Baltimore Museum of Art

While at the Baltimore Museum of Art three pieces in particular stood out to me; Mont Sainte-Victoire Seen from Bibémus Quarry by Paul Cézanne, Head of a Woman by Alexei Jawlensky, and Chur by Sascha Braunig. From the section focused on modern art, I would like to focus this post on Chur. 

Using concepts that we are currently practicing in class, Chur uses the repetition of the same line to form an image that entices the viewer. While observing Chur in the museum I envisioned the piece as a brain centered on a background of the pattern that shaped the brain (I know that's kind of a confusing explanation). However when I went back and reexamined the image for the purpose of this post I saw a face in the construction of the object that I originally viewed as a brain and this captured my attention.

In class we looked at pieces from famous artist who were able to manipulate pieces to depict different objects. However, seeing this tactic first-hand was a much different experience than looking at the pieces on the computer. I was amazed, and thought it was interesting to get to see  first-hand different techniques expressed in class.

Visibility Reflection

Visibility distinguishes between the two types of the imaginative process. The first type starts at the word and arrives at the visual image. On the other hand, the second type starts with the visual image and arrives at its verbal expression. Writing or reading would be an example of the first type. For example, first you use the words and place them in a way to create a visual image that the reader creates in their head. Cinema is also a form of the first type. In cinema the director first establishes his/her ideas and writes them on the page and they are later turned into an image as the film is produced. The second type is a little bit harder for me to place. In one hand the visualization and creation of art could be an example but I think that the creation often begins with a word in mind. However, as an observer looks at the art they first see the image and then associate it with verbal expression to give the piece meaning.

"The Whole Ball of Wax" Reflection

"Art is a cat." A combination of very simple words to create a quite complex phrase. Still not entirely coherent in what the phrase means, I can piece together the idea that art is not as clear and communicative in it's pieces as a dog's behavior.

Always hearing about the complexity of art growing up, I never took the time myself to look into it. I have had history teachers pull up art pieces and ask the message behind it and by the end of the discussion they would always tell all of the students that we were wrong and would then tell us the "correct" meaning of the art piece. But is there one mean behind a single art piece? After reading Jerry Saltz, "The Whole Ball of Wax" I have now become skeptical of the previous understandings that I have come to know. "Art is often political when it doesn't seem political and not political when that's all it seems to be." So were the pieces that I was taught to be political actually political, or were they composed of an entirely different meaning? A question that I may never know the answer to, I look forward to further learning in this class and gaining a better understanding of the changed that is inspired through art.