Author Archives: Anastasiya Uraleva

After visiting the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), the work that I decided to analyze is called, “The Lovers” painted by Rene Magritte in 1928.  Magritte was born in late 19th century and after finishing his career as a graphic artist, in 1920s, he launched his successful career as a Surrealist painter. His paintings are famous for depicting strange scenes that question human nature and representation of reality. Magritte often incorporates everyday objects such as apples and hats, with figures of humans who are placed into these unusual scenes.

In “The Lovers,” Rene Magritte painted a close up kissing scene of two lovers, each of whose faces is covered in cloth. Behind the lovers, there is a blueish background and a hint of a brown wall on the right side, which ads on to the feeling of mystery to the painting. As to the context of this painting, I read on MoMA’s website that when Magritte was fourteen, his mother “committed suicide by drowning” and he witnessed how her face was covered in the fabric of her gown as her body was taken from the water. This experience may have somehow influenced the painter to use a face covered in cloth as a symbol in his work.

“The Lovers” reflects the aesthetic preferences associated with Modernism because it falls into the genre of Surrealism and depicts an imaginary situation with a mysterious and unnatural depiction of a couple in a relationship. Although the lovers are kissing, it is unclear whether they truly love each other because they cannot see each other’s true identities. This ties to the Modernist movement’s theme of alienation, skepticism, and the stream of consciousness. “The Lovers” depicts how people can be intimate with others yet still be alienated from each other. It also shows that people can have a subjective perspective of their relationship in which they are skeptical or unsure of each other’s feelings.

What drew my attention to this painting is how contradictory this painting seems compared to typical depictions of lovers as well as how differently this painting can be interpreted. On one hand,  this art shows the dark side of a relationship where two people are hiding something from each other despite of their intimacy. This can be tied to the phrase “so close yet so far” because both people are physically close, yet consciously or subconsciously very far from each other. On the other hand,  when I look at this painting, I also think of the phrase, “love is blind,” which means that people oftentimes choose not to see each other’s flaws when they are in love.

The question that I have about the work is: was Magritte inspired to cover the faces of the lovers with fabric because it  somehow ties to his mother’s death? Or is this unrelated and his surrealistic painting was a depiction of the conflict he observed (or experienced) in love relationships?

Source:

MoMa’s website: https://www.moma.org/learn/moma_learning/rene-magritte-the-lovers-le-perreux-sur-marne-1928/

Despite of being written in the late 19th century, the protagonist Hedda from the Norwegian drama “Hedda Gabler,” has multiple overlaps with Lady Macbeth, a character from William Shakespeare’s play, “Macbeth.” These parallels are interesting because both women come from different time periods, yet struggle with similar problems and desires.

As seen in Henrik Ibsens “Hedda Gabler,” Hedda is a complex character who comes from an upper middle class family and is married to Tesman, who comes from the lower middle class. Throughout the story, Hedda is not afraid of showing her high expectations and attitudes towards the kind of wealthy life she wants to live. Lady Macbeth, in this case, also has a high status in society, however, just like for Hedda, what she has is not enough and she seeks a greater lavish life. Both Hedda and Lady Macbeth also share similar characteristics in that they both are women of words (who can manipulate those around them), have beautiful appearances, as well as have desire for control. In addition, both Lady Macbeth and Hedda don’t express eagerness for having children and becoming mothers. For Lady Macbeth, having children is unsuitable because it will make her more compassionate, a trait that intervenes with her plans to have power over her husband, Macbeth. Although later she gets pregnant, Hedda is also not eager to have children because she doesn’t believe that taking care of them will make her happy. As we can see, in the two instances, both women have a complicated relationship when it comes to following the standard gender roles of the society during their time periods.

This strive to have power and a fantasy life is what actually leads both Hedda and Lady Macbeth to their own self-destruction and strategy. By the end of the play, Hedda commits suicide because she is trapped in her marriage and trapped in the house. Throughout the play, we saw that Hedda was constantly bored and could not find a meaning in her life, thus in the very end her actions ended up collectively trapping her. In Shakespeare’s play, Lady Macbeth succeeds in having the King killed, yet ends up losing her mind because of the guilt that she feels over her actions. Clearly, the plays “Hedda Gabler” and “Macbeth” represent how authors from different time periods explore similar  issues in society as well as human nature.

Does “Bewitched” have anything to teach its readers? If so, what? What is Akinari’s message in this text?

The story, “Bewitched” teaches its readers that appearance can be deceiving which is why if people want to be strong-minded, they must learn to control their mind and avoid their temptations. When Toyo-o met Manago, he instantly felt attracted to her and called this attraction ‘love’ without questioning her mysterious background. However, even though Toyo-o does have a naive character throughout the story, his family was also deceived by Manago’s appearance, “even though Toyo-o was not convinced, they themselves welcomed her into their household and provided her with a room”(642). In this quote, after his arrest,  Toyo-o became more doubtful about Manago’s honesty yet his parents also fell into the trap of trusting Manago’s elegant looks. Akinari is, therefore, trying to say that many people fall into this trap of trusting wrong individuals.

Following a religion might be another lesson that the Akinari wanted to teach. His viewpoint can be analyzed from the statement that an old man said to Toyo-o at the picnic incident, “you must develop a more manly, a more determined spirit, which you now lack, in order to repulse it…You must never yield to temptations of passion and lust”(644). In this quote, the man says that passion and lust are human temptations that must be avoided if one wants to have a strong spirit. In a sense, this can also be seen as a request for Toyo-o to become a close follower of his religion. In the religion of Buddhism, for example, one belief says that suffering is caused by selfishness and personal desire, which is similar to what the old man’s message. Thus, if people want to be strong-minded, Akinary might be saying that religion such as Buddhism can help to teach them how to avoid their desires.

Describe one aspect of the play that seems very modern to you and one that seems very dated or old-fashioned.

One aspect of the play that seems very modern is how humans are still vulnerable to be deceived and how challenging it is for them to foresee the consequences from this problem. In the play, Orgon is the head of his household and is presented as a man of power and wisdom. However, despite of his authoritative status, he still fell into the hands of Tartuffe’s corrupt intentions. Similarly to this scenario, in the modern times, people are still vulnerable to manipulation and deception by others regardless of what status or level of education they have. For example, millions of people today spend a lot of their time using social media. Although social media seems ‘social’ and entertaining, the manipulation comes in when big companies intentionally make infinite scrolling pages so that we use these platforms as long as possible while  they make more money. Instead living our own life, spectating  someone else’s life is becoming part of our routine. The consequences from this routine are not analyzed enough in our society. Some examples of  consequences are  that the number of people wearing glasses is increasing, cyber bullying is born, and we are not as ‘social’ as we used to be. Thus, being vulnerable to manipulation is a part of a human weakness that seems very modern and the play is successful in depicting this weakness.

One aspect of the play that seems very dated or old-fashioned is the system of having an absolute monarchy as well as the idea of having a divine right to rule. Absolute monarchy is an old fashioned political system because the king and queen rule over the society without giving their people a voice. Another reason is because with absolute monarchy, separating the church and state is very difficult. The idea of divine right states that the king and queen have their power from god, therefore, these rulers stay as close to the church as possible. Today, however, people in many countries vote for their political representation and there are only a few countries with theocratic governments that include religion in their political system.

Hello everybody! My name is Anastasiya. I love to draw, daydream, read books, and solve creative challenges. If I could describe my aspirations in one sentence, it would probably be, “Jack of all trades, but master of some.” This is because as a college student, it is very challenging  to decide which career path to take due to the contrasting interests that one may have.

For all four years of high school, I was immersed in the world of art and thought of becoming an artist. The type of art that I was doing included sculpture, mixed media, various forms of painting, and drawing. Yet during that time, I was also an active player in games such as League of Legends, Sims, and Assassins Creed, which drew my attention to  game design. Due my love for both art and video games, in junior year, I signed up for my first coding class in hopes to learn more about this industry. This class not only taught how to do basic coding, but also  educated students about the vast possibilities as well as opportunities in the tech field.

Fast forward to today, I am a sophomore in Baruch, majoring in CIS, and want to become a front end web developer.  However, it is still challenging to say that this is the right path for me to take. On one hand, I look up to tech savvy programmers, attend hackathons, and visit platforms like FreeCodeCamp or GitHub. On the other, I am also like “Alice in Wonderland,” and  have a whole world in my head  so  I end up either drawing or reading Haruki Murakami all night. So how is  this personality crisis to be solved?

Over this summer there was a program called Wix Design Playground. In this program, there were many creative individuals including designers, photographers, illustrators, and animators. At first I felt anxious since we were all different ages, had different backgrounds,  and levels. Yet soon the program began to feel like a small family. Together we learned how to apply both our tech, as well as other creative skills to learn how to design websites. For my final portfolio website, I immersed myself into my own ‘wonderland’ and created a place where  my illustrations can live. This experience has not only taught me that the fields of art and technology can intersect, it also revealed the importance of having a passion for your career and loving what you do.

The best part about attending Baruch is getting to meet many interesting people, learning something new in every class, and have the chance to explore various career paths. As a freshman, I used to worry about  getting a perfect 4.0 GPA and got super sad when I saw my first B for Calculus. Although I still worry about grades,  there are a lot of more aspects that go into the definition of college success. This definition probably varies for each student but personally, I think that although grades are important, college success is , as people often say, “more about the journey, not the destination.” 🙂