Art Critique

1.      Which museum did you visit?

 I visited the University Of Utah Museum Of Fine Arts.

2.      In 150 words, describe at least one of the broad collections on a theme, period, geographic region, or topic within the museum.

A broad collection that I want to talk about is an exhibit that UMFA has year round and it is the collection of Asian art. It is a combination of sculptures and knick knacks of Asian origin. I really liked this collection because I thought that the things they had on display were really interesting.  For example, they had a banner type thing that was made of wood and had elaborate carvings in it of important figures in the Asian culture and I thought that the detail was amazing and I loved how much they fit onto it so that you noticed something different every time you looked at it. They also had stone sculptures on display that I thought were really interesting because they were gods and goddesses, if I can say that, of an eastern religion. For example, there was a sculpture of an elephant with no arms standing on its hind legs wearing elaborate jewelry and it was called Ganesha, a god of some sort.

3.      Give a brief, one paragraph (100 words) description of a special exhibit.

One of the special exhibits on display at UMFA was a collection of art work on the Great Depression. Every piece in the collection was a picture of some sort and they were all done in black and white with the exception of maybe three. A lot of the works were pictures of men working in fields, with tractors, with machinery, and performing heavy labor. There were also pictures of desolate landscapes and of course the infamous dust storms that plagued the people of the Great Depression. By looking at a drawing in the collection, I learned that people would hire farmers to live with them and harvest the crops and these people were called tenant farmers because they were tenants of the home owners.

4.      What kind of information is provided about the works? Tell me three places you might find more detailed information that doesn’t include the web.

Next to a piece of art is a plaque with information on it. The kind of information available to you on the plaque are things like the artists name, the nationality of the artist, the year it was painted, the name of the work, the years of the artists life, the type of art work (sculpture, painting, etc.), and sometimes they provide a short paragraph about the work. If you were looking to find more information about a piece, you could go to another museum with the same artists work, you could look at books pertaining to the specific artist, or you could ask someone who is knowledgeable in the artist/painting that you are interested in. 

5.      Choose several works that particularly appealed to you. Explain why you were drawn to these works. Comment on the subject, style, medium, time period, etc.  Who were the artists? This question must be answered in its entirety. (At least 500 words)

 The first piece of work that I was drawn to was a picture in the Great Depression collection called Tenant Farmers. I was drawn to this picture because it was a touch of green highlight in a sea of black and white. Two faces with age lines and frowns were looking at me, reminding me of the classic farm couple with frowns and a pitchfork. It was composed of lines making the faces appear to have a grotesque look about them. The green color and the harsh black lines made the couple appear as if they were zombies. I thought this was absurd since the drawing came from the Great Depression but I also thought it was very cool, it is the main reason why I liked the picture. I just thought it was really funny.

The second piece of art work that I was drawn to was called Mushroom and Trees I. As soon as I walked in the room, my eye was drawn to this picture. I liked it so much because it looked like ink spills in water.  The ink was flowing around lazily like it had nowhere to go anytime soon but the scene was frozen in time.  From a distance, the picture looked like a landscape with a solitary tree in the center of the picture. I thought it was really cool and I wondered how the artist accomplished the look.

I saw the most influential piece of work next. It was called On Balmy Terrain and it was an entire wall covered with written on pieces of wood that were collected from right here in Utah. There was nothing extremely special about the piece but the first board I read said, “Down a dirt road” and all I could think of was an important person in my life who taught me to take the dirt road sometimes instead of the paved road to go a little slower in life and relax. I was hooked after that.  I stood, rooted the spot, for a good five minutes reading each piece of wood. The thing I liked most was that even if I looked at the same area more than once, I always saw something I hadn’t noticed the first time. Some of the boards I remember said, “His mouth”, “Our primal kisses”, “Chunky blue midnight beads”, “Mexico”, and other random things all thrown together to make something whole. As I read, I kept going back to the same person and even though it made me a little sad, I was transfixed. I didn’t read all of the pieces of wood, I had to walk away but I would go back to sit and stare at it for hours if I have the time and money.

The last piece of work that really stood out to me was a marble statue of a naked lady being caressed by the wing of a swan. It was called Leda and the Swan. Legend has it that Zeus wanted Leda, the wife of the Spartan king, so he turned himself into a swan to seduce her. She then produced Helen and Polydeuces. I liked it so much because I thought the pure white of it was beautiful and I can’t help but appreciate the human figure. I also liked it because the plaque provided background information and it no longer was a naked lady with a swan, it had meaning to it and became much more beautiful to me, even if the story is a little weird. 

6.      How did the artworks you looked at relate to material we have discussed in class? Mushrooms and Trees I and other pictures I noticed really tied into the environment and how we’ve been talking about it in class. For example, in the same gallery as Mushrooms there were pictures that depicted oil fires and ship wrecks in the oceans and dark, inky blackness of pollution on the world. It made me think of American cars and how they are getting bigger and are using more gas and oil therefore polluting the world more. Then using those cars to hit the environment directly in national parks like stated in Polemic. The pictures were the result of humans using up the world’s resources and leaving the negative marks everywhere. I thought it was interesting that these pictures were in one of the special exhibits that aren’t at UMFA all of the time and how perfectly they tied into our class discussions and readings at the moment.

7.      What was your personal reaction to this experience? Would you enjoy attending this type of event again? Why or why not? (Minimum of 100 words)

I really liked going to UMFA. I like experiencing art that I haven’t seen before because I think it is always so cool. Even if I don’t like something, I am a person who learns to appreciate it. I like looking at art so much because I like that everything made is inspired by something, there is always a story behind it and even if there isn’t, I like that you can look at a piece of art and make your own story to it. It speaks to you and only you in a specific way like how On Balmy Terrain spoke to me with such importance. It all depends on the connections that you can make to a certain piece of art and whether or not that connection is positive or negative. I also like appreciating the skill of others and noting how skillful they truly are, it amazes me that some people are born with such great artistic abilities. I would definitely love to do something like this again and see all of the things that have been made out there in the world.