The exhibition A Fantastic Journey on display at the Brooklyn Museum presents the artist Wangechi

Featured and organized by the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Romare Bearden’s collection is one that appreciates and depicts life for what it really is. Bearden did not like abstract expressionism. Instead, he made many collages depicting life with different perspectives, allowing the viewer to see reality, but also try to figure out the true meaning that Bearden meant to portray in the collage that was not directly seen by just looking at the picture. These collages were made by “Cut and pasted printed, colored and metallic papers, photostats, pencil, ink marker, gouache, watercolor, and pen and ink on Masonite” (MET Museum). Bearden liked telling narratives within these collages involving Harlem life. Whether it was on the streets, inside

Throughout history female figures have played an important role as subject matter. The female figure is very subjective, as peered through the different lenses of varying cultures. The status and functions of women in these cultures are the primary factors that influence how they are portrayed in art of a certain culture. However, the female figure itself through its natural and inherent iconography represents fertility and the importance of women in society. This natural iconography creates certain parallels in content between all works that use the female figure as subject matter. This varying subjectivity of a female’s status based on an artist’s culture will create differences in content and themes; however some aspects remain similar

Wangechi Mutu, born on June 22, 1972 in Nairobi, Kenya, is a female artist that has explored and challenged the idea of gender and racial identity while simultaneously questioning our perception of the individual and the position we have in our culture and the natural world around us. Through her use of painting, collage, sculptor, video and performance mediums she has combined our mainstream ideal of beauty and her vision of what beauty can be to create a new perception of what we are as humans. Wangechi grew up and attended school in Nairobi and eventually moved to Wales to go to the United World College of the Atlantic. She then moved to New York City to study at the New School for Social Research and Parsons School of Art and Design. She has also earned an honorary Masters of Fine Art from Yale University. Wangechi has had a number of co-op exhibits across the world at several museums in the US, Germany, France, Canada and a few solo exhibits in the US, Canada, and Germany. Her

Artists use their artworks to communicate different meanings and transfer specific messages to the audience. Their artworks can be presented in different forms like architecture, drawing, painting, sculpture, pottery and many other forms. Each artwork contains a specific meaning which is usually based on the artist 's beliefs, culture, identity and the nature surrounding us. Rona Rubuntja from the Hermannsburg Potters, Bronwyn Oliver, Christo and Jeanne Claude each presented their art in different forms but they all communicate meanings and ideas to the audience. Rona Rubuntja who is a senior member of the Hermannsburg Potters and her famous pottery work ‘I 'm Black’ for the exhibition ‘Our Land is Alive’ at the National Gallery of

1985 (Figure 2) first appeared in 1985 plastered on billboards around New York City. The piece is illustrated in monochrome colours so to not distract viewers from the meaning of the poster. The harsh contrast in colours between the black writing and white background make the piece stand out and draw the attention of bypassers. Written on the artwork is a list of well-known museums in New York City and beside them is a score of how many women artists have had one-person exhibits there in the past year. The results showed that the Guggenheim, Metropolitan and Whitney museums each had zero, whilst the Modern museum had one. These results are supposed to shock the audience and make gallery curators feel a sense of guilt, that it’s clear the art world don’t appreciate women artists like they do men. Whist they are confronting the public with that truth they are also providing another critical message with this piece. The Guerrilla Girls identified these museums by first name, not out of convenience, but to make a statement, that the only museums to allow women artist some form of respect like male artist do was the ‘modern’ museum. Emphasising the fact that gender discrimination and bias nature in the art world should be in the past, and the only museum that realises and recognises this is the modern one. The poster’s main message challenges the patriarchal world of art and confronts art galleries

The reason I chose to go to the African Art Museum is because I have been there before and I enjoy my time when I go. The tours at the museum consisted of talks about certain pieces in the museum that fell in a category the tourist wanted to focus on. Nkechi Obi was my first tour guide and the title of her tour was “Docent African Arts”. Her goal throughout the tour was to show pieces of artwork that showed what Africans may have gone through in the past in slavery. One piece that she focused on that I want to highlight was “Southern Landscape” by Walter Williams Roots. In this piece there various things going on in the photo.

At 1st glance this piece does look like a photograph, even a painting, but this series is a work of mixed-media layered one on top of the other in a box. Yet this assemblage of random found objects, with the artists

Also, in my discussion I reflected on how, “this image is culturally important because it represents that females can be strong and powerful.” I never realized how much art can reflect upon the society and how important the media is when it. There are a lot of politics in art, but not all art forms can be pleasing to the viewers, it’s about doing what you like and there is no need to adjust your point of view. There are so many different types of art forms, and I’m glad we experienced and learned about them in this class. I have ultimately formed a love for different art forms, and can’t wait to experience them in the future.

Standing at 75”x69”, the oil and gold leaf on canvas painting makes a huge impact on any gallery it resides leaving viewers both amazed and confused. At first glance the painting presents just an elephant head atop a bouquet of flowers; which, while elegantly painted leaves one with no sense of what he artist is trying to bring across. The painting has unusual lighting which resemble the baroque style; also, it is structure

Barbara T. Smith’s Molting was created using pencil and glitter on paper. It features a white background with sharp black lines, creating the shape of a woman. Her skin is shaded with varying colors of glitter, and blotches of brown where the glue has discolored over time. The work is very well-balanced, filling the space with the female form. Just as Picasso’s The Women of Algiers, the viewers know that this is a female from her outlined breasts as well as the curvature of her shapes and wide hips.

Unlike other forms of art, such as paintings or drawings, sculptures provide audiences with a way of looking at a piece of art in a three-dimensional form; they have depth. A viewer can walk all around a sculpture and notice every detail of it from every side (239). Sculptures can be vastly varied, however, as there are four sculpting methods and because artists have different visions and identities, and come from different backgrounds, all of which manifest themselves in an artist’s piece (241). Let’s look at the ways in which Jeff Koons’s Michael Jackson and Bubbles is different and similar to Tilman Riemenschneider’s Virgin and Child on the Crescent Moon.

These two women of surrealism and Freud’s era have some paintings that grasp my attention. One in particular by the great Frida Kahlo. The Broken Column represents the pain and suffering that Frida went through in her life and not just that but it’s representation of the thing all women go through which is some sort of pain and hurt in their lifetime. In this painting the nails are stuck into her face and whole body. A split in her torso which looks like an earthquake fissure. In the background is the earth with dark ravines. At the beginning she painted herself nude but later covered her lower part up with something looks like a hospital sheet. A broken column is put in place of her spine. The column appears to be on the verge of collapsing into rubble. Penetrating from loins to chin, the column looks phallic, and the sexual connotation is all the more obvious because of the beauty of Frida's breasts and torso. Although her whole body is supported by the corset, she is conveying a message of spiritual triumph. She has tears on her face but she looks straight ahead stating that she’s going to face the challenges that life has thrown at her.

In exploring the complex relationship between gender and presentation in the culturally framed experience of painting appreciation, Tamar Garb introduces into her interpretations the concept of "the historical viewer" ("Gender" 276). She encourages us to destabilize viewing as a "natural, genderless or universal" experience, and in doing so to consider the shifting perspectives of the potential viewers throughout the lens of the ever-changing social-historical contexts. Specifically, Garb uncovers the assumption of male-dominance in the act of viewing. From the perspective of a male-viewer in a male-dominant culture where the female exists as an embodiment of an ideal form of beauty devoid of agency, the female nude appears to be an extension

The art world has been host to a vast menagerie of talent, intellect, and creativity for about as long as human culture has existed. It has grown, developed, and changed just as humanity has. Naturally, with such an impressively expansive history, various avenues of art are visited time and time again by new artists. Artists seek not only to bring their own personal flavor and meaning to timeless concepts, but to find new ways to approach them. While not every single creator and craftsman can make such a great impact on art or the world, their efforts have given birth to some truly magnificent and unique works. In an effort to create a more meaningful understanding, as well a deeper appreciation, of the nuances, techniques, and design choices employed in these attempts, a comparison will be made between Edouard Vuillard’s Interior With a Screen (1909-1910) and Henri Matisse’s Blue Nude (Souvenir of Biskra) (1907). In this essay, each artist’s approach to the subject of the female nude will be closely analyzed, compared, and contrasted, as will their styles of painting, handling of visual elements, and their use of the principles of design. An interpretation of each work and what the artist intended when creating it will also be provided.

There are many works of art and many different possible locations that could be considered when trying to create would be classified as “The Ultimate Art Exhibit”. For my project, I have decided to place my Art exhibit inside of Rome, Italy for many reasons. One of which is that Rome is known to have very beautiful building architecture and is known for great masterpieces such as The Pantheon and also the Colosseum. Due to the extremely high number of tourists that Rome gets year-round, if an art gallery that yielded extremely high expectations were placed here then it would receive a very high volume of people daily. So due to this and its culture I decided that Rome may be one of the better choices so the art exhibit will be placed