you visit? (check one) ✔ Univ. of Utah _ BYU

2) Describe at least one of the permanent collection exhibits on a theme, period, geographic region, or topic within the museum. {150 words}

For this portion, I’ll describe a painting I saw in the European art portion of the museum. The piece was called Madame de Noailles and it was painted in 1692 by Hyacinthe Rigaud. Rigaud was the most distinguished painter of his time (1659-1743) and painted many portraits for the important people of this time frame. This portrait was a painting of Madame Marie-Francoise de Bournonville (her husband was Anne-Jules de Noailles, hence the title of the piece). In the piece, Marie-Francoise is wearing very extravagant clothing (as a way of showing her distinguished status). Her dress is a vibrant burgundy color with lace trimmings around the collar, sleeves, and waist. She has an indigo blue and gold scarf wrapped around her shoulders and she has pearls and other jewels adorning her hair which falls in an elegant twist over her shoulder. And her skin was the porcelain color that women often tried to achieve during this time period. The painting itself has exquisite details, to the point where it almost looks like a photograph.

3) Give a brief, one paragraph description of a special, temporary exhibit (for help, ask museum staff what these are; they are usually in one of the first rooms). {100 words}

The painting I chose for this one is a piece called From Willesden Green, Autumn by Leon Kossoff. This piece was painted in 1991, and though most people wouldn’t give this piece a second glance, I found myself entranced with it. The painting was huge, it had to be about five feet by 4 feet and if you got to close to it, you wouldn’t be able to see what was going on at all. It was oil paint and had very thick strokes that you would be able to feel (if you were allowed to touch the pictures of course). The painting was of an underground station, and there were a few people standing off to the side. It was stormy looking and had very muted colors, add that to the thick strokes, and it seemed a bit angry looking. It was very impressionistic but it was amazing all the same.

4) What do you think the museum administration and/or exhibit curators want you to learn or gain from the exhibits you viewed? {100 word minimum}

I think the museum administration wants people to be able to see all the different forms of art that most people wouldn’t know exist. They want to show people exactly what art is, because art has a wide range on the spectrum. It can be a simple drawing on lined paper or a piece of granite chiseled tirelessly to make something beautiful. And the administration wants people to understand that, because most people don’t know this and think art is just a few lines on a piece of paper. Though that is exactly what it is not.

5) What kind of information is provided about the works? Where might you look for further information if you were interested? (Name three possibilities)

Each painting had a placard next to it that gave some information about the artists and the context behind the piece. Other places to look for further information would be the artists’ website if they have one. Other websites that might hold information about the piece. Or you could try looking in an art book.

6) Choose several works that particularly appealed to you. Explain why you were drawn to these works. Comment on the subject, style, medium, time period, etc. Who were the artists? What message do you think the artists were trying to convey in the works you chose to discuss? This question must be answered in its entirety. {This should be at least 500 words}

Okay, so one of my favorite parts of this whole trip was not a single piece or a few really well thought out pieces, but rather it was a series that was done by Brian Bress. Though this one is a temporary exhibit, I just felt like it needed more recognition than a single paragraph. So, Bress deals with many mediums. He can draw (there were quite a few pencil and ink pieces of his) but he mainly worked with video graphics. And that does sound quite strange, I mean, it’s an art museum if you wanted to watch videos just stay at home and watch Youtube videos, but no; Bress gave a completely different perspective of everything with his work. His pieces were scattered throughout the museum and then in a back-corner of the building you could find the pieces he used for the videos. But the reason I like him so much is because of how unique he was. A lot of his pieces almost reminded me of what the beginning of a horror movie would be like, and I love horror. Horror is one of my go-to genres and his pieces held this creepy aspect to them that just makes you want to stop looking but look at the same time. And I can tell you now, I’ve never had to live through a horror movie unless you count haunted houses, but Bress’s pieces made me feel like any minute now the things in his works would crawl out of their frames and start attacking. I think the message that Bress was trying to convey was that you should always question reality. That things aren’t always what they seem.

Another thing I found there was actually something I’ve seen a lot. It’s a Remington statue, and if you don’t know who Remington is, he’s a sculptor who creates life-like statues of cowboys on horses in different positions. Sometimes calm, other times not so calm. This statue though was of a horse who looks to be angry or spooked and his rider is trying to control the horse while not being thrown off. And I’ve seen this piece a lot because my step dad actually owns many pieces by Remington including this one. Let me tell you, these things are hard to come by, and I honestly got really excited to see that something we own can be seen in a museum. And I don’t think Remington had a specific message he was trying to convey. I think he just likes his craft and decided, “Why the heck not?” and created this. But his pieces really are amazing, there’s always something new you can see in the details, because there is so much detail. You can see every ripple in the horse’s muscles and every fold in the rider’s clothes. It’s completely dazzling how one man can create such exquisite pieces.

7) How did the artworks you looked at relate to material we have discussed in class? (They do relate in many ways, you just need to look for those relationships). {Minimum of 150 words}

Well, there was a whole collection of Indian art. There were statues of some of their most important deities, like Shiva and Ganesh. The detail in the pieces was beautiful, it always amazes me how much people can do with a piece of rock and it makes me wonder how they even managed to make the super fine details. I also found a few Buddha statues in this section. All these pieces relate to the religion aspect we studied during the Happiness and the Good Life portion at the beginning of the semester. There was one piece that I noticed that seems to deal a lot with identity, and maybe even a bit with war. The piece held a lot of stuff in it that seems meaningless but really they tell about the life people lead before death. And scattered within the piece you can find weapons that could signify that war is almost always a part of people’s lives, even if not directly.

8) What was your personal reaction to this experience? Would you enjoy attending this type of event again? Why or why not? {Minimum 100 words}

I really enjoyed this. It was really interesting to see all the different styles and pieces and I would love to look a little bit more at Brian Bress’s pieces. Though there were a few pieces that made absolutely no sense (a giant mirror sticking out of sand or bottles with food colored water) I still enjoyed the overall experience and the culture you could find in all the rooms. I would really enjoy going again, maybe at a point where they have new temporary exhibits. That way I can see even more different types of art from around the world.

Reflection

Art. I love art. I mentioned on my welcome page, I myself am an artist, but most of the pieces at this art museum made me very jealous. There were portraits that looked like photographs, and just beautiful pieces of art all around me. Then there was that whole creepy portion that I mentioned, and let me tell you, I love horror. It's another one of my favorites ever, which is probably weird to think about, but it's true. But I loved this experience and I would love to visit again.

#humanities #Fall2015