Art Museum of Denver and Clyfford Still Museum - Essay Example

Abdullah Art III 21/12 Field Trip Around The Campus During this semester our decided one day to take us in a tour around the campus. So, my classmates and I left our classroom accompanied by our teacher, and we walked around under sunny skies and cool breeze. The weather was great. During the walk we saw lots of interesting things. For instance, I noticed two statues of two different things at a distance. Actually, what attracted me was the color of the statues, and the dancing around them was good. When I came closer, they were shiny and white. What was interesting was the fact that there was live real dancing around the statues, so that people would enjoy themselves and take photos in that beautiful weather. When I touched the statues and felt them I realized that they were made of concrete, which surprised me because statues are usually made of different mix of material. The one of the statues was a butterfly located inside the Science Building. The design of the statue was very attractive and elegant. I liked it because it was made of metal and it was also painted with colors like orange and red. There was also some crystal in the mix. The way the statue was handling was very eye-catching. It was beautiful. What drew my attention was a tool in the middle of the campus. I believe it is used to measure something like the speed of air or its pressure. It inspired students to invent and be creative in our world of technology. We also saw a boat, which really caught my eye. The funny thing is that I always pass by it but I never stayed to check it. So, I stopped and looked at it very carefully. It measures about 2.5 meters in length and one meter in width. It is shaped like a nest made from branches of a tree, at least, that’s what I thought. It turned out to be made of stainless steel. The design was very elegant and attractive. It was my favorite. Field trips are very important because we learn more, when we see things closely. Art is best appreciated and understood at a short or close distance, where we can see specific details. I really enjoyed my field trip. Abdullah Art III 1/21/12 Art Museum of Denver When we speak about art we are actually studying people, their cultures and their history. Art is a great thing for nations and the world. Actually, when a man draws he/she is expressing their feelings, attachments to their countries and their loved ones. Art is a tool that an artist uses to express his/her feelings. An artist can be a painter and his paintings can make him very famous like Michael Angelo who became eternal due to his great paintings. Michael Angelo expressed his feelings in his portraits, and through them we learn a lot about the culture of the time. Therefore, portraits or paintings or sculptures can be very valuable to humanity because through them we learn a lot about humanity. Such being the case, I paid a visit to the “Art Museum of Denver” in early July to explore and learn. There were so many things I loved but there was one particular painting by Phonda Holy Bear. It was very interesting because it is about American Red Indians and their history. The name of the picture was Maternal Journey and it tells us indirectly about the strengths and dignities of Indian mothers. We see the mother and the mare guiding their young into the future. They also look to the past searching for guidance into the future. I roamed around the museum, and I can honestly say that I liked everything I saw. The museum is a place that preserves the arts and works of famous artists, and it also tells us a lot about their time and place. The museum always receives new works of contemporary artists. There is always something new as one man, who works at the museum, said. I ‘d like to say that museums are places which must be visited by the people, because they can learn a lot about Colorado and its history in the “Art Museum of Denver”, for instance. I liked how different pieces of art were organized with signatures of artists, and the dates of the arts. We can learn a lot about Indians and their culture of we visit the “Art Museum of Denver”. I encourage it and I recommend it. Actually, if we study their history and visit the museum then it would be a double-learning experience. Abdullah Art III 1/21/12 Clyfford Still Museum One day, during the semester, I went to Clyfford Still Museum. I can say that the trip there was very illuminating and also very interesting. I saw many things and drawings that looked so complicated to understand or make sense of it. One man who works over there told me that the drawings really represented faces of people. I was really puzzled because they didn’t look like human faces. The man told me that symbolic drawing can be complex, but artists get used to it. He showed me a simple drawing, because as he said, compared to other pieces the piece was easy to analyze and understand. The piece was about three people sitting with a woman standing behind them. The colors were very attractive, and that was a switch from symbolic art. The piece really caught my eye and I liked it a lot. It was a canvas oil painting with real thick coat of paint. I took my time analyzing and reflecting on the painting to understand if there was any hidden explanation. Actually, the woman was not really standing. She was kneeling down next to the men. Looking closer always clarifies things in art. When I looked in the back of the picture I noticed that the sky was very dark and gloomy because the colors were dark blues and dark grays with some orange or red in the horizontal scope. Finally, I realized because of the orange and red colors that the time of the setting of the painting was at down or dusk, because we see this mix of colors at those two times. I was very proud of myself to analyze as such. The people looked very tired, so it must be dusk, because the men looked like they worked hard all day and the woman was serving them food. I really enjoyed analyzing the painting and understanding what it meant. Visiting museums like the one above can be very educating for people who study art regardless of the kind of art. Abdullah Art III 1/21/12 Reflection On Vance Kirkland’s Paintings On Saturday, July 7, I went to “Kirkland Museum of Fine and Decorative Art” Mr. Kirkland was a well known artist. In fact he was known for his symbolic art, which he expressed through his multi-colored paintings. Kirkland died in May, 1981 at the age of 76, leaving behind him a wealthy collection of beautiful paintings. All of these paintings constitute what is called “Kirkland Museum of Fine and Decorative Art”. What drew my attention in his museum was a big photo by Hugh Grant showing Kirkland painting a few paintings. I fact, one painting was lying next to the wall, which looked like a library because there are so many books. The painting looked finished. Kirkland is sitting at a table with many little jars of paint. He is painting a huge canvas. The colors vary from red to pink, to yellow, to blue or a mixture of them. The painting lying next to the wall has specific colors like maroon, pink, blue, and light red. It is a symbolic painting, because it has curves overlapping one on top of the other. It is very hard to figure what he meant by them. To me they look like flowers of different colors. One may interpret them as clouds in the sky at dusk or dawn because of the different beautiful colors. I guess he was known for symbolism, but looking at the painting he must have been known for his colors and how to mix them producing different colorful patterns, which relax the viewer. The painting he is drawing in the photo taken by Hugh Grant looked more complex. It has patterns like those in the other painting. However, it has different patterns of blue and yellow like dots. To me it looked like a view from the window of an airplane before landing at night, where we see different dotted yellow lights and different other things. They may be interpreted differently by other critics. Kirkland’s use of different colors and patterns made him famous, and I enjoyed watching many of his artistic pieces. Abdullah Art III 1/21/12 An Interview with Sanford Biggers Sanford Biggers is a quiet artist who has been around since the late 1990’s. His pieces of art include video, music, performance, painting, sculpture, and drawing. Many artists in the world have included him in their shows because he is a good artist. He is without gallery representation. Mr. Biggers is an educated man. In fact he got a BA at Morehouse College in Atlanta and an MFA at the Art Institute of Chicago. He taught at Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond. He also spent a year as a visiting scholar at Harvard, and then he joined the faculty of Columbia University in January 2010. He moved to New York in 2010 and he had a studio in Harlem. Stephanie Cash met with him in his studio and had an interview, which I will highlight briefly. In the interview, Sanford Biggers told Stephanie that he had a gallery in Los Angeles. He admitted to her that he never had a gallery representation in New York. He worked with a private dealer by the name Michael Klein. He told Stephanie that he had been in shows in New York galleries and that he was in involved in many projects there. After he got out of graduate school he did residencies at the Studio Museum of Harlem. He also met many dealers and artists with whom he worked on different projects. He worked a lot overseas, the reason he work in New York is not well known. In the interview he said that he lived in Los Angeles until he went to college at Morehouse in Atlanta. Then he moved to Florence, Italy to study the Italian language and art. After he graduated from there he moved to Japan and stayed there for three years. He also told Stephanie that he loved art since he was a preteen. He did graffiti in the 1980s in the beginning of the rap movement that started in L.A. He got involved in break dancing and graffiti and that pushed him to do something with his life as an artist. From there on he realized that art was his middle name. The interview was a good illuminating one. It exhibited mostly how he started and how he became well known in the world of art. Work Cited Art in America. Magazine International Review. New York, March 11, 2012. Read More