Nelson Museum

As I walk on the grounds of the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art in Kansas City, I encounter one of the Oldenburg and van Bruggen’s giant shuttlecocks. Additionally, as I view and walk around this giant shuttlecock, I cannot help but think of how this object is disproportional, especially in comparison to it’s surroundings. The shuttlecock is huge and unbelievably larger than the average size of a shuttlecock, which would fit within the palm of my hand. An altered view is created by the use of the visual principles of scale and proportion in order to create this sculpture.

Whilst observing the capturing pieces of art at the Majorie Barrick Museum, I had encountered a piece that has truly grasped my attention. When we had the art tour guides guide us around the musuem to observe 3/4 specific pieces, I noticed they all were different with similar ties. They all had something unique about them, from the "graphite splatter" to the "thinned out chair leg" and the "fill in the vowels" worksheet found in a first grade work book. I've also noticed that art varies with age. If you ask a first grader to create art, we would most likely result in a piece of paper with splatters and stick figures, (yet there are a few youngsters with different mindsets), but what we don't know is that it has a certain meaning to them. Now

However, our trip did not last countless hours as I looked over 30 paintings in about twenty five minutes. This was not due to my lack of interest, but more to my novice mindset towards art. Art is similar to most skill activities in that people that are active in said activity can better understand and articulate the small actions that lead to a great piece of art, a great football play, or a great movie. I am embarrassed to say that I did not pay close enough attention to the intricacies of my dad's art, but I accepted to write these articles in hopes I could learn more about my dad's favorite past time.

For this museum paper, I went to the Heritage of the Americas Museum at Cuyamaca College. The Heritage of the Americas Museum is a cultural and educational facility featuring the prehistoric and historic art, culture and natural history of the Americas; North, South and Central America. Even though this museum is specializes in housing early inhabitants of the Americas art and artifacts, they do posses some non-western pieces, specifically Chinese, which coincidentally became my favorite item out of all the exhibits and is what I chose to do my research on for this paper. But before I getting into one specific piece out of literally hundreds, I want to rewind back and discuss the Museum’s as a whole, and why I chose this one in particular instead

Upon entering the museum I was bombarded by this 12 x 45 ft. architectural painting. Almost resembling the museum building itself. With sharp horizontal and verticals lines, this multi colored piece reminded me of our last piece from project 8. Using a variety of colors with no obvious correlation, the clash of colors instantly made me reflect on how I could improve future and previous projects alike. The amount of straight lines in different lengths and widths, also reminded me of our piece from project 1. With no curves and lines going every which way, its amazing how a piece made entirely of lines with no figures could be so captivating.

All of Richard’s exhibits where of pictures taken of a trip but the most significant of all was that of a portrait 24”x36” which consisted of a modern 25 story building that covered the portrait from top to bottom and edge to edge. The building was the Edificio Focsa in a Varadero Neighborhood in Cuba. In front of this massive modern building was a three story white building in ruins. Here you can see right through it since there were no windows or doors and partial walls standing. This was an impressive view of how modernism overwhelms the original colonial heritage architecture.

The Philbrook Museum of Art is easily the best museum Tulsa has to offer, and since I have been there before I probably wasn’t going into with a fresh mindset. However, I think the additional knowledge of art I learned through the couple of years in between allowed me to appreciate even more of the art there. I went there with Prof. Trotter and most of the class of art appreciation. I don’t think that most people that go there realize that the museum has such a rich history, and some of the art there is exceptional in my opinion. We went there November 6th, it was a sunny Friday, and I was able to get off work so it made the visit even more fun. The museum was located in the heart of one of richest neighborhoods of Tulsa, which makes sense considering the museum was once owned by a wealthy oilman. I went to the Philbrook not only to make sure I was able to write this essay, but because I truly love art throughout history.

Over the thanksgiving break I visited the Metropolitan Museum of Art. The Met is an art museum in New York City that has a variety of ancient artwork from different cultures and time periods. There is paintings and sculptures from Ancient Egypt, Ancient Rome and Greece. The museum is additionally home to artwork from many different time periods including ancient Near Eastern Art, Middle Ages and Europe during the Renaissance. The Met also has artwork from many different religions such as Christianity and Islam. Each section in the museum had a specific artwork that attracted my attention.

The Metropolitan Museum of Art has one of the finest Asian art collections that has enlightened and strengthened my understanding in my personal art experience. The Museum itself is an artistic architectural structure that graces the entire block on 82nd Street in Manhattan. Entering inside, I sensed myself going back into an era, into a past where people traded ideas and learned from each other. It is a past, where I still find their works of yesteryears vividly within my grasp, to be remembered and shared as if their reflections of works were cast for the modern devoted learner.

I visited the Bakersfield Museum of Art this weekend and it was a great experience. The museum had different exhibits. Each exhibit had its own significance and had beautiful artwork. The first exhibit I visited was in the Chevron Gallery. This gallery was filled with oil paintings of landscapes, still life, and abstract paintings. The best thing about this exhibit was how it was prepared by the summer art camp program called “A Fresh Look”. The summer art program is where a group of children, ages 7 to 12, study major elements of art and the process of putting together an exhibition. Once they have become familiar with the art elements and exhibition construction, they choose a

My interest in art grew out of my passion for history, particularly the ancient history of Egypt, where I was born and raised. Already as a child I was fascinated by museums and the vast amount of objects they contained and I avidly read the label information of each museum object. My academic study of art, particularly Egyptian and ancient Near Eastern art, began

Being my first time visiting an art gallery, my husband insisted on visiting the Art Institute of Chicago during our stay in the city. I must say it was a hidden gem in the city of Chicago. The Art Institute of Chicago gives the public and tourists the opportunity to personally view artwork from across the world. It gave me the opportunity to visit a place that I’d never pictured myself spending my time at an art gallery, and this experience exposed me to incredible works of arts.

The museum that I chose is the Philbrook Museum, and on the second floor of this museum is the gallery that I have chosen. It is a 20th century Native American Art gallery called “Identity and Inspiration”. The collection not only holds a very diverse assortment of contemporary Native art, but it also holds a well-documented selection of the artist’s motivations that influenced their creative process. I liked how the exhibit held a very wide range of space in-between each of the object cases. The white walls and clear cases made the gallery seem not as crowded, and the way the objects were spaced out seemed incredibly orderly. In some other museum galleries, the objects seem to be organized culturally or geographically; but in this gallery,

Art is simple. Art is complex. Art is everything. Take a moment, everyday, to find art in the surrounding world. By doing this simple task, the understanding of art emerges. This

“Painting today is pure intuition and luck and taking advantage of what happens when you splash the stuff down. “- Francis Bacon. However when I learnt more about history of art and the way each movement and happenings in the world inspired artist to make new works, I was able to see much more than just a canvas with random paints and sketches. The interesting part about this concept is that each piece of art could be interpreted in many different ways. In contemporary art there isn’t right and wrong, each of us view and find different meanings and connections with artworks.