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Blog Post #7: Brooklyn Museum – Soul of a Nation

When you go through this Soul of a Nation gallery, many pieces draw you in with its colors, design, & intrigue. One of these pieces is Trane, created in 1969 by William T. Willams, I chose Trane because when I walked through the gallery this is the picture that drew me in. The piece was jaw-dropping, it just seems just some lines on a large canvas but through formal analysis you can see it’s much more.  

The lines on the painting are abstract, placed unusually but most are diagonal. Some of the shapes remind me of the Penrose Triangle which makes the painting sort of 3D but some parts are 2D. The tonal range has a broad range of highlighted colors. The color of the painting has a gold backdrop with lines that consist of colors: Yellow, Purple, Blue, Green, Black, Red, & more with different tones of those colors. The colors are vibrant & sort of glowing when you see it. With some lines it looks like it has rhythm but others look like it sticks out of nowhere. 

Trane seems a perfect fit into the exhibition, the colors of the piece match well with the other pieces. The lighting of the hall where the exhibition lies brings out all of the exhibits including Trane. The way Trane was placed & how it was designed was perfect for me to use formal analysis to explain the piece.

Blog Post #6: Brooklyn Museum Ancient Egyptian Art

When I was walking on the third floor of the Brooklyn Museum, I saw a sculpture that was intriguing, the Shabty of Sati was mesmerizing: it’s colors, unique hieroglyphics, all of the detailing on that piece that is probably smaller than a foot. After seeing this glorious piece of art, I decided that I wanted to write about the Shabty of Sati. 

The Shabty of Sati is wearing a headdress that has many thick, bold, & repeating lines, as well the necklace and bottom of the artwork has parallel & repeating lines. The shape of the sculpture was done with masterful detail, the sides are shaved perfectly to be molded as a human body and it looks smooth throughout. The tone of the painting is lighter and more vibrant than I expected with an arrange of colors; however, it isn’t reflective. The main color of the piece is tan but that isn’t all it is, the colors are beautiful from blue to red and from yellow to green. Out of these colors the most prominent is blue with it being the color of the lines in the headdress and the color of the hieroglyphics. When you look at the piece it looks like it is paper thin and that is just a drawing on a paper rather than a sculpture. It isn’t that big compared to other things in the gallery. It is a very intriguing & beautiful piece and formal analysis just made it an even more pleasurable experience. 

Brooklyn Museum- part1

Fred Wilson (American, born 1954). Grey Area (Brown version), 1993. Paint, plaster and wood, Overall: 20 x 84 in. (50.8 x 213.4 cm). Brooklyn Museum, Bequest of William K. Jacobs, Jr. and bequest of Richard J. Kempe, by exchange, 2008.6a-j. © artist or artist's estate (Photo: Brooklyn Museum, 2008.6a-j_PS4.jpg)

This piece of artwork is designed by Fred Wilson who is an American artist. He describes himself as the “African Native American and European.” Fred Wilson was born in the Bronx, New York, in 1954, and lives and works in New York. He is now currently 64 years old. Fred called his artwork “Grey Area (Brown Version)“. He uses art objects to explore issues of race, gender, class, politics, and aesthetics. Made up of five portrait heads of the Egyptian Queen Nefertiti. Wilson encourages viewers to recognize how changes in context create changes in meaning. He refers this to the ancient civilization. 

In the beginning, I was thinking that why the artist is painting all the different dark colors and why it can not be all the pretty colors. Later, I realize that he was referring to this artwork to the ancient time and not the modern time. Also, the figure was referring to a queen and not a king or a weird looking person. 

 

Museum Assignment Part 1 and 2

                                 Part 1

   

           From the Egyptian art collection, Block Statue of Padimahes seemed very interesting to me; I liked the way it displayed. According to the description it is from late XXV Dynasty-early XXVI Dynasty, ca. 680-650 B.C.E. This is a statue of an Egyptian worshipper, Padimahes, made from a monolithic granite block and depicting him watching a divine procession with his face tilted upward, add depth to the show and make it more of a visual event. Visually it looks like a grey granite block statue of a man looks like he is sitting on top of a square rock with knees drawn up to the chest, with arms crossed right over left, palms flat, arms not covered, bare feet, wide wig, head distinctly raised, beardless, big ears, and eyes opened. The rock he seated on is square in front, round corners in the rear. There is some hieroglyphic text written around the stone, on the pillar back of the rock where he is leaning on, as well as over both legs. Back pillar has three columns of text, written vertically. There is one line text around the stone horizontally and hieroglyphic text also written on his dress, over his legs, in six bounded horizontal rows. The way this statue positioned seems like he placed at a temple where he could eternally partake in the rituals performed for the gods.  I like the way the head and face is structured; it makes him look confident, knowledgeable and observant.

 

                            Part 2 

           From the Soul of a Nation art collection, the art of “Black Children Keep your spirits Free” by Carolyn Mims Lawrence stood out to me the most, and I chose to this because I like the colorfulness and creativity that has portrayed in this artwork. This artwork shows children having a good time, moving around, playing drums, along with pops of colors. There are pink, purple, yellow, orange, green, blue, red, neon all types of colors are used. Based on the art, it can be concluded that the main focuses of this art are Children. Also, it seems like the artist Lawrence’s purpose was that she wanted to foster family solidarity, racial pride, self-determination, and confidence in each other. The space used subjectively and the words repeated in a very rhythmic way along with other symbols to deliver the message directly as it shows the clear message, it repeatedly is written “keep your spirit free,” which I think is the theme of this exhibition as well. On art, you can see the frontality of the figures and directness in their position and the way that they greet the audience. I think one of the thought behind making this painting was to present children with a visual reminder and a connection of their heritage. Overall, I found this artwork very beautiful, creative, and unique.

 

Brooklyn Museum Assignment Part I & II

Part I

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

For Part I of the assignment I chose to dive into the Egyptian Art exhibition at the Museum. As soon as I saw the sculpture showed above I was interested to analyze this particular work of art which is called Pair Statue of Nelson and Never-ta. Using Formal Analysis I immediately noticed that the sitting couple is made out of Limestone. As I looked around I noticed that the bench where they are sitting on has writing all around it and not only in the bench but also in the persons clothing. This makes me think of the art work we saw in class and how sculptures from all other places in the wold also had writing during those times. This means that they all had their own language and similar ideas when it came to language. Their clothing and neckless have an appearance of people who are in high level society which made me think that they are a married couple from the royalty. What makes me come to the conclusion that they are married is that the are both have one arm being each other’s back and not only that but the artist made their arm unnaturally long and if looked closer on the sides they are holding each other with affection. Their body posture is stiff and everything seems alined. There is parallel lines in every section of writing. Furthermore this writing and the limestone is painter with different colors of blue, red, brow, and black. Furthermore the volume of hair in each person is large and it makes their faces look smaller, specially the woman whose face is smaller and has a larger neck. It seems that they both are wearing some sort of make-up in their eyes which makes those look bigger and angled. the size of the Sculpture is a small. I love what it represents and I love looking at it. Using formal made me understand in a deeper way what the sculpture represented in Egyptian times.

 

Part II

For Part II, in Soul of a Nation, after looking around the exhibit I found my attention to be caught under this amazing yet horrifying painting, The First One Hundred Years by Archibald Motley 1891-1981. As you can see in the pictures I took, the painting seems to be oiled based. Also the use of dark and cold colors is very mesmerizing because it helps the viewer feel what is going on. In the painting I feel that the artist wants the viewer to focus on the two faces that hang on the tree (Martin Luther King Jr.- J.F.K) and one from the house (Abraham Lincoln). Those are the faces of important activist and presidents of the United States. The main thing they all have in common is that they were all assassinated.  I chose these particular painting because it summarizes everything bad and wrong that happened during African American slavery and when the confederate flag was wave by the prosecutors and the “pure” white people. All this horrendous events took place under the times of those three individuals’s faces. To me the painting is very sad and scary. When I saw the painting,  it made me feel anger. To the whole exhibition this work of art in particular shows what African Americans had to go through before they obtained freedom. The Exhibition is about the Soul of a Nation, it has work of art that represent the time where Blacks resisted oppression, and the time where people made a difference. Basically the exhibition as a Then and a Now. The painting above is very powerful and meaning full and the way it was painted with different colors, scale and dimensions make the viewer to want to see it. After Motley concluded this work of art, he never painted again.

Brooklyn Museum: Soul of a Nation

I chose the artwork called Revolutionary (Angela Davis) by Wadsworth A. Jarrell. It is from 1971 and is a form of contemporary art. There seems to be a lot of historical context behind the painting. The artist, Jarell, co-founded a movement called COBRA, which later went to be called AfriCOBRA, with his wife. Because he is proudly involved in the black rights movement, he dedicated this piece of art to an activist named Angela Y. Davis. Davis fought for racial, gender, and economic justice so Jarell decided to do something based off her and her work. The image is her face with the incorporation of words that Davis herself said and also Black Power slogans.

About the composition of the painting, the colors incorporated in the artwork is very important. The color scheme is made up of mostly of warm colors. There are reds, pinks, purples, and yellows all involved. They are also important because they are the AfriCOBRA’s signature colors. It was blended in a way where all the colors can just pop up at you. Also, the words are written with the same colors so it blends in but it was done so interestingly that you can still read out the words on the painting. The painting is on a canvas made with acrylic and mixed media. The scale of the painting is very big, you can compare it to the size of an adult bike.

Something very interesting about the artwork is that Angela is seen wearing a belt of bullets. These belts were extremely popular symbols of revolutionary thought. This shows Jarell’s dedication into depicting the reality and truth about the black rights movement.

Brooklyn Museum Assignment

For my formal analysis of art from the ancient world, I chose to focus on “Painted  Coffin Interior” 1070-945 BCE.  To begin with what we discussed in class and how this piece relates to our discussions, we can see that this coffin interior uses different registers to section off certain parts. The thick, light blue lines act as the registers divider, and the light blue is the most prominently featured color. Along with the light blue, there is white, dark green, gray, and black used. Also featured is a diamond pattern on  king Osiris’ legs, and semi-circles used for his torso. King Osiris is the central figure, taking up a majority of the coffin’s interior, and the largest in scale in relation to all the other figures depicted. The images of birds is repeated often throughout the registers, some of which have human faces. Next to many of the birds looks to be fruit, specifically grapes or berries. Like many pieces of Ancient Egyptian Art there is an ohm featured on the second register from the bottom. By the King’s feet we see a depiction of Anubis and another animal-type creature supporting the King’s legs. The King is also holding a striped staff or cane, across his chest. A heavily repeated image is the reddish circle with the white outer rim. It is repeated over the king’s head, at the very top of the coffin, and there are four that surround the kings torso. At the very top, it is unclear but it looks like two eyes are painted, perhaps to watch over the deceased in the afterlife.

 

A piece of art that spoke to me instantly from the soul of a nation collection was Wadsworth Jarrell’s Black Prince. It depicts a colorful and powerful image of Malcolm X holding up a finger. What I was immediately drawn to was the intense palette of red the artist used. Next to this painting were several other paintings also using vibrant and passionate reds to “drive” the art. After exploring the entire museum i found the soul of a nation collection to be the most striking and powerful. This piece, like many of the pieces in the museum, seem to represent the ongoing struggle African Americans have had in this country. Malcolm X is one of the most recognizable African American leaders in the past century so to choose him as the subject was very poignant. As mentioned the intensity of reds drew me into this painting but once closer, standing a few feet in front of the art, the painting took an entirely new dimension. The artist used hundreds of recurring “B”s to shape the painting, and repeating B words such as Black, Beautiful, and Bad. Along with all the B’s there is Malcolm’s X famous quote about using any means necessary. The quote hangs around X’s chest almost like a pendant or necklace, worn as a badge of honor. A small detail that I believe to be important is that the colors extend beyond the border of the painting. There are dots and splashes of paint beyond the white border, breaking through frame.

 

 

 

 

 

Brooklyn Museum: Ancient World

I chose the artwork called Funerary Stela of Intef and Senettekh and is a classical Egyptian art piece. The first part of the analysis I want to get into is the historical context of the work. It was made during 2065-2000 B.C.E. It is a stela from the tomb of Intef and his wife, Senettekh. It was more common this way to memorialize their family. Next, we can look at the context of the work, as in what is happening in the artwork. The work shows Intef and Senettekh sitting together with their dog underneath them. They are being offered a huge amount of food. You can see a variety of offerings from bread and vegetables to an actual head and leg of animals. The wife and husband are sitting together but you can see that the husband is sitting in a higher position and is in front of her rather than next to her. Also, the wife looks like she is giving a back massage to the husband. This can show that Intef and his wife are not equal as human beings and he has more power than her. Also, they are both barefoot which could be seen as them being royals or of importance.

Another form of analysis we can use is the composition of the work. The artwork is made of Limestone. Limestone were the main building stones used in ancient Egypt. This shows that this artwork was important as one of the most important stones were used to make it. It can also be that it was collected from the remains of a pyramid after it was destroyed or something. There is no color in the work, everything was carved. Also, the lines look very meticulous but also not too straight where it would not look natural. The scale of the work is not big, you can compare it to the size of a coffee cup.

Unit 1 Summary

Throughout the entirety of Unit 1 in our Art History class, we had gone over a variety of topics. The material looked over many subjects, ranging from Formal Analysis to Pedagogy and everything in between. We were able to learn how art was viewed by many different civilizations, as well as how to fully understand and delve deeper into the pieces created for ourselves. It was made clear that art is an open expression, and what it may mean to someone varies depending on their views. Art can be put out in music, films, and many other different ways according to what the creator may see it as.

Formal Analysis being the first topic of discussion in our Art History class, opens us up to a new technique of achieving more insight on a plethora of art pieces. It’s essentially the process of analyzing a painting, sculpture, etc. through a variety of different questions to answer, furthering our insight on the piece at hand. It helps us bring out the smaller details in a work of art, and begin to analyze them all together, which eventually leads us into the understanding of the piece as a whole. After bringing to light even the most minuscule points of interest, we are able to begin to piece together the story/situation being presented. It’s very clearly an effective way to go about understanding a painting’s meaning, and honestly can be used in figuring out the meaning in any form of art, whether it be a film or a song. The questions may vary, but the outcome of the method will always remain the same.

Pedagogy, on the other hand, is most commonly known for the role it played in Paolo Freire’s ideologies as well as in his book on the critical pedagogy, named Pedagogy of the Oppressed. The main idea followed throughout his teachings and ideologies center what both students and teachers are able to gain from each other. He believes that if students can deepen their understanding of the world around them, by learning the meaning of the worldly expression of people’s ideas, values, and feelings throughout a timeframe in history, the teachers (himself included) would be able to gain insight on their students perspective. Giving them a deeper understanding of how they process, and retain information. He sees them as vessels that input and output knowledge, teaching not only themselves but the people around them as well.

In conclusion, Unit 1 of our Art History class has been a very informative look into the start in the history of art and has gotten us ready to delve deeper into the curriculum to come.

Blog 5: Unit 1 Summary

Throughout unit 1 we discussed the ideas of formal analysis and critical pedagogy. These concepts were good stepping stones in understanding the meaning of an artwork. This allowed us to comprehend the artist’s meaning and purpose for their work and what they were trying to say. I remember during the first two weeks I could only see what was literally in front of me. For example, when we analyzed the painting of the women, I only noticed what was there. I didn’t see the details and precision put into certain parts of the artwork.

One concept we learned was formal analysis. It is an explanation of structure in ways which visual elements function with a piece of work. The purest form of formal analysis is defined to what the viewer sees because that’s how the eye looks at art. Visually speaking there are numerous of ideas and images we see off a piece of art. We use different components such as line, shape and form, space, color, and texture to evaluate what the art means. These components break down the significance of what the artist is truly trying to depict. Also, there are different characteristics and concepts in the components that can describe what is happening. The color, line, scale, space and mass all effect how interpret a piece. According to Anne D’Alleva, “Formal analysis means looking at the work of art to try to understand what the artist wants to convey visually.”D’Alleva is telling us to consider the reason for the creation of the piece and not to focus on what we only see through vision. Using the other concepts can give us a grasp of the true meaning of an piece of work.

Another concept we talked about was critical pedagogy which can be found in Paulo Freire’s well known “The Pedagogy of the Oppressed.” This text talks about the “banking model of education” where it treats students as empty vessels to be filled with knowledge. Freire argues that the traditional education system lacks critical thinking and a loss of creativity. How Freire describes this education is educators and teachers deposit information and knowledge into students, or in other words filling up your piggy bank with coins. This method taught students how to memorize information rather than understand what they are being taught. Instead of teaching students the what if, why, and how’s, they simply state facts and expect students to retain that information.