A Blogs@Baruch site
Over the weekend I took the time to go to the Museum of Modern Art with a few friends! By far, my two favorite pieces were Dan Flavin’s “untitled (to the innovator of Wheeling Peachblow)” and Van Gogh’s “Starry Night.” I love the colors and light both artworks give off. They provide a sense of tranquility (something that I could certainly use on a day off) and imagination. I would definitely go back, especially because it’s free for students!
Last week, my friends from high school came back from college and we decided to go to the Morgan Library and Museum. The Morgan Library and Museum was filled with many fine arts paintings and it was impossible to keep my eyes off of them. I found this painting in particular interesting because of the contrasting images seen in one image. The expressionless dog seems either oblivious of the dead rabbit and hawk or protective of the dead game. When I first saw this painting I didn’t notice that there were two dead animals because I was so focused on the dog. But as I looked closer I realized that there was a story that was waiting to be told.
The idea that there was a story waiting to be told brought me to ask my friend, Lucy, “What do you see?” Lucy, an artist herself, said that to her the dog seemed to be waiting for something bad to happen as if the dog was expecting to be the next one dead. Then I shared my thoughts of the dog either waiting for his or her master or protecting the two animals, Lucy strongly disagreed.
Lucy and I have a tendency to go back and forth when it comes to any issue, but this time it was different. It was as if being in college has allowed us to become more respectful and analyze deeper into a subject. Lucy and I may attend different schools, but college has allowed for both of us to have discussions with people from all over the country and the world, which has definitely begun to change the way we think and the way we speak.
On Friday, October 6th I attend the Visual Arts Center of the Visual School of Arts. The center had a small gallery with many interesting images. Some were artistic drawing and paints but, the ones I found interesting were the old fashion photographs. The one of the ones that was especially memorable to the one of building in ruins and you can see the city in ruins in the background. The other image that really stood out was the photograph that showed a religions statue that was toppled and the head is knocked off(which is basically every statue were observe in art history class). Those images showed me how powerful a single picture can be and how much it can show. Also, this visit also allowed me to practice some of the skills that I learned in art history class, on how to analyse images.
A couple friends and I decided to visit the School of Visual Arts not too far away from Baruch after our classes on Thursday. Finding it was a bit difficult but once we did we discovered that the school had an art exhibit in it with many art works as well as little descriptions on the sides. The art works were quite confusing to me because I wasn’t sure what was going on in them up until I read the description on the side which spoke of Shikumen which I had never heard of. “Shikumen came from the migration after the Small Swords Rebellion and the Taiping Revolution of 1853.” (Citing from one of the captions/descriptions for the artwork) It was a place that developed after rebellions and a war like state that started off very poor and then developed its own rich culture and built up from it. This place plays a very important role in Chinese history because of its background, development and new culture. Although all the art works presented seemed very chaotic, they did show a sort of beauty in the chaos that was going on and the war like state. The anarchy portrayed represents the freedom that those people were striving for and had finally reached when they formed Shikumen. I’m very glad I got to visit this Visual Arts center and view all of the Shikumen art as well as other pieces that had no relation to Shikumen but were very interesting, aesthetically pleasing and captivating to me. I think visiting this center was also very helpful considering I take art history and we are taught all about reading and analyzing art which I got to take into real life and try and utilize during this exhibit.