Monthly Archives: November 2018

My visit to the Museum of Modern Art was an amazing experience. I saw many paintings that are world-class. I saw the Starry Night by Vincent Van Gogh, one of the most famous paintings to exist. Because it was not in the allotted time-frame of the assignment, I chose the next-most captivating painting, Les Demoiselles d’Avignon by Pablo Picasso.
Pablo Picasso was a Spanish painter, sculptor, ceramist, stage designer, and the co-creator of Cubism. He is renowned for the ability to keep reinventing himself and his craft, his works over time drastically changed and it may appear to some that they would have been done by separate artists, not one.

Les Demoiselles d’Avignon was created in 1907 and is an oil on canvass. It was acquired through the Lillie P. Bliss Bequest in 1939 by exchange. This probably meant that the Museum of Modern Art had a deal or a trade with the Bequest for this painting. It depicts 4 prostitutes in a brothel in Avignon. It draws influences from African tribal masks and Spanish Renaissance artist El Greco.

The aesthetic of this painting is related to modernism because the evokes a new sense of style of painting that was drastically different from the conventional paintings at that time. Pablo used shapes alluding to sharp edges and curves to illustrate a scene. Although this artwork was made up entirely of geometric-like shapes, people were able to see that the human figures in the painting, 5 nude people. This can be considered a modernistic approach because it is a unique expression and technique people were not used to. Shapes made the painting, instead of the stroke of the brush or the traditional ways to paint an image. The painting reminded me of paper mache but in 2-D instead of 3-d. Another interesting point is that conventional paintings had depth and realism to the people, but he made it extremely abstract and modernistic by transcending the common “thinking” of that time period.

In a large room that housed the Starry Night, there was an entrance that connected to another room. On the wall of the adjacent room was the biggest painting I had seen in the Museum. This painting drew me in because of its size, color, and unconventional style. It was interesting that he used shapes to piece together the human figure, I thought that the irregular shapes of the artwork made it drastically unique.

One question I had about this work is why Pablo used the Cubanism to illustrate the nudity of men/women. Would it have been easier to just paint people in the more conventional way?

https://www.moma.org/collection/works/79766

[The Persistence of Memory 1931 – Salvador Dali]

–Basic information about the artist.

Salvador Dali was born in Catalonia, Spain on May 11th, 1904 and died in Catalonia, Spain on January 23rd, 1989.

–A description of work you selected.

This oil-on-canvas painting depicts numerous stopwatches that are seemingly melting and drooping. The white-pink object in the middle of the painting is supposedly a monster with eye lashes and a tongue. The golden cliffs are based off the coast near his home in Catalonia. He was on hallucinogenic drugs while painting this.

–An analysis of how this work reflects the aesthetic preferences associated with Modernism.

The Persistence of Memory is viewed as a painting based off the surrealism movement. Surrealism is a stream of modernism which means that this painting can be associated with modernism.

–A description of the context in which you encountered the work.

The painting is presented in a frame surrounded by a dark olive color to show off the contrast of colors much more vividly. There was a tiny crowd surrounding the painting as it is one of the more popular ones exhibited at MOMA.

–An explanation of what drew you to this piece.

What drew me to this piece was the crowd surrounding it. I was curious on what the cause of commotion was about so I went in closer to see and I found this painting. Upon further inspection, I really appreciated Mr. Dali’s choice of colors used. They were visually pleasing and complimented each other nicely, as orange and blue are scientifically the most aesthetic color combination for us to look at. The “weirdness” of the painting was also very interesting to me since in my opinion, the best works of art are the most absurd since it shows creativity and imagination and inspires much more thinking to the viewer compared to someone’s realistic painting of a campbell soup can for an example.

–Any questions you have about the work.

What do the ants depict in the bottom left corner of this painting? Does the tree have any symbolic meaning behind it as well?

On my visit at the Met Museum, a particular piece of modern art that caught my eye was Joseph Stella’s Coney Island, painted in 1914. It is a circular painting, mounted with a gold frame. Joseph Stella was an American painter born in Italy in 1877 and died in 1946. He was best known for his paintings of Industrial America such as paintings of the Brooklyn Bridge or Coney Island. His piece on Coney Island is an oil on canvas painting and looked like a kaleidoscope of bright and beautiful colors. With the many shapes and different colors, it is essentially an abstract painting. His use of colors are coordinated with the lights and crowds at Coney Island. Coney Island is a popular area in Brooklyn known for the beach, entertainment, and tourists.

This piece of work is abstract which is  a branch of modern art. I believe modern art is meant to be different, expressive, and sometimes strange. Abstract art uses different shapes, colors, lines, and forms to create a visual reference, which is sometimes hard to depict. I’ve always liked abstract art because I can create my own idea of what I think the art piece is. I was primarily drawn to this art piece because it looked really pretty. When I went closer and examined this art piece and description, I felt like I could see lights, perhaps at night and the sky. Some parts of the art, towards the middle, had intricate small dots which was interesting. I could also see shapes overlapping as well as the jagged lines.

At the bottom right of the piece was his signature in really small light letters, almost as if it was going to mix with the paint. The questions I would ask about this painting are why those particular shapes and how long did it take to paint it? Overall I really liked the painting as well as the trip to the Met. I learned a lot about the different types of  modern art, mediums, and techniques while trying to find an art piece.

Tadeusz Borowski’s “This Way for the Gas, Ladies and Gentlemen”, was a short story written about the horrendous conditions the prisoners faced in the Auschwitz concentration camp. The author speaks of his experiences through first-person narrative, detailing the atrocities that occur in the camp as a prisoner. This short story has similar themes to Franz Kafka’s “The Metamorphosis” as the narrator in both texts relate to the theme of dehumanization. In Borowski’s narration of the life as a prisoner, there were examples of derogation of the incoming Jews such as taking away their belongings and encaging them in tight, compact trucks. Gregor in “The Metamorphosis” faces similar consequences as he himself turns into a bug and has to face the dehumanization directly by his family members.

The beginning of the short story of “This Way for the Gas, Ladies and Gentlemen” stood out to me because prisoners were starving, and food was a scarcity, they were described as “pigs” that ate stale bread and whatever scraps of food they can find on the ground. This was eerily similar to “The Metamorphosis” in that Gregor’s transformation into a bug changed his appetite and his human desire for sweet milk and bread became unpalatable after his sister brought it in to feed him. These two both draw upon the theme of dehumanization because like the “pigs” described in Borowski’s text, Gregor was willing to eat rotten and food considered to be inedible for human consumption. This connection ties directly to the concept of dehumanization because the prisoners inside Auschwitz were fed like they were pests and animals, they were not fed properly relative to the S.S. soldiers in the camp. As a result, prisoners were not treated like humans, but like animals. In “The Metamorphosis”, Gregor’s sister fed him scraps such as “some cheese that Gregor had declared inedible two days before” which he happily devoured to feed his new insect appetite. Gregor literally metamorphosed into a bug and developed traits of a bug so that makes him void of being “human”.

Another connection between the two texts would be the process of dehumanization. In Borowski’s short story, the prisoners were given orders to assist in moving the incoming Jews to be transferred into the gas chambers. When the trucks came, an absurd description of an overcrowded truck with the Jews on the inside gasping for air comes to show that they were given no respect nor consideration of their wellbeing. As a result, the prisoners had to clean up the unfortunate dead bodies left over inside the truck, carrying out corpses of infants crushed and flattened by their legs “like chickens” to be thrown away. This encaging is a dehumanizing act, which can also be seen in “The Metamorphosis”. Gregor, after scaring away his family, was basically exiled and locked in his own room where the only activities he could do is eat and wait. This is a dehumanizing act because there are no human rights such as freedom, his room was locked from the outside by his own parents. The idea of dehumanization is apparent in both texts through the use of entrapment and limitation of freedoms.

In Tadeusz Borowski’s “This Way for the Gas, Ladies and Gentlemen”, the narrator Tadeusz is part of a group of prisoners whose duties were to strip other incoming prisoners of everything they wore from their clothing to their jewelry. The other prisoners were then sent to their deaths in a crematorium while their belongings would be sent to Germany. The inhumane treatment of Jews in this text can be compared to another text that I read in class previously, “Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, An American Slave”. In Frederick Douglass’s narrative, Douglass describes how white slave-owners in the southern United States would perceive and treat African American slaves as inferiors. This is similar to how Tadeusz saw German officers sending Jewish prisoners to their deaths shortly after they arrived at the concentration camp.

A major subject that I found comparable between Borowski’s story and Douglass’s narrative is dehumanization. One example from Borowski’s story is when Tadeusz and other Canada men were stripping the Jewish prisoners of everything they wore, leaving them completely naked afterwards. These prisoners were looted by the other non-Jewish prisoners before they were either forced into work at a labor camp or their deaths in a gas chamber. In the narrative, African American slaves in the south had no right to owning property or anything since they were considered to be property of their owners. They were also denied any form of education as it was feared that they could use literacy and education as a weapon against slave-owners who wanted them oppressed. The similarity I found between the two texts is that both Jews and black slaves had nothing at all. Borowski’s text showed that Jewish prisoners were literally robbed then killed and Douglass’s showed that slave-owners did everything they could to prevent their slaves from gaining any form of power. Both texts displayed how certain groups of people were dehumanized by other groups throughout history.

Another subject that I found between Borowski’s and Douglass’s writings is deception. In Borowski’s story, deception is used against the Jewish prisoners when Tadeusz and the other Canada prisoners had to refrain from telling them that they’ll be sent into the gas chambers. This was likely done so that there would be a lesser chance the Jewish prisoners would retaliate against the Nazi officers and the Canada prisoners. As for Douglass’s narrative, Douglass mentions the “slave breaker” or the act of breaking one’s mind or spirit so that resistance will never occur. This was done to slaves to deceive them into thinking that they’ll never win if they ever choose to rebel against their owners. I will also add that white slave-owners were deceived into thinking that Africans were “scripturally enslaved” meaning that the Bible’s story of Ham being cursed with black skin made it so that black people were originally meant to be slaves.

On my visit to the Museum of Modern Art, the artwork that I found amusing is the painting “I and the Village” (1911) by Marc Chagall depicting reflection of his gaze on harmony between nature and the human being. Marc Chagall (1887-1985) was a Russian-French artist who was born in Vitebsk and later on in his life moved to Paris where he met with some of the most famous artists and engaged in art movements of cubism and fauvism that inspire him to draw his most famous artworks. However, like other expatriates, he usually felt nostalgic about his motherland; thus, his art usually immersed with his native customs, fairy tales, and lifestyle. In his first work of art “I and the Village,” he portrays his learning of Cubism by use of lines and shapes to separate painting into sections by which he represents various memories. Including the reflection of the frictional connection between the man and the animals. By the fauvism, Chagall’s painting is flat also the art looks more folksy and harmonious by a variety of sizes and juxtaposition of colors. Doubtless, by the use of the combination of art movements Chagall superimposed both styles with each other thereby fulfilling his artwork with deep meaning.
Even though that this painting depicts the village, aside from it this art conveys other ideas. In the foreground, the face of men and a cow united by a thread from their eyes shows the connection between them. At the same time, the contrast of red and green that used to depict the man’s face produces an assumption that it’s Chagall’s self-portrait filled with Cubism and his vision of home. On the other hand, the white-blue cow on the left corner, aligned with a rural scene of cow milking conveying the memories from the past and the jewelry on her neck gives personification bond with a village. Moreover, by looking further into the background, the scene becomes more symbolic. On the top, we can see the small urban village consisted of colored houses and church with a person inside that can be foretold to be the village of Vitebsk. Close to them is a man with a scythe and the woman that can represent the rural people. It is undeniable that some of the houses and the women painted upside down that may reflect social inequality. Besides, the emotions on the man’s face reflect a pleasure of seeing his native land that overlapped with artist nostalgic thoughts while being away. Doubtless, in the center of the painting, we can see the circle that overlapped with the cow’s and man faces and a tree which is an association of the life cycle that united together. The decomposition of colors such as red and green symbolize the life, freedom, and peace. Last but not the least on the bottom there is a drawing of a branch of a tree that is shining from the sun rays from the left, may be associated with the emphatic memories from the past, combined with the images of love, self-evaluation.
What draws my attention to this painting is an aesthetic combination of both cubism and fauvism as well retainment of traditional aspects and images of nature and the people. In other words, the artwork contains a sheer image of each character, animal, and landscape which can be seen and interpreted were clearly and intuitively. Meanwhile, the painting of artist like Picasso or Braque requires dramatic imagination equivalent to its creator to find its true meaning or thought inflicted within it. Chagall’s art, on the contrary, retains the mere question of the precise use of green color to bestow upon the man’s face that makes me wonder what might be the meaning behind it other than the general features of fauvism and cubism.

Hi Everyone,

I have posted the prompt for Essay #2 under the “Assignments” tab above for those of you who weren’t in class when I distributed the hard copy.  Please see that document for the details of the assignment.

Your first step is to come up with a topic for your paper and to express that idea in the form of a question you are asking about the two texts you’ve selected to work with.  Once you have come up with a question, email it to me at [email protected] no later than Monday, November 26th!

Looking forward to hearing from you!  Happy Thanksgiving!!!

Professor Sylvor

According to Frank Kafka’s works of the ‘The Metamorphosis’ in 1915, its prudent that isolation and alienation are the major themes as proven by Gregor’s physical transformation into a creature that strips him of his humanity in the eyes of his family, and his inability to communicate further makes him feel greatly isolated, since his family often defines him by his ability to work, something that is now difficult for him to do due to his metamorphosed condition.

Alienation is discrimination due to certain particular aspects which could be outlined as a specific contagious illness, race, poverty, etc. Just like Gregor’s case of isolation and alienation, such occurrences and experiences also happen in real life situations away from the fiction world of imagination such as Frank Kafka’s, of Gregor waking up on a particular day only to find himself transformed into a gigantic insect, ways from his normal being of being a salesman and the sole provider of his family. Isolation also serves to separate individuals who are sick from those who are well, for instance, Gregor’s case.
A real-life situation once experienced is of persons with big working titles, working in substantial productive companies and institutions that are vastly spread both national and international wise, and are the breadwinning parties in their either nuclear or even extended families; providing food, shelter and other essential and luxurious needs but end up being diagnosed with chronic and most feared illnesses such as cancer, HIV/AIDS or even Diabetes.

Narrowing down these illnesses, individuals who have HIV/AIDS are the most likely ones to isolation and alienation from the society by every other individual since the disease is highly infectious and cursed by many most especially in the African nation. Once an individual is diagnosed with the virus, fear develops among people around him or her leading to actions such as being sucked from work, one which most probably was the primary source of income due individuals’ benefit of doubt to such a person that he or she might work inefficiently as a result of the infection.

Once an individual is viewed from such a perspective, discrimination, stigmatization, isolation and alienation follows, rendering that person ‘useless’ and ‘inefficient’ to fulfill a family’s needs, just like Gregor’s father viewed and treated Gregor, the moment he realized he could not work or communicate anymore or even provide for the family since he had turned from being a normal human being to a giant insect.

Based on the text by Kafka, Gregor was the main provider for the household and thus they all depended on him. When he changed into an insect they took care of him and grew poorer as they did not have another provider. At that state, he was pretty much confined to that room. This text can be can be related to a situation I happened to witness within the community I come from. There was a man who was the main provider in his family, meaning everybody was dependent on him. However, one day he suffered a stroke which left him in a vegetative state, unable to do much on his own, just as Gregor dependent on his family to care for him.  This meant he slept in his bed or sat in a chair every other day and thus could not care for the family but rather the family cared for him. This change put a lot of strain in the family and thus they grew poorer.

In the story, Gregor could no longer eat the meals that he liked as he found them distasteful, this is due to the new condition he is in. this can be related to the man’s case where he could no longer consume his meals as he regularly had. His condition made it harder to move his jaws and thus he was forced to adjust to a new diet.

Gregor eventually became a burden to the family and it was seen in how his sister was not keen on bringing him food and cleaning up his room. They also hired a charwoman who cleaned the loungers and Gregor’s room. Eventually, Gregor died and this was seen to be a relief to the family as it gave the sister a chance to grow stronger and marry, and it also enabled the family to move into a better apartment. This related to the man’s end as he was seen as a burden by his family as they felt his caring took a lot of time, money and effort. They hired a caregiver to care for him. The attention they took in caring for him highly reduced and thus the man’s condition worsened, and just like Gregor, his death came as a relief to his family members.