Tag: Brooklyn Museum Assignment

Brooklyn Museum Part 1 And Part 2

Part 1, Ancient Egyptian Exhibit:
When I walked into the Brooklyn Museum and went to the Ancient Egyptian Exhibit located on the third floor, I saw many interesting artifacts and ancient pieces of art work that had caught my attention. One thing that stood out for me and caught my eye when I was looking around the Ancient Egyptian Exhibit in the Brooklyn Museum was the Wreath. The Wreath was on display and it was a wreath made out of gold. It was a golden crown like ring surrounded with leaves and flowers which made it look like the wreath was a golden vine that was formed into a ring to fit onto someones head. The golden Wreath is said to have been from the Ptolemaic Period, circa third to second century B.C.E and a Gift of George D. Pratt. The golden Wreath is described to be “Formed to resemble flowers and leaves to crown athletic victors throughout the ancient Greek World.” These wreaths were used at lavish dinner parties and worn by the guests in the Egyptian capital, Alexandria, as explained by Athenaeus of Nitocris an Egyptian born Greek writer. The Wreath caught my eye because it had made me confused at first since I was visiting the Ancient Egyptian Exhibit and something Ancient Greek was among the collection.

Part 2, Soul of a Nation:
When visiting the Soul of a Nation located on the fifth floor in the Brooklyn Museum, there were many art pieces in the exhibit that could be related to modern art unlike the Ancient Egyptian Exhibit. The piece that stood out the most for me when seeing all the art works representing black power and the civil rights movement was the sculpture art piece Black Unity, 1968 by Elizabeth Catlett. I chose this piece because it can be related to society today with police shooting black people and black people raising their fists in the air yelling black lives matter. Out of all the pieces in the museum, the art piece Black Unity is like the center piece and relates to the rest of the artworks on display due to it being so meaningful in the era of the civil rights movement and also modern society. The piece seems to be made out of wood because of the wood grain look with a dark brown finish making the sculpture look smooth and waxy. The art piece is formed into the shape of a hand making a fist and the dark brown wood color represents a black person, so the sculpture must represent a black person holding up their fist. The dark brown wood is a mahogany which is a straight grained reddish brown wood which depicts the skin color. Visiting the Brooklyn Museum has been an amazing and enlightening experience which allowed me to learn more about both Ancient Egyptian Art and society and Black Art and Culture and I would definitely go back again with family or friends to see the exhibits again to learn more.

Museum visit 1 & 2

I thought it was really peaceful to walk around the museum and being in one after so long is kinda nice to be able to explore alone and take in the scale of the statues and art pieces.

For the ancient Egyptian part of the project I choose was the Statue of a priest of Amun. what poked my interested was that it was made from diorite not from sand stone, and the details they had to carve into the head structure. The dimension are a bit bigger than what it should be used for thus breaking due to its weight and the brittleness at that scale.The art piece presents the importance of a priest in relation to their Gods which explains the use of the material. On the back side there are hieroglyphics with supposedly the value of the piece or a verse to keep track of hat the statue mean. My question for the statue would be where it would it be placed for all sides to be visible. I would assume there would be like an alter in a center hall for people to view it from all sides

For the soul of a Nation I choose “Did the bear sit next to the tree” by Benny Andrews. the use of solid materials was the thing that allowed some of the ideas to pop out like the flag the should represent freedom for all is being rolled up and how the painted structure of the figure had real cloth and depict this solid object is fighting the American system. Also including the zipper used as a metaphor placing it as a mouth piece and how well it tie together with the themes. the painting was the weakest part and I thought it was to give more color and depth to it.

 

 

Brooklyn Museum Assignment

While visiting the Brooklyn Museum, there were many exhibits that struck me as interesting. There were many ancient world pieces from many different time periods as well as beautiful cultures being represented with history. One piece that stood out from me was a relief gallery of King Ashur-nasir-pal II’s palace from the Neo-Assyrian time period. When you walk around, you spot about 12 giant wall panels that once used to reside in his palace. I have attached the image of the one that caught my eye. Titled “Winged Genie Wearing Fancy Bracelets,” it exhibits exactly that. With first glance, you can determine many details of this grand piece of art. It is essentially a large piece of carved out alabaster that gives it it’s 3D shapes and edges. They were all once brightly painted but now exist no colors except a dusty beige tone of the material it’s made out of. The subject is a genie wearing bracelets containing rosettes. With these panels, he intended to show legitimacy to his kingdom and verify his power. These symbols proved that he was in accordance with the gods and these genies are protectors, depicting his great divine power. You can see the three rosettes on the subject’s headband and two wristbands. They show worship to the goddess Ishtar. This panel includes straight alignment and many straight lines of small details such as the curls in the beard and feathers in the wings. It is repetitive and in-line. Furthermore, realistic details are carved out of the genie such as his muscles and even his palm lines. I would estimate the panel to stand about seven feet tall so it seems that the subject is scaled to real life sizing.

Across the center of the piece, you can see scripture embedded into the alabaster. Upon deeper reading, it becomes evident that the scripture is written in cuneiform and the language is in Akkadian. It tells stories about the king’s military victories, rules of his empire and historical context of Kalhu and his palace.

I chose this piece because it seemed surreal that I was standing among such sturdy and lasting pieces of a palace. It had historical context and tells a story among them. I could only imagine what they had looked like in their time with appropriate paint.

A second exhibit that was really interesting was Soul of A Nation. The piece I chose to write about is titled “Shade cord and window”, 1961 by Roy DeCarava. It is a gelatin silver print. What you see in this picture is a single “shade cord” through what looks like a window, and a background of one gray building. The photo is contrasted into two halves, the bottom half being completely black.

With a critical lens and context to the exhibit, I can predict that the image is supposed to reflect Black history. A second meaning behind the shade cord can be that it resembles that of a noose, in the city. Although it can be considered more modern in 1961 (represented through a city building), the noose can symbolize racial division that has been and still is occurring. The window can represent people looking through their window from far away and speculating as it happens, many things.

Through formal analysis, you can determine this is supposed to be a simple, straight forward message. There are 3 colors; black, white and gray and possible mixed in different tones. About half of the image is cut in black so you focus on just the upper half of the photo. The artist could have made whatever you see the whole image but focusing on a smaller zoned in area can be more effective. The single building is in a blurry gray in attempt to show the building is lingering in the far background, more so in the distance while the subject of the piece, the only other thing in black: the shade cord. We exhibit straight lines and an image in gray scale here.

I chose this because it caught my eye as soon as I glanced over. It seemed very simple but the message was empowering as I understood it to be. While recognizing the correct historical significance and context, many vague and simplistic works of art can expand to something greater to the eye.

Blog #7 Brooklyn Museum-Soul of a Nation

Although, I was anticipating all of the works I would encounter at the Brooklyn Museum, I was most interested and excited to explore the Soul of a Nation exhibit. This is an exhibit that now holds a special place in my heart after experiencing it and getting to see the work of many Black artists and the different depictions of blackness across the US (NY, Chicago, L.A.). One of my favorite parts was all of the work depicting the Black Panthers and their movement. I’ve always had a fascination with the Black Panthers movement because of the stories my dad would tell about them and things he experienced growing up in the era of their movement.

Although, this part of the exhibit was something I was increasingly interested in, I found myself instantly drawn to this painting of the American Flag, named American People Series #18: The Flag is Bleeding, 1967 by Faith Ringgold. I went back to this piece about three times, each time finding some new meaning and new emotion in regards to it. I chose to post this piece because in this recent political climate and over the past few years, more and more people have become vocal about the oppression faced by Black people everyday. In this work, it depicts that in America we all stand united and in solidarity, but in reality once you look beyond this stance it can be seen that that isn’t the truth. The oppression of Blacks had never diminished and as said previously, can still be seen today. This piece relates to the rest of the exhibit because the main focuses of it are discrimination and oppression, and the Civil Rights Movement that fixated on fixing these problems. This piece embodies both discrimination and oppression of Blacks, even though we are all given these rights under the Constitution and should be united from it, African Americans had a small chance at escaping oppression and discrimination. The colors of this work are vivid and saturated, which instantly draws your eyes to it and makes you begin analyzing it. Also, shading and shadowing are used to clearly show facial features. The color that draws your eyes in the most is the red, which is used for the stripes on the flag as well as the blood that is dripping from those stripes, once again showing not only emotional pain, but physical pain.

Blog #6: Brooklyn Museum-Ancient World

For this assignment, I was very excited to visit the Brooklyn Museum because I live right in Crown Heights and have yet to be able to visit. The museum had a beautiful layout and so many pieces that caused me to be in awe the entire time. Once I finally reached the Ancient World section on the third floor, I found myself remembering and thinking about all of the things we have learned about in class regarding Ancient Mesopotamia and Egypt, and beginning to analyze all of the wonderful works that were displayed. Upon my way out towards the stairs, I stumbled upon the Assyrian Palace Reliefs that all had amazing and intricate details that I became more appreciative of when I saw them in person. I thought the placement of the reliefs near the entrance/exit stairs was very telling as to what they are and their purpose because when you reach the beginning of the exhibit, it explains that these reliefs would be seen at the entrances of Assyrian palaces to “overwhelm” visitors. I remember discussing this in class when we learned of the many figures that would be used to showcase power and attempt to frighten visitors. The relief I found myself in complete awe of was the Relief with Two Registers that came from the Neo-Assyrian Period under the rule of Ashur-nasir-pal II. In doing formal analysis, the first thing I became aware of was the complete symmetry of the two registers. Although they are different characters, they are complete mirror images of one another, even down to the piece that the figures are holding/touching which I later found out was the sacred tree. Also, in doing formal analysis one can take note of the depth of the lines that were used, in some places of the register, both top and bottom, there are certain parts that have deeper lines and others that have more shallow lines. The shallow lines seemed to be used for parts that were not the main focus of the relief, such as clothes; and the deeper lines were used to enhance/showcase detail such as the scared tree of or the wings of the mythical creature and the genie. I also noted that unlike some of the registers we viewed in class, there did not seem to be a hierarchy and instead they were equal to show their equal importance and meaning.

Brooklyn Museum Assignment Part 2 of 2 (Soul of a Nation)

Another piece of artwork that caught my attention was Wadsworth A. Jarrell’s Revolutionary painting, which can be found at the Soul of a Nation Exhibition located in the Morris A. and Meyer Schapiro Gallery. The reason that I choose this particular painting over the other art works such as The First One Hundred Years is due to the beautiful warm colors, and the slight use of cold colors that the artist used in the painting. I found his diverse use of colors clever since black people are always referred to as colored people, but instead of portraying it as something bad and something to be ashamed off Jarrell portrays it as something beautiful and something that black people should embrace and be proud of. From a distance the painting seems to represent a figure of a man or woman but once I walked towards the painting and got a closer look I was able to notice that the figure in the painting was actually made up of words and phrases. Some of the words and phrases that make up the figure of the person in the painting are “Revolution”, “Black”, “Resistor”, “I have given my life to the struggle”, and “If I have to lose my life in the struggle that is the way it will have to be”. After observing these and many other phrases that can be found within the painting I was able to draw the conclusion that Jarrell was trying to represent and convey the idea of Black Power in his art work.

             After doing some research about the painting I was able to learn that the figure that was created by the words and phrases in the painting is Angela Davis. Angela Davis was a professor and an activist of gender, race, and economic justice. The painting itself is a direct reference to a photograph of Davis at a rally during the 1970s. I was also able to learn that all the words and phrases used in the painting are fragments of speeches she had given before. Not only is Jarrell able to convey the idea of lack power in his painting but by making it based of a female activist instead of a male activist he is also able to portray the idea of gender equality. Similar to Fred Wilson’s Grey Area (Brown Version), Jarrell uses a women in his artwork to show that they are equal to men not only in politics, but in other aspects of life as well.

Brooklyn Museum Assignment Part 1 of 2 (Ancient World)

While I was walking through the Egyptian Orientation Gallery I came across many fascinating pieces of ancient art work such as Female Figure and Amunhotep III but the one the really caught my attention was Fred Wilson’s Grey Area (Brown Version). After closely observing each and every one of the heads I was able to see that they were exactly identical, even the wooden bases they were placed on were exactly identical, the only thing that differed from each one was the color. From left to right, each head became darker in color. One thing that instantly came to mind after observing these traits of the art work is that Fred Wilson was trying to convey the idea that regardless of skin color, we are all humans. Wilson emphasizes this idea by placing the heads on identical wooden bases that are all at equal heights; this also shows that someone with light skin isn’t superior to someone with dark skin or vice versa, it instead shows that we are all equal therefore completely eliminating the concept of social class.

Although Fred Wilson’s artwork is not as old as the other artworks in the gallery it still relates to the Ancient World, more specifically Ancient Egypt. After doing a bit of research I was able to learn that all of the five identical portrait heads that Fred Wilson used were based on Queen Nefertiti. Queen Nefertiti was the wife of the Egyptian Pharaoh, Akhenaten, who ruled during the 14th century. I was able also to learn that Wilson didn’t make the heads, instead he purchased them and just painted them. Due to the fact that Wilson decided to purchase the heads of Queen Nefertiti instead of her husband, Pharaoh Akhenaten, he is able to tackle the issue of gender and politics using his artwork. Wilson chose to use the head of the Queen instead of the head of the Pharaoh to show that, although the Pharaoh is the one who is seen as the actual ruler of Egypt, the Queen of Egypt just as important as the Pharaoh when dealing with politics. By using a the head of a women instead of the head of a man in his artwork Wilson is also able to show that one gender isn’t superior to the other, he instead portrays that all genders are equal an important, not just in politics but in society as a whole.

 

Brooklyn Museum Assignment

Part 1:

One artwork from the ancient world that caught my eye was “King Ashur-nasir-pal ll and a Winged Genie” in the Assyrian Palace Reliefs. Throughout the reliefs, you are able to see carved images of genies called apkallu. These genies were believed to serve King Ashur-nasir-pal and can be either eagle headed or human headed. In the artwork of King Ashur-nasir-pal ll and a Winged Genie, you are able to tell apart the king and his protective genie by the crown that the king is wearing. You can also see that the genie is facing the king asserting his obedience towards the king. The King also has a sash wrapped around his crown which shows the kings high status in Assyria. You can also see the king holding a bow which probably symbolizes warrior-like activities such as hunting. Throughout the reliefs, you can also see that most of the reliefs have genie’s holding pinecones towards a sacred tree. In this artwork, you can see the king holding a small bowl with his arm bent at a 90-degree angle meaning the bowl is probably filled with some sort of liquid. This can symbolize some sort of offering to a deity. I also noticed the king’s legs are all covered by his robe but the robe of the genie exposes one of his legs. This shows that the king probably isn’t as active as the genie where they’re constantly serving and protecting their king. The repetition throughout the reliefs of serving the king and tending to the sacred tree shows the importance of kingship and the culture of the Assyrians.

Part 2:

The artwork that stood out to me the most in Soul of a Nation was “The Flag is Bleeding” by Faith Ringgold in 1967. In this painting, you can see the American flag dripping with blood. Starting from the left, we can see an African American man holding his heart which seems to be the source of blood throughout the artwork. In his hands you can see a knife which indicates Ringgold’s emphasis on the violence in the 20th century. Moving along the painting, you can see a woman in the middle with her arms conjoined with a white man and the African American man. The painting seems to be split in half where the the left and right side of the woman’s face looks completely different. This may indicate the sympathy for African Americans as the woman’s face on the left side with the African American seems to be way more humanlike whereas the right side seems to look more evil. Despite the sympathy in the woman, she is ultimately controlled by the white male. This artwork by Ringgold symbolizes the systematic oppression and discrimination that African Americans had to face in the 1960’s. I chose this piece because of the ongoing inequality that America still faces today. This piece by Ringgold clearly depicts how America was built on slavery. “The Flag is Bleeding” relates to the other exhibits because it shows how the society and culture was at the time. The Assyrian Palace Reliefs emphasizes kingship and “The Flag is Bleeding” emphasizes the discrimination against African Americans.