An exhibition never fails in taking the spectator on a journey through the chosen art’s narrative. The vast selection of exhibitions that were available at the National Gallery of Art made it difficult to narrow down the preferred choices. While examining the exhibition list one word seemed to capture my attention. Urban. I had the privilege to be born in a foreign city and to grow up in yet another city. This perspective colored my gallery selection and placed emphasis on the word “Urban.” Located in the West Wing of the Natural Gallery of Art, “Urban Scene 1920-1950” is an exhibition that reveals the four century-old artistic interpretation of the dynamic life that comes with residing in a city. Part of the beauty of the exhibition is the incorporation of less recognized American artists that worked on various printmaking techniques to create these astonishing achievements. The installation utilized minimalistic styles that introduced the viewer to various cities in the US. During the …show more content…
All of the American artists employ a realistic approach in their prints. The exhibition exemplifies mastery of manipulation on printmaking that successfully creates an illusion of depth utilizing lights and shadows. One of the works displayed in the selection is Victoria Hutson Huntley’s brilliant detailed lithograph of Lower New York (see exhibition A). The image’s astonishing composition is accompanied with a small text labeling the print as one of the works that was produced in 1934 and given as a gift from Bob Stana and Tom Judy. The image’s depiction of naturalistic composition allows spectators to place themselves in the financial district of New York City. From a bird’s eye view, spectators witness skyscrapers reaching past the edge of the paper; indicating an abundance of wealth in the
Parisians were convinced that everyday life could be transformed in the sensational. She first explains the “boulevard culture” as flanerie, which is aimless idle behavior (Schwartz 14). Routinely, this sort of behavior was publicized by the newspapers and depicted as a typical Parisian activity (Schwartz 15). This is demonstrated by the fashionable visits made by the public to the Paris Morgue. This suggests that the city’s municipal authorities had also practiced flanerie, since the morbid work of identifying bodies and performing autopsies was transformed into a form of theater for the public’s entertainment, The popularity of public visits to the Paris Morgue during the nineteenth century was part of the spectacular "real life" that chroniclers, visitors and inhabitants alike had come to associate with Parisian culture. (Schwartz 47). What further promoted flanerie were Paris’s wax museums and panoramas. For instance, the strategic set ups of characters and props at the Musée Grévin wax museum made visitors feel as if the sets were personalized for them, thus encouraging them to participate in this spectacle (Schwartz 118). Therefore, the visitors became flaneurs since they were attempting to experience, capture, and reproduce already familiar versions of reality through wax models. In addition, early cinema and panorama technology further encouraged flanerie because the public was infatuated with spectacular realities. Ultimately, flanerie was perceived as an integral part of Parisian culture and proof that the city was modernizing. The thus reader correlates this behavior of collective consumption and leisure specifically with
Using descriptive diction such as “eerie” and “swamp” readers can imagine an unpleasant city rustling with filth and crime. Larson exposes that Chicago had “auras of mosquitoes” in its midst. Readers automatically see Chicago as a filthy and troublesome town when they associate it with mosquitoes. This view of Chicago created by Larson further achieves his purpose to show the downside of Chicago during the time the World Fair was being constructed and attended. When the World Fair was finished, Larson described the nights, “the lamps that laced every building and walkway produced the most elaborate demonstration of electric illumination ever attempted” (254). Larson says the lamps “laced” the walkways in the white city which allows readers to picture the city in a whimsical way. The feeling of the word “laced” sits with readers in a positive way. Thus, Larson can achieve the purpose of forcing readers to see the white city in a luxurious fashion. Also, Larson mentions that the lighting was “elaborate.” Readers see the white city as a sophisticated and lavish place rather than how they see the black city. Larson again is able to persuade readers into believing the magic of the white city. Larson calls upon imagery to construct the two sides of Chicago.
Describing the city’s growth as a “miraculous expansion,” and that it was “growing in all available directions, and where it abutted the lake, it grew skyward sharply increasing the value of land within the loop” (Larson 44.) At the time cities all across the United states were expanding on land, however, Chicago was both expanding on land and then into the sky. This exemplifies how Chicago was superior to other cities because they were more advanced than others in development by being able to grow their buildings upwards instead of outwards. This Fair was also expected to “awaken the nation to the power of architecture to compare beauty from stone and steel” (Larson 80.) This shows how this one city was going to evolve and do something that would be the beginning of new architecture for the rest of the country to learn from. They would be the first to start the evolution in architecture and it would be for the entire world to see as well. Lastly, Larson described the city as a place “far grander than even the Paris exposition,” and it was “ vision of a dream city designed by the greatest architects” (49 Larson.) This is important in establishing the perception of place because it is clearly called out that Chicago was better than one of the most touristy places in the world, Paris. This establishes the superiority Chicago has not
Featured and organized by the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Romare Bearden’s collection is one that appreciates and depicts life for what it really is. Bearden did not like abstract expressionism. Instead, he made many collages depicting life with different perspectives, allowing the viewer to see reality, but also try to figure out the true meaning that Bearden meant to portray in the collage that was not directly seen by just looking at the picture. These collages were made by “Cut and pasted printed, colored and metallic papers, photostats, pencil, ink marker, gouache, watercolor, and pen and ink on Masonite” (MET Museum). Bearden liked telling narratives within these collages involving Harlem life. Whether it was on the streets, inside
Sarah Boseley explains how white women have a high greater chance getting breast cancer than those blacks and south Asian women. The author mentions that women from ethnic groups such as "blacks," "whites," and "south Asian" being recruited from since 1996 to 2001. However, the large population who has breast cancer is white women. Analyzing the data from women's study at the University of Oxford, Boseley argues how women have a better chance to protect themselves, nevertheless by breastfeeding their babies and also to plan having a large family. Consequently, she also suggests all women's need advice from the Cancer Research Center in United Kingdom and these women are insensible of terrible disease. This sources urges us to understand significant
When you are hopeless and broken. Mandisa Hundley talk about how she was broken, and God save her in the song “Out of the Dark.” Mandise is a christian singer and with her music she share God with the world. When you're broken, hurt, and hopeless turn to God. That what Mandise and other christian artist talk about in there songs God love.
Out of Sight: The Los Angeles Art Scene in the Sixties by William Hackman focuses not only on the Los
In Charles Rearick’s book, Paris Dreams, Paris Memories, he describes the various ways in which Paris is “represented” through various images he identifies as the City of Light, Old Paris, the Capital of Pleasures, and Paname. Rearick further writes how and why these images of Paris came of importance and how they shaped the geographical layout of the city we know today. All of these images together have likewise produced the city of Paris while also providing the framework of Parisian events and experiences.
For my chosen photographer, I have based my project for ‘In the style’ on Berenice Abbott’s. Abbott work was mainly based in the 1930’s of the urban designs of America, she was best known for her black and white photography as well as her documentation of New York City. She had a great approach to photography in a variety of ways, through her own style of work and through her introduction of other artists including Eugene Atget’s, for his unique photographic techniques. Abbott’s work has not always been based on photography as she focused on Journalism, but soon became interested in theatre and sculpture. She began her career in photography in 1923 as an apprentice to Man Ray. In 1925, she set up her own photography studio in Paris and made several well-known portraits of artists and writers who were popular in this time. Berenice returned to New York City in the time of the Wall Street Crash, which was the largest stock market crash in American history in
In 1931, which happened to be the middle year of the entire depression, “View of New York” was created by an American painter and photographer named Charles Sheeler New York City. Currently, the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston reserves the right to display the painting, and the observer had a chance to look at the painting directly with zero distance. This painting
Between the end of the First World War and Hitler's seizure of power a cultural explosion occurred in Paris that altered our notions of art and reality and shaped our way of viewing the world ever since. In the 1920's, Paris became the undisputed international capital of pleasure and was regarded as the cultural and artistic center of Europe with a reputation for staging one of its most glamorous eras, as well as some of the most spectacular revues in the world. Imagine for a moment, that it really is 1920's Paris. You are leisurely strolling through the gas lit promenades. World War I is over and the exuberance of jazz musicians, symbolist painters, and American expatriates
Lee Beaton created Colours of the City using acrylic on canvas. The painting is currently on exhibit at Cre8ery Gallery located in Winnipeg’s Exchange District. Beaton focuses on creating architectural themed paintings or energized abstracts. This particular painting has a large size of 48” x 36” which can only be entirely viewed when standing several feet back. Beaton does not have a specific audience she is aiming towards when creating her paintings. She wants to share with the viewers how “we are all beautiful” and also wants to show “that it is what is inside that makes us beautiful”. In Colours of the City, Beaton uses form, content, and style to capture the ideas and design of the city that gives this art piece an interesting well worth seeing aspect.
The theme of art “Looking Outward: The Here and Now”, Is used to depict everyday life. This theme also brings the audience’s attention to the details of everyday moments, that they otherwise might not have noticed. Rauschenberg, Windward, 1963 Oil and silkscreened ink on canvas, page 63, figure 3.15; is a perfect example of the theme “Looking Outward: The Here and Now.” Rauschenberg used the different images such as the Statue of Liberty, water towers, a bald eagle with a rainbow in the background, etc. to depict the ordinary life in New York during the 1960s.
In “Ways of Seeing”, John Berger, an English art critic, argues that images are important for the present-day by saying, “No other kind of relic or text from the past can offer such direct testimony about the world which surrounded other people at other times. In this respect images are more precise and richer literature” (10). John Berger allowed others to see the true meaning behind certain art pieces in “Ways of Seeing”. Images and art show what people experienced in the past allowing others to see for themselves rather than be told how an event occurred. There are two images that represent the above claim, Arnold Eagle and David Robbins’ photo of a little boy in New York City, and Dorothea Lange’s image of a migratory family from Texas; both were taken during the Great Depression.
Positioned alongside Central Park within the heart of New York City, The Metropolitan Museum of Art is one of the largest and most influential art museums in the world. The Met houses an extensive collection of curated works that spans throughout various time periods and different cultures. The context of museums, especially one as influential as the Met, inherently predisposes its visitors to a set of understandings that subtly influence how they interpret and ultimately construct meanings about each individual object within a museum. By analyzing two separate works on exhibit at the Met, I will pose the argument that museums offer a unique expression of a world view that is dictated through every element of its construction.