Author Archives: Kunal Sharma

On my visit to the Metropolitan Museum of Art this week, I encountered a lot of pieces/works that attracted me such as “The Furniture Factory” by Bumpei Usui, The Three O’Clock Sitting by Henri Matisse, etc. while searching for the one I was finally going to write about, “South of Scranton” (1931) by Peter Blume. “Peter Blume (1906-1992) was a famous painter and sculptor. His works contained elements of folk art and surrealism.” (MoMA) During the 1930’s and 1940’s, the popularity of Blume’s dreamlike paintings, filled with obsessive details, made him one of America’s best known artists.

“South of Scranton gathers various scenes that the artist encountered during an extended road trip  in spring 1930. Setting out from his residence in Pawling, New York, Blume drove through the coalfields of Scranton, Pennsylvania, and then headed south towards the steel mills of Bethlehem.  Blume then travelled further south to Charleston, South Carolina, where he witnessed several sailors performing acrobatic exercises aboard the deck of a German cruiser ship in the harbour. In an account of the painting’s origin, the artist stated, “As I tried to weld my impressions into the picture, they lost all their logical connections. I moved Scranton into Charleston, and Bethlehem into Scranton, as people do in a dream.” (MoMA) 

The moment I read about this piece, it clicked to me that very second that, “this is the one!” I found it funny, as it appeared to me and relatable at the same time as I literally had a dream one time a couple of months ago that I still remember in which I mixed the rooms of my house, such as the bathroom was in the place of basement, kitchen was where my parents’ bedroom used to be, etc. and when I woke up, it seemed so surreal as I realised that dream, it has been a in my memory since. Blume’s crisp technique also heightens the painting’s surreal appearance. Surrealism in art is basically the idea of producing imagery or effects by unnatural or irrational combinations and contrasts. 

As a matter of fact, ‘South of Scranton’ was included in the Thirty-second Carnegie International exhibition in Pittsburgh in 1934. Eight years later, in 1942, it was acquired by The Metropolitan Museum of Art after it won a prize in the major exhibition “Artists for Victory”.

I came across this work in the Art of Americas gallery within Modern and Contemporary Arts section which had other works associated with Modernism from the African and Greek regions too. 

 

It was a week ago when I had the pleasure to attend a music event called “Soundtrack of your life” with Professor Abby Anderton in NVC room 4-190. It was basically about music’s connection to your life and how you can relate to songs or music. I chose this event because I have great affection for music and also I could relate to the stuff we discussed during the session as I am taking a music course too this semester. Prof. Anderton began by talking about ‘Leitmotif’ which means a musical theme that can replace the idea of a person, place, or thing. I learned a new term in music- ‘Timbre’ which is the tone quality of a sound. Also, we talked about the difference between major and minor notes characterizing major as a happy and upbeat note, whereas, minor as a sad, low-beat note. Furthermore, while working on our Leitmotif’s on a piano, we learned how to add/remove a ‘flat’ (lower the note by 1/2) or ‘sharp’ (raise the note by 1/2). The event was also useful to me in a way that it cleared some of my own doubts regarding music such as the difference between a melody and a harmony which are the main tune and two or more tones at a time respectively. The hour long session enhanced my thinking about music and made me aware of several musical factors such as the ones I have stated above. Moreover, we played many different types of instruments throughout the session such as strings, percussion etc. Moving towards the end of our session, we listened to some songs by Bessie Blues who was the most popular female American artist in 20’s and 30’s and how her era had a huge influence on blues singers and music overall. I listen to music most of the time during my day, everyday, which I think is the reason why I was inclined to attend this event. Overall, this event, more or less, added a lot to my knowledge about music and expanded the horizons of my mind regarding the same. I am glad that I had the chance to participate in it and that too for extra credit!

As the story suggests, there was extensive mistreatment and dehumanization both with male and female characters in the story by Tagore. However, I noticed that Chandara Rui was the one who suffered the most which reminds me of Du Tenth from Feng Menglong’s story in a way that even though other characters in that story such as Li Jia had gone through ups and downs of life too, such as choosing between his family and the love of his life, Du tenth was the one who was caste aside twice, first by her family and then Li Jia. Similarly, I observed that Chandara was the one who had to suffer betrayal by her own love, in fact, for a sin she did not even commit. This represents how the two characters from both the stories had to go through unfortunate circumstances at a degree higher than other characters. Another problem that I have observed in the two stories is the issue of inequality between males and females in the sense of replaceability.  I have come to this conclusion based on facts such as when young Master Li was convinced by Sun Fu that he should let go off Du Mei as his father will not accept her and that how he should focus on going back home in a good style to impress and make up to his father; on the other hand, in “Punishment”, when Chidam says, “Thakur, if I lose my wife I can get another, but if my brother is hanged, how can I replace?” These evidences interprets how females of the family (or regardless) were accepted to be caste aside or replaced but males were not. Nevertheless, I am pretty sure inequality was not that big of a deal back in the day in respect to either texts. Furthermore, I think that Chandara confessed for a crime she did not even have a hand in because of helplessness as she knew that without even knowing, everybody including the magistrate, police, and people of village have believed perfectly that she is the one to kill Radha. Whereas, Du Tenth eventually commits suicide as she realizes that there will never be any freedom, love, or respect in her life no matter what. Overall, both stories depict stereotypical issues of the early decades such as inequality, discrimination, and dehumanization majorly against females which were surely widespread throughout the world.

Orgon was not simply competent, but actually insightful. He was the person who seemed to care less about his mother, children, brother, and wife and more about Tartuffe as he was the “holy” man Orgon adored the most. I think he is so vulnerable to Tartuffe as he wants to increase his chances of getting into heaven. He hopes to enhance the family’s image by bringing Tartuffe in. In fact, he wants Tartuffe to control the family.

The story “Du Tenth Sinks The Jewel Box In Anger” was written in the 17th century and actually published in 1624. Feng Menglong, the author of the story, had access to classical Chinese, yet depicts the story in a vernacular language. As the date suggests, the story was written hundreds of years ago when courtesans (prostitutes) in particular had no freedom/independence of their own and were not considered up-to-the-mark as compared to the ordinary people (in short, got no respect from anybody). I have come up to this conclusion because Du Mei, a.k.a Du Tenth, who is described as such an adorable person inside out  in the story had to struggle so much to buy her freedom which wasn’t long-lived. In my opinion, Feng Menglong chooses to depict ‘courtesans’ this way in the story to highlight how they are not any different from any other person yet they are treated so differently. For instance, Du Tenth had been feeding the madam off her services for so long but still she had to convince the madam to set her free in exchange of a price. Moreover, when Li Jia headed out for help to gather the money, everybody refused thinking of his situation as “just an excuse to get money to enjoy with that whore”. In return of it all, it turns out that even though Du Mei was a prostitute by profession, she was more genuine and loyal than Li Jia who is convinced by a stranger to separate from Du Tenth. Also, when Du Tenth decides to see her sisters before she sets off for the journey with Li Jia, we find that her sisters celebrate her independence and upcoming journey wit Li Jia in the best way possible and also provide her supplies which would help her and Master Li throughout their journey. Overall, the role of courtesans in the story was very significant and mind-changing about facts such as a courtesan is not trustworthy, loyal, or worthy of anything.

My name is Kunal Sharma and I am a sophomore at Baruch College. I am planning to major in Finance from Zicklin School of Business as my interest lies in the business field. I am an international student and came to New York city an year and a half  ago to pursue my bachelor’s degree. I was born and bought up in India and completed my high school diploma in Commerce and Physical Education from there. Some of my hobbies are listening to music, playing drums, and hanging out with friends. Apart from this, I am an active participant in many sports (indoors as well as outdoors) such as soccer, ping-pong, pool, badminton, skating, and athletics. Talking particularly about soccer, I have participated in Zonal, State, and National level tournaments. To be honest, I have not been an over-the-top person in most academic fields so far, however, I am aware that education in today’s world is one of the most important assets that my generation possesses. I can say that I am very active and efficient in everything I do that interests or occupies my mind. I do not have any such plans for future but some ideas that I have in mind are, either to be an investment banker as my major suggest or most likely initiate some sort of business of my own. I have also worked part-time up until this point in the Office of Student Life at Baruch College as an administrative assistant which served as a great opportunity for me to develop skills dealing with communication, software, and customer service. I do not have a lot of friends here but I do have one person who has helped me get through everything, be it good or bad, since I have been here, that is my girlfriend. I am deeply attached to my family which resides in India as well. A fun-fact about me is that I keep cleaning/organizing anything that I find out of place most of the time as I am almost certain that I suffer from OCD. I also like eating, my favorite dish is dumplings.