Marshall M. Fredericks Sculpture Museum

The Cleveland Museum of Art holds Damien Hirst’s “Bring Forth the Fruits of Righteousness from Darkness” on special loan for five years. It also holds many different exceptional pieces that include Asian and Egyptian art, and its own Picasso collection. It holds 43,000 works of art from around the world. The Museum holds so much history and offers free admission to its public to come and absorb some of world’s greatest works of art the Cleveland is lucky to have on display.

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.

On September 19, 2015 I visited the Blanton Museum of Art at the University of Texas in Austin, where I observed The Raising of Lazarus by Joachim Wtewael in the European Old Masters gallery. The piece recreates the biblical narrative of Lazarus’ resurrection and demonstrates the exorbitant style of Mannerism popular during the 16th century. Wtewael establishes the significance of the Christ with his application of form through the use of unrealistic contortions of the people, the lines following the exaggerated limbs of the congregation, and the abundant use of the color red on almost every article of clothing.

On September 2nd I took a trip to the Michael C. Carlos Museum at Emory in Atlanta. The museum included many art exhibits from ancient cultures around the world. Including pieces from South America, Greece, and Egypt with larger exhibits as well as African and Asian cultures with smaller exhibits.

The ominous figure in the centre of the foreground - Jesus Christ hanging lifeless on the cross, in Luca di Tommè’s ‘The Crucifixion’, primarily catches the eye. The symmetrical arrangement of lamenting figures around the cross, as well as the gilded background, highlight him as the focal point of this artwork.

On November 7, 1883, an exhibition organized by “May Wright Sewell, her husband Theodore, and a small group of art-minded citizens” (History, 2017) began what would one day become the establishment now known as the Indianapolis Museum of Art. Since that first exhibition, the IMA has gone through several identity changes. They were first named, the Art Association of Indianapolis. Their next identity was as the John Herron Art Institute, which opened a whole new chapter, as they became “a campus featuring both a museum and an art school.” (History, 2017) Today, the IMA is one of the largest encyclopedic art museums in the nation. The IMA has had various leadership and staff over the years that have lent to how the museum operates today.

As Edgar Degas once said, “ Art is not what you see, but what others make you see”. The St. Louis Art Museum is a place for artist to display their art and give spectators the option to see art from a new perspective. This was the case for me. As we walked up to the beautifully structured building that stood so tall and wide, my expectations were extremely high. At first glance I notice the bronze statue of King Louis IX of France riding high on his horse. From this statue alone, my expectations of the art museum grew stronger. I have never been to an art museum before, so I wasn’t sure of what to expect. My first expectation was to see huge detailed sculptures right as I walked through the door. That expectation didn’t come true.

For this project, I chose the Tampa Museum of Art. My daughter Annabelle, who is eleven, accompanied me. She is an aspiring young artist who loves to paint and assemble collages. This paper will describe our trip, the museum’s activities, and what was on exhibit. After which, I will choose two works of art and preform an analysis on them. I will employ the formal elements and the principles of design to engage the first piece, “The Great Journey”. With my second choice “A Group of Cubans who left Manzanillo are Rescued at Sea”, I will discuss how applying an alternative contextual analysis would help in understanding the meaning behind the painting more.

Detroit Institute of Art is located at 5200 Woodward Ave, Detroit, MI. The website is https://www.dia.org/. At this museum, there is a lot of Detroit and American history and also a lot of paintings from the 18 and 1900s. The website has over 6,000 pieces that are located on the site. Some of these can't be viewed but they still give you the history on the piece. One of the pieces that stood out to me was the Egyptian mummuy. That piece is a very ancient piece, but the detailing of the art interest me the most. I can just imagine the time and effort that was put into it.

When I attend the Oklahoma Art Museum this morning, I was completely blown away by the different styles, technique, and artistic abilities that artist have. Art can come in many forms and can involve many different things. From paintings, sculptures, and abstract pieces of the modern world. Along with my visit, I got to experience a new collection of blown glass that was absolute remarkable. As I walked though the museum, it was as I walked though time and got to see how each period’s art changed throughout time. From the different shades of color to the different types of technique that filled the halls of the Oklahoma City Art Museum, each piece was genuine in its own way. I was starstruck as I witnessed Lowell Nesbitt’s Parrot Tulip, Richard Diebenkorn’s Albuquerque, and Dale Chihuly’s blown glass.

With works in every known medium, from every part of the world, throughout all points in history, exploring the vast collection of the Museum of Modern Art was an overwhelming experience. The objects in the Department of European Sculpture and Decorative Arts are an important historical collection, reflecting the development of a number of art forms in Western Europe. The department's holdings covered sculpture in many sizes, woodwork and furniture, ceramics and glass, jewelry, and tapestries. The gallery attracted my appreciation of the realistic qualities of the human body often portrayed in sculpture.

I went to the Marshall M. Fredericks Sculpture Museum for my art experience project. I was impressed with the amount of statues I was able to see in one place. A majority of them seem to have been created and donated by the Fredericks family themselves. As I said before the amount of statues in this little space is impressive, however my first impression is the feeling of claustrophobia.

With exhibitions of the most thought-provoking art, The Museum of Contemporary Art in Chicago is one of the Nation’s largest facilities devoted to the art of our time (“About the MCA”) . The mission of the MCA is to offer a direct experience to the public of modern day art and living artists. German architect Joseph Paul Kleihues designed the new building with seven times the square feet of its previous facility (“The Building”) . October of 1967 the museum opened its doors to the public for the first time. The Museum of Contemporary Art is a symbol of modern art, culture, and the artist of our time. It is a stepping stone in history and will leave footprints in the heart of Chicago for many generations to come.

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.

Lawrence Sullivan “Sul” Ross (1918) is a life-size bronze sculpture created by Pompeo Coppini and is currently on display at Texas A&M University. This sculpture features the life-size figure of a very distinguished gentleman, standing diligently on top of a stair-like pedestal. The man is facing outwards with a composed expression as though readying himself for action against a great undertaking, evoking a sense of respect from the viewer who is unable to see this challenge just yet. Charles Keck also produced a life-size bronze sculpture on a university campus. Lifting the Veil of Ignorance: A Monument to Booker T. Washington (1922) can be found at Tuskegee University. Unlike Coppini’s work, Keck’s sculpture contains two figures, one man hunched down underneath a draping veil while another, more distinguished man is opening his arms to assist in removing the veil from behind. The two figures generate a great contrast with one another through multiple elements such as the clothing and poses to emphasize the sculpture’s purpose for the statue. While Coppini works with formal elements to impress a sense of awe for the figure—Lawrence Sullivan Ross—Keck uses the same formal elements: form, line, and composition, to instill a slightly different sense of respect for his figure, Booker T. Washington, and his actions during his lifetime.