The work of art I chose was done by artist, Marcos Grigorian.

The reason I chose this work of art was due to the fact that it reminded me of the “cotton-wool” effect that we discussed in class during Mrs. Dalloway.

The way in which this work represents the effects of “cotton-wool” is that, as my eyes move from the corners of the frame towards the middle, the texture of this earthwork, goes from smooth to, rigid and ragged. To me, the smooth outer layer of this work represents the norm of the society or how the society expects one to behave. The reason being, the smooth layer symbolizes conformity; no matter which corner I look at, the shape and texture is the same throughout, and with that, nothing seems out of the ordinary. On the other hand, as I move towards the center, I see irregularities within it; the center consists of cracks within it and in addition, some particles of the work are protruding out that created the effects of trench look-alike holes and burrows. In this way, it represented the uniqueness of this work, just like how it would represent a person’s true identity or personality, which is in direct conflict with the society’s norm. These cracks, burrows, trench look-alike holes and protruding particles represent the person’s “being,” for it is kept in the middle, as if trying to conceal these irregularities or uniqueness from the conformed society.

To me I can see two ways of looking at this work of art. First, one can move from the outer layer towards the middle, or the second, one can move from the middle towards the outer layer. Each, I believe has different, perceptions of oneself. If one implements the first method, I see it as someone who is conformed to the society and trying one’s best to conceal his/her “true being.” On the other hand, if one implements the second method, I see it as someone who is willing to let his/her “true being” out, into the norms of the society that will eventually affect the society as a whole.

When I first got in moma the first thing that really inspired me was Zapatistas by JOSE CLEMENTE OROZCO. He is a Mexican painter who had a lot of inspiration about tragedy arts. The paint Zapatistas for me has a lot meaning it is very deep. It shows men and women who are being used and dominated by some leaders. The women are behind and just following people that are in front of them. It show a society full of pain, anger and very desperate. According to Clemente ” I don’t trust revolutions or glorify them, since I witnessed too much butchery.” This explain that even though slavery time is over some people are being slaved and don’t have freedom. I think this an art to show that some people are still under pressure and being treated badly by others even after revolution and slavery. It was a very great moment and makes you aware of many things that happen in the past.

The work I chose is call “Dive Bomber and Tank” by jose clemente orozco, painted in 1940, he is a Mexican painter, who specialized in political murals. The first time I saw this mural, the first word come to my mind was cool, though I did not know what is that. “This is six-panel fresco ，depicts abstracted elements of mechanical warfare, including the tail and wings of a bomber, tanktreads, and chains。as well as a pair of upturned human legs.” In the middle of fresco, we can see there have three metal faces, each of their faces have many chains and nails. on the left side of the face were surrounded by chains, and nails going to his eyes. on the middle side of the face have chains in his month and on the right side of the face have chains in his ear and nose and three lags on his head. According to this work’s title and time. I think orozco draw this work is to satirize the government., people in the world war II, people losing ability to see the truth, losing their right to speak and no able to hear the truth. People living in the war can only be a victim of war, like these three legs, the people may die in tanks and bombers attack at any time, and become these three legs. though, Orozco insisted it had “no political significance.” He stated, “I simply paint the life that is going on at the present—what we are and what the world is at this moment. That is what modern art is.”

I usually don’t visit a lot of museums, since the one’s i had visited before weren’t very interesting to me. I have always heard a lot of people discussing MOMA so i’m glad that this class assignment helped push me to go. As i looked through the different exhibits and paintings, i was fascinated by much of the art that stood out to me. One particular piece that i really enjoyed analyzing was by Bela Kolarova called “five by four”. This piece of art consisted of three separate paintings which all combined together to create one central idea. When I saw the first of these three pieces of art, i felt as if i was staring into a tunnel that led to a different dimension. The contrast between the light and the dark is highly signified in this piece. The outer shaded area is surrounded by light and with a softer shading of darkness, but as it goes closer into the center the observer can view that the shading gets darker and darker and the lighter areas are beginning to come out of view. This painting helped me compare this piece with the actual world. In my point of view i was able to see how just like the painting, when looking at the world from the outside, everything seems to be peaceful and calm and full of “light” but when analyzing the world in a deeper sense it is clear that theres no peace. Just like the darkness there is chaos and issues that are not seen by everyone, it is chosen to be ignored.

The second part of this art exhibit allows the contrast between light and dark to take a higher effect. In this part i am able to see what i had analyzed in the first painting, but this time there is splotches of light that attempt to hide the background of dark colors. In my opinion i was able to see this part of the painting as a kind of “cover up”. The pieces of light colors used in this section of the painting were made to cover up or hide the chaos that lies behind the light. Lastly, in the third painting, which i saw as being the most powerful, looked to me as a giant circle of darkness. This section of the painting described the world for what it really is. The dark colors represent the true darkness that covers our world. The distractions or the “covers up” presented in the second painting is not enough to color the truth since the truth is always revealed in the end.

The artwork The Persistence of Memory was painted by Salvador Dali.  His artwork displays multiple clocks in a place that looks dry like the desert, but there is a river of some sort in the far back. An artwork may have multiple interpretations. Thus, I have many different inferences as to what the artist might have thought about while creating it. The art piece emphasises the clocks and the landscape. Upon seeing this artwork, I found the title of the art piece quite interesting. There are a few clocks in what appears to be in the desert, and the clocks look withered. They seem to be shriveling as if the concept of time is distorted. On the very left, an unopened orange pocket watch is covered with ants. Is this because time is slowly declining? Is it coming to an end? Usually, when insects surround and gather around an object, it usually means the object is dead. What does Dali mean by persistence of memory?

Dali uses a contrast of dark colors at the bottom, while a bright blue and yellow sky at the top, which can be inferred that the time is at around twilight. This can also be justified as in one of the clocks, the time is pointed at around 7:00. Dali might be referring to our unconscious state, our memory, that causes this persistence at twilight. Dali might be trying to portray that when we are unconscious, or rather, when we are dreaming, we do not really have any perception of time. What feels like days could actually only be the last few seconds before we wake up, which is might by why Dali drew the clocks as withered and distorted. I believe he was trying to tell us that while we are dreaming, we never really comprehend the passage of time. When we wake up from our unconscious state, we question and try to interpret what has happened.

I visited the Museum of Modern Art on May 02, 2017. It was very hot that day. The back of the ticket is a paint, and I will collect this ticket. After I visited most of the works in MoMA, I was shocked by this abstract work which medium is oil on canvas. This work is painted by Elsa Gramcko, who was born in 1925. This work is untitled, and was painted in 1957. It is 39 3/8 inches long and 13 inches wide. It exhibits at “Making Space: Women Artists and Postwar Abstraction” in MoMA. This work is geometric painting. The background is black. In my view, there are two axes in this painting. The whole white one is a big ax, and the red one with a green tape is a small ax. Those two axes are leaning together. In my opinion, those two axes represent the status of men and women in the male dominated art world. The big ax represents men artists in the male dominated art world, and the small ax represent women artists in the male dominated art world according to the introduction of “Making space” exhibition in MoMA. “Making Space shines a spotlight on the stunning achievements of women artists between the end of World War II (1945) and the start of the Feminist movement (around 1968). In the postwar era, societal shifts made it possible for larger numbers of women to work professionally as artists, yet their work was often dismissed in the male dominated art world, and few support networks existed for them” (MoMA). The big ax has only one color— white, and the small one has four colors— red, green, white, and yellow. In my opinion, Gramcko use diverse colors to show women artists achieve a great and wonderful success in the male dominated art world. I think this picture shows art works of women artists can be a significant part of the art world and play an important role in the male dominated art world.

— Yu Qing Wu

The Museum of Modern Art has always been on my must visit checklist ever since I’ve moved to New York City. It’s one of those places that tourists can’t miss out on. While visiting the Moma, lots of the art pieces created extreme atmosphere but what caught my eye was a hand painting by Bridget Riley. Riley was a British artist born in the year 1931. This piece is named Current from 1964, being a hand painting I thought the illusion of it being three dimensional was quite unique. Riley wanted to create works that minimize any signs of personal features. What she hoped for were the special engagements the viewers had with her works. The black and white selection of color in this piece creates what she called “the space between the picture plane and the spectator.” This style of art was known as Op art and was put out for exhibitions in 1965 at Moma. Some may see this piece as a disturbance, while others may accept it as another type of expression from the artist. I personally thought it was the difference from the other paintings because of the minimal use of contrasting colors. Also, because the painting moves as you stare at it, I believe everyone would perceive it differently. Effects from this piece are more based on one’s own response and acceptance. Looking at it in person and staring at the photo I took of it reveals totally different images and movement but none the less it’s a minimal yet effective piece.

-Shan Shan Chen

The work of art that I chose to analyze was a series of Untitled Drawings by Anna Boghiguian. Boghiguian was born in 1946 and is Egyptian and Canadian. The display of art contained twelve different drawings each made with Gouache, crayon and pencil on paper. Per the description located on the left of the display the drawings were made as timelines of the event that happened in and around Tahrir Square in Cairo after the Egyptian Revolution on January 25^th 2011. The Egyptian Revolution was a protest by activists to fight against poverty, unemployment and government corruption especially by president Hosni Mubarak. These drawings are bold in the way they display different events caused by the Revolution. The different strokes and the writing across some of the drawings give them graffiti like effect which showcase protest. I also think the graffiti like effect of some of the drawings produce emotions of unanimity and connect the outside world with what is happening within the actual revolution. I feel that Anna Boghiguian was trying to show her personal experience in Cairo through the drawings but also created them to  include the rest of the world and what they might possibly be feeling.

When I visited Moma, what really caught my eye was a painting called “Gestural Abstraction.” The painting was described as one that emerged after World War II. The focal point of painting had shifted from Paris to New York City, and it “emphasized spontaneous brushwork and forms that seem to tap into the subconscious.” The whole concept of Abstract Expressionism really took on its heights in the 1940’s – 1960’s, despite the fact that many other movements wanted to leave this abstactism and return to traditional styles of painting. Bold brush strokes, as shown in the painting, serves to emphasize the struggles of artists of the time. This particular painting, to me, also went to show the depth of the different feelings that emerged as a result of the war. It shows the uncertainness that everyone was feeling after the war. Many people located to different parts if the world, new feelings of nationalism and patriotism was rampant among many, and people’s political views were going through many shifts. The way that abstract painting is encompasses the sort of confusion that people were feeling, thus the paint stokes that seem to go in every direction, and the different colors being used represents all the different, new things that were going on in the world all at the same time. Everything being intertwined together shows how the many things intersect to make something whole.                                                                

At first glance, Kazimir Malevich’s “White on White” might seem to be a confusing or in some regards a meaningless artwork. This was exactly my initial reaction until I decided to listen in on a lecture that a MOMA employee was giving about this artwork. This Oil on Canvas was created in 1918 during a time when Russia established a communist government. It represents one of the major artworks during the Suprematism era, an art movement which emerged in the early 20th century that focuses on basic geometric shapes and limited color usage. The richly textured surface and imperfect design speak to the external reality of the world we live in. Malevich uses the shades of white as an abstract concept of infinity. This draws a directly parallel to the communist ideology which seeks to destroy class divisions and establish an equal socioeconomic order amongst its citizens. The square in the middle represents the upper class while the white field represents the lower class. It’s interesting to note that the seemingly floating square is positioned at a tilted angle. This represents the communist revolution in which the upper class being overthrown by the lower class. The darker tone white square in the middle slowly fades into the white background as if it has almost been reduced to nothing. This signifies the merging of the different social classes within a communist society. This picture blends the different variations of white and tonality to display a sense of limitless and novelty. Perhaps this artwork shows Malevich’s view towards the communism order.

-Benny Chan