Michael Rothenberg Blog 3

For my trip to a city, I went on the bus trip to NYC. When there I stopped at the Metropolitan Museum. The Museum was a lot bigger then I expected, and was hard to get to see everything. I saw a ton of pieces of work that stood out, but to interested me the most.

This piece with with the houses was real cool to me. I liked the artists style that he used and also the simplicity of it. The piece was rather large compared to others which I thought was cool also.

I also liked this piece with the pennies. It was at least 12 ft tall and 8 ft wide. Although it was very simple, the thought behind it was creative. Each picture was a close up of an old penny. You could really see in detail the corrosion on the pennies.

Kelly Geist Assignment #3

For this assignment I went to the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Museum of Modern Art in New York City. I really liked both of these museums, the MOMA more than the MET but both of them had aspects that I enjoyed. First I am going to talk about the Metropolitan Museum of Art and then about the Museum of Modern Art.

In the Metropolitan Museum of Art I wasn't really interested in the older works of art which seem to take up most of the museum, but I was interested in the Modern art. This section of the museum actually had a lot of artworks that I was familiar with and didn't expect to see there, and a lot of pieces that I had never seen or heard of but really liked. There were also a few exhibits that I wanted to see that were only there temporarily.

Some of the things that I really enjoyed seeing in the Modern Art section of this museum were pieces that I had never seen before such as "Skull" by Andy Warhol and also "Mao" by Warhol. "Mao" is absolutely huge and so you can't miss it in the museum. Another piece that I liked was"Lucas" by Chuck Close. That piece in particular was really interesting to see because I don't think that you can get the full effect of it without seeing it in person because there is so much detail in it up close. I also really liked Pablo Picasso's "Cavalier and Seated Nude" because it was just a really strange image and so it caught my attention right away. A lot of the art that I seen in this museum were works of art by artists that I was already familiar with, but these particular pieces were ones that I wasn't familiar with.

Besides the Modern Art section, I also wanted wanted to see the exhibits that were only up temporarily. These were Cezanne's Card Players and Stieglitz, Steichen, Strand. I was not that impressed with the Cezanne exhibit. It did have the Card Players which I wanted to see but I wasn't familiar with most of the other works that were in the exhibit and I thought there would have been maybe a few more of his that I had actually seen before. I did however really like the Stieglitz, Steichen, Strand exhibit. In particular, I really enjoyed seeing "The Steerage" and the many images of Georgia O'Keefe.

In the Museum of Modern Art I found that I really liked so many of the artworks that there just wasn't enough time to see everything that I wanted to in it. I felt like I could have spent days looking at everything and it was sort of overwhelming the amount of Modern Art to see there. I tried to see at least a little bit of everything from drawings to paintings, sculptures, and photography.

I felt like every piece of modern art that I have ever learned about was in this museum and I had to see it all. No matter where I went I could pick out art from artists I knew and I really liked that I was familiar with so many of the pieces in this museum but there were also pieces that I didn't know which I also enjoyed seeing. I think what surprised me about the art that I seen in this museum is how different the art looked in person that I had learned about in different classes. I was mostly interested in seeing the most well known pieces in this museum such as van Gogh's "The Starry Night" and Warhol's "Soup Cans". I also found that I liked some work better after seeing it in person such as De Kooning's "Woman and Bicycle" and pieces by Magritte.

I think the museum of Modern Art fit more for the kind of art that I am interested in and I think that it has a really good collection from a lot of great artists. I felt like it was the type of museum that everyone should really see at least once because it has all of these well known pieces in it and even pieces that might not be as well known but are still really interesting. I don't feel like I got to see everything that I wanted to in it though and I would like to go through it again.

Morgan Cope-City Art Blog- Philadelphia, PA

For blog number 3, we were required to go to a city of our choice and go to two different museums, galleries or one museum and one gallery then write about it on the blog. I chose to go to one museum and one gallery. I was unable to attend to New York City bus trip so I decided to take a trip down to Philadelphia; I went to the Philadelphia Museum of Art and The Wentworth Gallery in Philadelphia. I was expecting both the museum and the gallery to be a little similar but as I was looking closer at things they are very different in many ways. I feel like I liked the museum a lot more than the gallery and have a lot more to talk about the museum than the gallery. The museum was so fascinating and amazed me by the setup, architecture and artwork in the museum. I wish that the museum would have been open longer due to the fact that I could have literally spent all day in the museum looking at the artwork and exploring. I take a lot of pictures since I love photography which I will post in this blog, but I am hoping to make a trip back down to the museum to explore some more artwork that I didn't have time to look at.

First, I am going to talk about the Philadelphia museum of art as a whole and my experience there. When I was getting close to the actual museum, I started getting excited, I didn't really know what to expect or what I was going to find inside. I drove up to the museum parking lot and got out of the car. Right by the parking lot there was a Greek looking metal statue that seemed to me to have some type of sea creatures and horses on it. Not only was it a statue but I also think that it was a fountain turned off or used some time ago. Next, I got to the stairs and of course had to run up the rocky stairs. When I got to the top, the actual art museum building really toke me by surprise. The architecture was put together very well and it was a really beautiful building that consisted of big columns and pediments and marble creatures on the top. Once I got to the top of the stairs and stood up under the columns, I got a strange feeling that went through my body. I couldn't believe I was there, it was so amazing to me.

Next, when I got inside there was a grand staircase leading to the upstairs. The museum consisted of 3 floors: a ground floor, 1st floor and second floor. The ground floor was made up of prints and photographs. I didn't spend too much time on the ground floor, but the first and second floor I spent more time on. The 1st floor consisted of some prints and drawings, modern art, contemporary art and modern European art (1850-1900). These floors had older paintings and sculptures. The floor had more modern art that used bright colors and patterns, some things were abstract and some realistic. There were some of Andy Warhol's work on this floor which I thought was awesome. If I had to pick something that I really liked it would be his work because the way he put things together was in a weird but awesome way. If I had to relate our printmaking class to an artist or floor this would be it.

The second floor was at the top of a large extravagant staircase. This floor consisted of older European art (1100-1850) also, this floor consisted of some architecture, furniture and sculptures all from this time period. I don't think I would have liked this floor as much if I didn't know and study renaissance art this semester. I saw a lot of artist that I have learned about and it was really amazing for me to be standing there in front of very famous works of art. I was amazed to know that I was there and all these artworks were from so long ago. I was also amazed that I was in the presents of the artwork that looked like it wasn’t even that old. One of my favorite paintings of all time was on that floor, "The Birth of Venus" by Nicolas Poussin. I don't know what it is about this artist or the painting but I just love looking at it., I think that I like it so much because I studied his artwork and also because the painting has so much detail that my eye can spend so much time looking at the painting.

Next, the second place I went to was a gallery. The gallery was the Wentworth gallery in Philadelphia. This gallery was a lot different compared to the Philadelphia Museum of Art. The gallery was a lot smaller than the museum by 100's of paintings. The gallery I went to had about a dozen or so artist that actually got to sell their artwork and put on main display. One of the most famous artists in Wentworth is Jane Seymour & her "Open Heart Collection". The gallery has 20 different locations in 8 different states including Pennsylvania, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Maryland, New Jersey, North Carolina, and Virginia. You can buy the paintings at the galleries but, I noticed that the paintings are a little pricey for what I thought they would sell the artwork for. I wasn't very impressed with the work in the gallery compared to the museum artwork. Although it might have been that I was amazed by the museum and there were a lot more artwork and things that really entertained me at the museum. It could have also been that I don't think the pricing of the painting were worth it.

I noticed a lot of the painting in the gallery had to do with some type of "Americanism" or "Patriotic" incorporated into their paintings. Also, the artist used a lot of bright and vibrant colors in their work. Some of the work was abstract looking, almost like they used the outlining of skinny abstract people along with some realistic paintings. Most of the paintings were hung up on a wall about 8 per wall the size of about 60X30, but a lot of their other paintings were hung in a type of wall that almost stand up drawers that slide out and you could also view the artist artwork from there. Although the artist artwork may have taken a lot of time, I respect the time they have put into their work and the way that every artist had approach there artwork differently and had different ideas. Like I said early, I didn't nearly enjoy the gallery as much as I did the museum.

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Personal Adornment Day & Make-up Extravaganza

This past Thursday, Hass Gallery was host to the 7th annual Personal Adornment Day & Make-up Extravaganza. This event was wearable art, make-up and fashion exhibition put on by students in sculpture, theater and fabric design classes at the university. The works and make-up art were displayed is the form of a runway show, accompanied by artist chosen music preceded by the information on the piece and an artist statement.

There was a wide variety of memorable works, made from everything from traditional fabrics to Q-tips to pill bottles. Some of the works, such as Sunrise by Nicole Patton, were very traditional is design, although still very beautiful. Others, such as Sarah Sallade's Octopus, were much more silly and abstract compared to traditional clothing, making them seem more like costumes. The models did a fantastic job with acting, making the artist's intentions much more visible.

Two of the works that stood out to me the most were Megan Combs' Gown and The Photographer's Armor. Gown was a very simple dress that was many yards long. Despite it's unusual length, it was very elegant. Her other work, The Photographer's Armor, was constructed of over 1000 metal film canister rings to form somewhat of a chain mail that covered the model's face, and also formed wrist cuffs. The work looked very interesting on the model, dressed completely in black.

Erin Endicott

I can’t even begin to explain how inspiring this work has been for me to see and hear about. The work really brought me out of a slump and made me want to actually work on art again. Although I have to admit that printmaking wasn’t close to the art techniques her work inspired.

Since watching her presentation and looking at her pieces I really wanted to work more with line again and be able to use stitching and painting to really make something that feels like a piece I would be proud to say is mine. I love having the ability in my art project to just work without the need to put much thought in the final piece.

Professor Endicott used stitching in a way that it acts as paint. It’s used both as filler with thick strong lines and an accent to ink work on the cloth she would use as her base for any piece. Using layering and such fragile materials to make them strong and bold made the presentation very inspiring and almost emotional. She began using pure representatives in her art, such as young children’s clothing, always white or an off white. The bold red and browns made the pieces almost grotesque both in the way the shapes where made and accented and how they were hung to display.

Personal Adornment Day

Out of all of the performances and pieces presented in the BU wearable art show I think my favorite was the pond goddess. The model was very good with the piece when working with it to show the movement in it. I feel it was very creative and very well made.

I think a close second would have to be the galaxy collection. From what I could tell from where I was standing all of the pieces in the collection was hemmed nicely and fit the models very well. I loved the attitude in the models the artist chose. Even with the calmer models I feel it showed the various moods that the universe also shows.

I think I was most impressed with the dress made out of q-tips. I can only imagine the time and effort required to put that dress together. I’m sure making it function and the requirements to keep it on her body was a nightmare. I think the originality for this piece and the materials used for it remind me of a dress made of feminine pads two years ago.

I wish the performances were a little more in depth. They both clearly demonstrated their point, yet it would have been great to see more structure in the first act at least.

For next year I really feel that it should be held in a large area. I’ve attended every show since I was in one in 2009 and every year the attendance has grown.