Albert C. Barnes : A Man Beyond His Time

Upon entering the room, visitors’ eyes dart to that mysteriously empty frame centered on the opposite wall. In such a painstakingly designed museum, this frame looks out of place. On these walls hang the memoirs of revered artists, but the empty frames scattered throughout remember something more tragic: the largest property theft in world history (Menconi, 2012). Head of security at the Gardner, Anthony Amore, refers to these empty frames as “placeholders, not memorials” and urges visitors to see them as a “testament” to their belief that they will reacquire the stolen paintings someday (Menconi, 2012). Whether they do or not, the 1990 Gardner theft greatly impacted

One pleasant afternoon, my classmates and I decided to visit the Houston Museum of Fine Arts to begin on our museum assignment in world literature class. According to Houston Museum of Fine Art’s staff, MFAH considers as one of the largest museums in the nation and it contains many variety forms of art with more than several thousand years of unique history. Also, I have never been in a museum in a very long time especially as big as MFAH, and my experience about the museum was unique and pleasant. Although I have observed many great types and forms of art in the museum, there were few that interested me the most.

Jasper Johns was born in Augusta, Georgia on May 15, 1930. He is still alive today known for his paintings and printmaking. During his childhood, he lived with his father’s grandparents due to his parents’ marriage ending. His only introduction to art as a child was of paintings in his grandfather’s house of his grandmother who had died. He then moved around among with his aunt then his mother throughout his teenage years, and then finally graduated high school in Sumter South Carolina as valedictorian of his class. After high school, Jasper then spent little time enrolled at the University of South Carolina, and later directed his education to New York City studying at the Parsons School of Design. A few years later he was drafter to Sendai, Japan to fight during the Korean War in 1952. Two years later, he came back to New York where he met his partner, Robert Rauschenberg. Jasper’s art career began when he discovered the world of contemporary art sharing views with Merce Cunningham and John Cage. His work was revealed at Rauschenberg’s studio to Leo Castelli, a gallery owner who gave Jasper his first solo show in 1958. This led to his pieces being bought by the founder of New York’s Museum of Modern Art. Later in 1963, Johns and Cage both founded the Foundation of Contemporary Performance Arts in New York City, which is now known today as the Foundation of Contemporary Arts.

It must have been 13 years or so since I have been to the art museum, back in elementary school, on a one of a kind field trip. 13 years is way too long to have been away from the art museum, as my experience this year reminded me that. It was a beautiful, sunny October day, although it felt like July, and it was an even better day to talk a walk through the vast, mesmerizing pieces of art that the museum has to offer. The North Carolina Museum of Art provides an abundance of artwork from various time periods, cultures, and one can find art anywhere from Egyptian, to classical, to modern and contemporary art. The artwork that the museum provides not only displays an abundance of artwork, but

As we know, the result of “Art is” is “Art is” which returned in an ephemeral form at the Studio Museum. All forty photographs are on display on the basement level of the galleries, which are supposedly reserved for pieces in their permanent collection. The room just outside, whether coincidentally or not, is filled with photos of students - reflecting personal memories. How the museum decides to play with this, is by missing them with old-timer photos of Harlem from the

Benjamin O. Davis, Jr. was born December 18, 1912 in Washington D.C. His father, Benjamin O. Davis, Sr. was one of the few African-American officers in the U.S. Army. Davis, Jr. was appointed to the U.S. Military Academy in 1932 by Rep. Oscar S. De Priest, the only black congressman at that time. At West Point he endured ostracism from both classmates and superiors who wanted to see him fail. He persevered and graduated 35th in a class of 276 in 1936. He was the fourth African-American graduate in the Academy’s history. Upon commissioning he and his father became the only two black officers in the army. His application to the Army Air Corps was refused because the Air Corps did not accept African-Americans.

I chose a cartoon "I'm Mrs. Edward M. Barnes. Where do I live?" by New Yorker Cartoon 1954. This is a post-World War II cartoon. In the cartoon Mrs. Edward is asking a worker of that area to guide her to her new house. The area seems to have a very large amount of identical houses which was an idea of architecture after WWII. It was a much faster and cheaper way of building houses. This cartoon was generally intended for the people of United States that were looking to buy new houses and also WWII veterans. After the WWII the country was in prosperity and the general welfare increased.

Cleveland has been fortunate enough to have become home several popular museums, including The Cleveland Museum of Art. The museum is filled with impressive masterpieces from the beginning of human documented time to today’s world. This free exhibit offers an exciting, enjoyable experience to those of all ages and those of all backgrounds. From the interactive futuristic portions of the building, to the delicate works of the past, there is something at this museum to please each person’s artistic mindset.

Benjamin O. Davis, Sr., was born in Washington, D.C., on July 1, 1877. Davis attended M Street High School in Washington where he participated in the school's cadet program. During his senior year of high school, he took some classes at Howard University. His father, a messenger for the Interior Department, and his mother, a nurse, urged him to enroll in college after high school. He entered the military service on July 13, 1898, during the War with Spain as a temporary first lieutenant of the 8th United States Volunteer Infantry. He was mustered out on March 6, 1899, and on June 18, 1899, he enlisted as a private in Troop I, 9th Cavalry, of the Regular Army. He then served as corporal and squadron sergeant major, and on February 2, 1901, he was commissioned a second lieutenant of Cavalry in the Regular Army. Following many years of service, he became an adviser for the military on racial discrimination, pushing for full integration of the armed forces. He earned a Bronze Star Medal and Distinguished Service Medal. Davis spent much of his time teaching others as a professor of military science and tactics at Wilberforce University in Ohio and the Tuskegee Institute in Alabama.

A Lesson before Dying by Ernest J. Gaines (1993) is a compelling novel based in a small southern town of Louisiana during the 1940’s, 80 years after slavery is abolished. Gaines’ storytelling is highly effective due to his use of high-stake plot elements, vivid first person narration, and intriguing repetition. More specifically the plot elements of the bar fight and the execution date, the narration of the opening scene and the ongoing dialogue caused by the brawl in the bar, as well as the repetition of many thought-provoking phrases. Gaines’ use of high-stake plot elements crafts a captivating storyline that grasps the attention to any reader. An example of this is when; Grant is at a bar when he catches a few of words of the people sitting

Since the Museum's opening in 1931, the collection has grown to more than 12,000 paintings, sculptures, prints, drawings, and photographs, representing nearly 2,000 individual artists and providing the most complete overview of twentieth-century American art of any museum in the

17. On my museum experience, I took it in like every other visit to the museum I have ever had: much like other children expressed wonder and amazement at a circus performance or sports game; I was awestruck and mesmerized by the colors, the atmosphere, and the same restrained joy that I felt evident in the eyes of all the other observers. My girlfriend and I made our way through the museum, blending in with crowds of other viewers to see Cezanne, Gauguin, Brueghel, O’Keefe and the like in the permanent collection, making time to go from one end of the spectrum to the other. But my heart has always had a soft spot for

The Museum of Fine Arts was founded in 1873 and immediately became Boston’s center for the arts. Initially, the MFA’s collection was comprised solely of the personal art collections of members of the upper class. This circle of social elite who lent their personal collections were known as Brahmins, and at the time they were the most “well defined status group” in the city. The Brahmins wanted not only to display their art publicly for the sake of their own status related benefit, but also, allegedly, to better the community and their education of high art. During the 19th century, Boston was the most active location for cultural arts in the United States. Before 1850, popular culture and high arts were often displayed together and targeted,

On September 4, 2016, I visited the Matisse in His Time exhibit at the Oklahoma City Museum of Art. This exhibit is home to a plethora of pieces by many different European artists from the 19th and 20th centuries. While it is focused on Matisse and his extensive works, containing more than 50 of his pieces, there are many portraits and sculptures by other influential artists from that time period including Renoir, Picasso, and Georges Braque. Three of the most appealing works that I encountered in this exhibit are Maurice de Vlaminck’s Portrait of Père Bouju, Pablo Picasso’s Reclining Woman on a Blue Divan, and Henri Matisse’s sculpture series Henriette I, Henriette II, and Henriette III.

Cynthia Saltzman, a former Forbes and Wall Street Journal reporter, investigates the history of the famous Vincent van Gogh’s work Portrait of Dr. Gachet by telling a century-long story of this single masterpiece's journey. Instead of focusing on the van Gogh’s background and the painting itself, Saltzman meticulously provides a case study of how the modern art market developed and how the forces of money, politics and taste can ensure that genius will out. From 1890 to 1990, the painting was taken from van Gogh's easel and valued as “an obscure object worth at most a few hundred francs” at beginning. It then was hung in private homes and world-famous museums, and traveled to Copenhagen, Frankfurt, Amsterdam and New York with 13 different owners.