Art Museum

Event Critique – Art

1. Which museum did you visit?

I attended the University Of Utah Museum Of Fine Arts.

2. Describe at least one of the broad collections on a theme, period, geographic region, or topic within the museum.

One of the broad collections in the museum was called color. The collection had a wide variety of pieces from all over the world. The collection, using color, connects different time periods and cultures of the world. This collection has works by artists such as Robert Motherwell, Alex Katz, Anna Campbell Bliss, and others. The collection includes a “create your own color composition” collage wall. It lets you experiment with what colors and compositions of colors look good together. The collection focuses on the effect that color plays in art. I really liked the sun painting that was in this collection. It emphasized how color can change the feel of a painting. It contrasted the warm symbol of a sun to the cool colors of blue and orange and a frowning face. Another piece that I liked from this collection was called Jumping Salmon and it had two orange/yellow streaks over a patterned blue background. I liked the complementary color scheme of the painting and the interesting background design. The title also added to the painting making the orange/yellow streaks come to life.

3. Give a brief, one paragraph description of a special exhibit.

The special exhibit at the museum was the works of LeConte Stewart. Stewart is known for his realistic rural and urban landscape paintings. He work was also greatly inspired by the Great Depression. LeConte Stewart is known to be the soul of rural Utah because of his paintings. He says, “Painting is more than expressing the appearance of things; it is expressing the spirit of things.” In a majority of his works, Stewart, painted farms, barns, fields, and other rural landscape paintings. He found the essence of the land in desolate locations across Utah. He is simpered by these locations because they have been solace to him throughout his life.

4. What kind of information is provided about the works? Tell me three places you might find more detailed information that doesn’t include the web.

There are detailed plaques that are next to the paintings and there are little brochures that give information about the works and their authors. The curator told us that the best places to get information about the works besides from the web is the detailed plaques on the wall next to it, from the curators, or from a library.

5. Choose several works that particularly appealed to you. Explain why you were drawn to these works. Comment on the subject, style, medium, time period, ect. Who were the artists?

My favorite piece at the museum was the wooden horse. I really liked how it looked a lot like a horse and it was make out of just sticks. It gave the piece a very unique feel to it. I also liked that the horse was full size that added to how awesome it was. The horse made me think of Shadowfax who is Gandalf’s horse in Lord of the Rings. I liked how all of the sticks that made up the horse were very smooth which gave the horse texture and more realism. The medium of the horse is three dimensional art. My next favorite piece at the museum was the picture of the two skeletons with heart bombs in their hands. Its medium of this piece was painting. I liked the leading lines in this picture and how they made your eye go all over the picture. The lines take your eye and make it go every which way from the hearts where you first look because it is the place of the most contrast to an edge of the piece where another line awaits to take your eye to another line that eventually loops around full circle and I think that it is a very cool implementation of leading lines. I also like how the skeletons are placed on the vertical thirds of the picture making it more pleasing to the eye because to the rule of thirds. My next favorite piece was the sarcophagus. The medium of this piece is three dimensional art. I really liked how detailed this piece was. It had many small hieroglyphics that covered the entire sarcophagus. I also thought it was cool because Egyptian sarcophaguses have very interesting stories behind them. I find the Egyptian beliefs of the afterlife to be very interesting. My next favorite piece was the alligator looking thing with faces inside its mouth. This piece’s medium is three dimensional art. This piece reminded me of something that you might see worn on the head of a Native American. The alligator thing had two different faces in the mouth; it had one in the very back that was three dimensional and one that was painted on the lower jaw section of the piece. I also like the complementary color scheme that was chosen by the artist. I think that color is one of the most over looked elements in art. Another piece that I really liked was the Japanese Samurai suit. This piece’s medium is three dimensional art. I thought that it was really cool to see what the Japanese Samurai used to wear with my own eyes. I have seen pictures of them before but that was the first time that I had seen it with my own eyes. One other piece that I liked was a painting of a sun. The medium of this sun is painting. The sun is very cool because the symbol of a sun represents warmth but the color scheme of the sun is blue and orange which are cool colors and they contrast the symbol of the sun. The sun also is frowning witch further reflects the cool feeling of the picture.

6. How did the artworks you looked at relate to material we have discussed in class?

The biggest way that the art relates to our class is that art is an expression of one’s self and humanities is studying what it means to be human. By looking at the different ways and different mediums through which people express themselves can help us to have a better understanding of what it means to be human. One piece that I related to class was a picture of Christ. This is because one of the religions that we looked over was Judaism. It made me think of the Old Testament. Another connection that I had was the alligator like sculpture made me think of the story Shakespeare in the Bush. I thought that that would be the type of art that the people who lived in the bush their whole lives would make. It also displayed some sort of belief that the sculptor has. It had multiple faces in the mouth of this alligator like sculpture. I am not sure what the artist was trying to convey by doing this.

7. What was your personal reaction to this experience? Would you enjoy attending this type of event again? Why or why not?

I didn’t care for any of the art on the first floor except for the color room. Most of the artwork on the first floor was LeConte Stewart’s. I don’t particularly like his paintings. I don’t see what people think are so great about those paintings; he implements a few principles of art but just having that isn’t going to make me interested in a piece of art. Most of his pieces have the same or a similar color scheme that centers around a very dull brown. I think that he needs to add more color to his work. I would rather go to an art museum with more photography than this museum. I would enjoy that more because I love photography.