English 2850 Fall 2022: Great Works of World Literature II

I visited the Museum of Modern Art at 11 W & 53rd Street. I encountered Alfonso Ossorio’s famous ‘Empty Chair or the last colonial.’ Alfonso Angel Yangco Ossorio was a Filipino-American artist born on August 2, 1916, in Manila, Philippines. Mr. Ossorio came from a wealthy background and possessed a mixed heritage of Hispanic, Chinese, and Filipino. Ossorio was very famous for surrealism, Abstract Expressionism, and Art Brut styles for his work. He changed his artwork style a lot throughout his career. Alfonso’s early works were based on the surrealist art style. Ossorio’s work ranges from mural works to ink drawings. He also creates independent sculptures that incorporate feathers, bones, mirrors, and tree bark. He describes these works as “collectible images.” His drawings and sculptures considered surreal refer to dreams or the unconscious. At the museum, I saw many art pieces, but the ‘Empty Chair’ caught my attention. One thing I discovered about the artist is that he never finishes his art. He will leave it incomplete so we can force ourselves to think and create a meaning that we like. I haven’t seen many artworks that would make us feel and figure out the story and meaning behind it. Upon looking at the ‘empty chair’ for the first time, I thought it was about some evil eye or black magic since many eyeballs were dispersed throughout and nails were hammered into the sandal’s outsole. But you have to look very carefully to see the small details. A small wooden sculpture is in the pose at the bottom right of the artwork. I saw eyeballs made of what seemed like glass/plastic, which would be looking at us. At the top right-hand corner, there were relics and shells. The centerpiece was eye-catching and had a bone structure of feet. At the bottom, we see a sickle(weapon) being used. The wooden figurine at the top left corner had an ‘empty chair’. If I were to guess at the work style, I would say that Alfonso Ossorio was going with the theme of surrealism due to a mixture of natural and artificial objects such as relics, totems, and an all-seeing eye. I think this artwork is a blend of indigenous culture and colonialism. To back this up, the title also has ‘colonial’ in it. Also, there are so many cultural objects like wooden figurines, shells, bones, and the addition of a sickle (weapon) and relics that could hint towards the colonial power taking control over indigenous culture. Overall, I was genuinely amazed at how much the artwork can make you think about different things, yet all thoughts combined into one.  

The Museum of Modern Art is an art museum that opened its doors in 1929 and has been able to present thousands of art pieces in its exhibits. The art that is contained in this museum is from hundreds of different artists and is able to show pieces from various time periods. The museum was beautifully able to organize pieces of art based on different time pieces and make them into separate exhibits, each exhibit was similar yet vastly different. 

When entering a large empty room, there was a piece that caught my eyes; with many words on the wall and the main emphasis of the art piece was the word you. This art piece was created by the artist Barbara Kruger called Thinking of You. I Mean Me. I Mean You. It is a very recent piece where she renovated the museum area and was able to express her thoughts and ideas through this piece. This is a common theme within Barbara Kruger pieces of art. She has a nontraditional approach to her pieces and aims to change the perspective of the viewer on a given topics. Some topics her work examines is stereotypes and consumerism and then tries to have the viewer interpret the piece. The piece I chose is in the museum from July 16, 2022 to January 2, 2023 just in time for this assignment making it most fitting to choose. Barbara Kruger explores the behaviors of consumerism in this piece specifically. Addressing that individuals who consume goods and services in a large quantity will be better off, stimulating production and economic growth. “If you want a picture of the future, imagine a boot stamping on a human face.” This is the dark connotation behind her messages.

Going through expressionism Barbara targets emotion to convey and help engage with the viewer as opposed to reality. By, using a black and white and strong words such as “war” and different sizes of words she adresses consumerism. The originality and uniqueness is what drew me to this piece. Seeing that this piece is only here for about six months fitting the time line of the semester made it perfectly fitting for this assignment. With almost every other piece in the museum either being something physical like a bed or some kind of chair or some paintings on the wall. The way the words were displayed caught my attention and had me for the longest as opposed to everything else. A question I have is what made place all the words in the way she did? Very confusing to read at first but then when you take a second to read it speaks louder than all but when taking a second to see what is written it is louder than the other art it is surrounded by.

Matisse is considered to be one of the most influential artists of the twentieth century. He was a painter, sculptor, and a draughtsman. Interestingly enough, Matisse wasn’t always an artist. He started his career as a lawyer, and only became interested in studying art when he was 21. He studied at multiple academies in Paris, starting in 1891. After his studies, he began experimenting with unseen brushwork patterns, and color, to create the masterpieces we know him for today. He was inspired by many artists like manet and Suerat whose influences are prevalent in his later work. He used bright colors and uneven lines to create his own subgenre of art, called Fauvism.

The work I selected is called Dance (I). It depicts a circle of naked women dancing around, joined by the hands to form a circle. There are only 4 colors recognizable in the painting. The women are very loosely detailed, especially on their faces, adorned with simple lines representing eyes, nose, and mouth. They have some lines on their bodies depicting the indent on the middle of the back, or the butt, or simple half-circles making up their breasts. The two very forefront women are not quite holding hands, though it looks as if one of the women is falling down and reaching out to the person next to her, almost akin to Michelangelo’s Creation of Adam. 

This work reflects the aesthetic characteristics of modernism because of its uncanny-ness. Before Matisse, there was not an artist that was playing with composition and color in the way of matisse. It is truly modern art. I think Matisse specifically fits this genre so well because of the way his work shifted with the times. His earlier work is very academic, and derivative. However he truly came into his own which is why he is one of the forefront artists of this movement. 

I encountered this piece towards the end of my visit. I hadn’t seen anything that really struck me that I wanted to write about and was going to just settle for something I knew would fit into the criteria. I have always been a fan of Matisse and impressionism as a whole so once I saw this piece I knew I wanted to write about it. I was so drawn to this piece specifically because of the simplicity. Basically no shading or detail anywhere however it was still able to invoke a reaction from me. At first glance, one doesn’t really think much of it, but after looking for a while, within the large spaces of one color you can see each brush stroke, which adds so much depth to it. I do still have questions about this piece. Why did he choose to omit all details? Why are two of the women not holding hands like the rest? However it is important to note I think what makes this piece so significant is the multitude of ways it can be interpreted.

A passage in the story of Frederick Douglas that really stuck with me was at the very beginning when he says, ” I have no accurate knowledge of my date, never having seen any authentic record containing it. By far the larger part of the slaves know as little of their ages as horses know of theirs, and it is the wish of most masters within my knowledge to keep their slaves thus ignorant. I do not remember to have ever met a slave who could tell of his birthday.” (236). I find this very impactful because when studying history, its easy to separate yourself from the stories of the past, we often forget these stories we here involve very real people, with thoughts and emotions just like us all.

To live your life not knowing your own birthday, to have something so small and simple taken away from you must be a feeling that none of us will ever understand. We must really recognize these subtleties to truly understand how cruel and evil these slaveowners were/are. Small things like this can tear down a person, and it makes you wonder how people like Frederick could have amassed the strength to beat a system like the ones they were in. It really highlights the courage it took to accomplish what Frederick did.

This passage of the story highlights the most obvious thing, but sometimes we need to be shown the obvious. This passage reminds us that these historical figures are real people, they went through some of the most unfathomable experiences, faced some of the worst people in history, and still came out on top. It’s a reminder that the human spirit can prevail through the worst conditions, but it is also a reminder of how evil that same spirit can be.

For this assignment I chose José Clemente Orozco’s Dive Bomber and Tank.  José Clemente Orozco was a Mexican Painter. He was born in the State of Jalisco, Mexico in the year of 1883. He was one of those painters who took deep passion into painting murals that had some sort of political idea/message behind it. This is known to be Social Realism.  José was an important figure during the Mexican mural renaissance, during this period in time he worked with another great artist from Mexico as well and that was none other than Diego Rivera. But it wasn’t always easy for him. According to Britannica’s description on Orozco, early in his life his dreams of becoming an artist were put on hold because his father wanted him to pursue a career in agronomy and later on learn about architecture. This isn’t what he wanted though, but that being his father’s command/wish he thought it was only right to give it a shot. Although, this didn’t end well for José. At the age of 17 he lost one of his hands in an accident while he was at the lab. This meant he couldn’t do architecture anymore. In 1905, he re-entered the academy where he was previously taking drawing classes before he headed to pursue his father’s architecture dream. José came back more motivated than ever. After many ups and downs throughout his artistic life he became one of the best and most recognized painters. Which is why I was lucky enough to visually see one of his works displayed in the famous Museum of Modern Art (also known as the MoMA). The piece of work I am talking about is the Dive Bomber and Tank. I have included a picture to this post showing you what the art piece looks like. So, this piece was made in 1940 during WW2. If someone who didn’t know the background story of this painting saw this they would make comments about the details portrayed by José. For example, in the painting we can see what seems to be faces, legs and chains and other metal like objects. The colors of the painting seem to be dark. I was able to see a use of whites and dark grays in this art. According to MoMA’s description of this piece, Dive Bomber and Tank was José’s statement opposing to violence. For more clarity I googled what a dive bomber plane looked like and when comparing it to the painting it looked like what he was trying to show us was a dive bomber plane crashing into people. Since this was shortly after WW2, it was José’s goal to portray the effects of war on humanity. I remember entering The Alfred H. Barr, Jr. Galleries area and seeing this big art piece right in front of a Picasso piece. I was immediately drawn to it. The details were what caught my attention.At first what came to my mind without reading a description, I thought it would be something depressing and then after reading what it was about, it all made sense, because of the things I was able to identify on it. One question I had when seeing this, ways to ask José himself, what drew him to making something like this and of he could make one of recent times what would it look like.

Rene Magritte was a Belgian surrealist artist whose imagery has inspired pop, minimalist, and conceptual art. He was born on November 21, 1898 and died on August 15, 1967. Throughout his career he was well known for “depicting ordinary objects in an unusual context, his work is known for challenging observers’ preconditioned perception of reality.” The work I selected of his is called The Menaced Assassin shows a woman who was murdered in her home and detectives looking around for clues for the possible suspect. One of the men in the painting is observing the record player in the deceased woman’s room. Furthermore, the dead woman is lying naked on a couch. There are also two men outside the room; one who is holding some kind of weapon and another who is holding a net. The window displays a beautiful scenery filled with blue, gray, and white colors and three men looking into the scene of the crime. 

This work reflects the aesthetic preferences associated with Modernism because it expresses a characteristic of modernism which is surrealism. The painting exhibits the essence of surrealism by having a dreamlike surrounding like the landscape  and Magritte uses his common tactic of juxtaposing those surroundings with “erotic explicit objects” like the dead naked woman. Another characteristic of this painting that relates to modernism is the symbolism that Magritte portrays. I think that the woman lying naked shows vulnerability and depicts the woman as no longer human. The three men watching showcases the spectators of the crime scene but I also think it could mean the audience watching the film that the painting is based on. The film is called The Murderous Corpse and it aligns well with the concept of this painting. Furthermore, there is a record player in the deceased woman’s room and I think this symbolizes how music kept her company as she was most likely a lonely woman. 

I encountered this work as I was passing by different paintings and it immediately drew my attention because of the bold content and the shapes that are found in this painting. There are a lot of symmetric lines with the way the room is designed and it makes the painting very pleasing to the eyes. Additionally, there are a lot of muted colors so the brighter colors like the red in the couch and the gold in the record player stand out. Ultimately, a question I have about the work is if the detective standing outside to the left is the murderer? In my opinion, he seems like a possible suspect. 

Works Cited: 

René Magritte: Moma. The Museum of Modern Art. (n.d.). Retrieved December 4, 2022, from https://www.moma.org/artists/3692 

Surrealism. Metmuseum.org. (n.d.). Retrieved December 5, 2022, from https://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/surr/hd_surr.htm 

The False Mirror by Rene Magritte. Rene Margritte was born on November 21, 1898 and died on August 15, 1967, was a Belgian surrealist most known for his use of simple graphics and everyday imagery as stated by britannica.com. He worked in commercial advertising while at the same time he experimented with his paintings. However in 1922, Rene discovered a work of Giorgio de Chirico who was an important inspiration for artists throughout Europe specially for surrealists artists and it also had a tremendous impact on Rene’s artistic approach. Surrealism aimed to “revolutionize human experience” meaning that it aimed to paint art that would only be imaginable during dreams. Surrealism connects with modernist art because it breaks the traditional way of art and the new art, surrealism is a new form of expression. 

When I first saw the painting it drew my attention since it was an eye hanging in the middle of two other works of art but in an unusual position than other paintings. It was located in an elevated position on the wall. According to the MoMA, The False Mirror, is “A huge, isolated eye stares out at the viewer” and “the sky appears as though seen through a circular window rather than mirrored in the spherical, liquid surface of an eye”. At first it gives a feeling that the eye is looking at us however, it also has a double feeling that we are looking through the eye since it’s not the typical “eye” we imagine and we are looking or facing the sky. Also a surrealist photographer named Man Ray once described the painting as one that “sees as much as it itself is seen”. I agree with this photographer since the eye is one of the most important part that we need since it allows us to see our surroundings, the beauty that is around us including the color and shape of items. And as people say the “eyes are windows to the soul”. We use our eyes everyday but, we barely appreciate them for the enormous job they do for us and for such a small size the eye is but the big job they take part off in our lives is amazing. 

However, as I thought about the painting and how it was drawn. What came to mind was why did Margritte paint an enormous eye? Was it to depict the enormous job it does for us? Why did he decide to draw an eye? Was it to remind us of how important the eye is and how little we take notice of it? 

Meret Oppenheim was born in 1913 and died in 1985. She was a Swiss born in Germany in which she later went on to Switzerland to continue her life there. She created the art piece Le Déjeuner en fourrure when she was only 23 years of age and continued on her artist life till she died.In addition, a fun fact about her artwork was that she came along this idea of putting fur on a teacup and spoon after having a talk with Pablo Piccasso. Picasso had made a joke about Meret Oppenheim’s bracelet saying how anything could be covered in fur and this inspired her to come up with this artwork.

I came across this artwork when looking at the Meret Oppenheim exhibit in the museum. When I first saw it I had to do like a double take on it because it was such an unusual piece of artwork that I had never seen before. After examining the teacup, spoon, and saucer I was thinking about how it would feel to hold the teacup knowing that it would be unsatisfying and confusing. The teacup, spoon, and saucer give the person viewing it an abnormal feeling when looking at or even when touching it. Even the thought of touching the artwork was very strange. 

The art piece Le Déjeuner en fourrure translated into English is “Breakfast in Fur” or sometimes can be “Lunch in Fur”. This artwork is a normal teacup and spoon covered in fur which gives it this weird and uncomfortable feeling when looking at it. The art piece Le Déjeuner en fourrure is a representation of modernism. It specifically symbolizes surrealism. Surrealism is the art of exploring unconscious thoughts and dreams. This is a prime example of surrealism because of the combinations of objects that we usually wouldn’t see together. It creates a disturbing image and breaks our expectations since we wouldn’t expect to see fur on a teacup going along at the same time. Another reason why this art piece reflects surrealism is because of how bizarre it looks and feels. The sensation you would get when picking up this teacup is completely different from holding an ordinary teacup. As you touch the teacup, spoon, or saucer you get an odd feeling. Furthermore if you were to drink tea out of the teacup it would also give you a strange feeling as you try and taste the tea.

https://www.moma.org/collection/works/80997