Courtney Martin Assignment #4

When I visited New York City on the Art Department Trip on April 8th, I visited some free galleries in Chelsea.

The first place that I am going to talk about was the gallery exhibition created by Philip Ording and Alexandra Whitney called Proofs and Refutations. The entire exhibit involved math and numbers. Once you walked inside, there was a sign telling you to count the number of pieces in the exhibit and then ask the woman sitting at the desk for the answer. The installation is a collaboration of about 18 artists works. The main theme of the installation is to show the relationship between art and mathematics.

Examples of works that I saw within this installation were the 2 images above, a video recording of a synchronized dance from the 1980s, some photographs, and images of numbers. Then there were more minimalist pieces such as a a series of 3 separate and simple line drawings and a large piece of cardboard suspended high up on a wall with white paper behind it. I think that if the objective of the artists was to make the viewer think hard about the relationship between math and art, the view did just that. It made me want to look further into each piece to find the mathematical/systematic, artistic, or both in each piece.

The next gallery that I visited was Stan Douglas's photography. After taking photography here at the university, it amazed me how prints this large are produced and made me wonder if they did them with computer printing or through manual printing with negatives/chemicals. Mr. Douglas's photos were actually presented by David Zwirner. David Zwirner's work focuses on press photography from the postwar period (1945-1951). Not only does he work with photography, but also with film.

The images that I chose to show are photographs that intrigued me the most. The image of the smoke is extremely high contrast, which I like, and large (about 20x30). Also in high contrast is the second image of what appears to be high heels photographed in extremely low light and what appears to be sitting on top of a mirror. This image caused me to get really close and try to see how the artist created the image. Also included in this exhibition was a picture of a crowd at a hockey game in the 1950s, which I enjoyed.

Overall, I enjoyed seeing the Chelsea area because I had never been there before and it was interesting to see the art that is being created today, as a opposed to the older art that is displayed in museums. I hope to travel back to the Chelsea area to see more.

Brock Minnich Assignment #4

Whilst my excursion through The Big Apple, I was graced with the opportunity to venture into several parts of the metropolis that is Gotham City. During my trip to New York City, I visited two of some hundred plus art exhibitions.



The first exhibition that I visited and thoroughly enjoyed was located in the heart of The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Within it's walls of endless halls and rooms of art masterpieces, I couldn't help but to feel quite small when standing within the enormity of the building. I was fascinated time after time as continued to journey through the numerous galleries that encompasses the museum. Eventually, I found myself with an exhibit known as "Rooms with a View: The Open Window in the 19th Century." This exhibition airs from April 5th- July 4th, 2011.

This exhibition focuses on the Romantic motif of the open window as first captured by German, Danish, French, and Russian artists around 1810-1820. These works include hushed sparse rooms show contemplative figures, studios with artists at work, and window views as sole motifs. The exhibition features artists C.D. Friedrich, C.G. Carus, G.F. Kersting, Adolf Menzel, C.W. Eckersberg, Martinus Rorbye, Jean Alaux, and Leon Cogniet.



The exhibit further captivated my interest due to its artistic atmosphere where the entire exhibit was painted to be like the sky. Those who are enjoying the grandeur of the pieces themselves can focus out onto the beautiful collaborative that is the exhibition, through the museums use of colors that match and exemplify the landscapes found within each prospective painting in the exhibition. Side note: the pictures above were taken under extreme caution!

The second institution I was able to visit was The Fashion Institute of Technology located on 7th Avenue & W 39th Street. The Fashion Institute of Technology featured a collaboration of upcoming fashion designer Claire Catoire, and photographer Pascal Auve, called "Expressions Dentelle."

This exhibition is an illustration of the world-famous lace heritage that is shared by the two. The collaboration between designer and photographer works very well, Pascal's use, or lack of color, brings out the quality of Claire's work. The fine lace quality that is found on within Claire's work is amazing, furthermore the quality found in Pascal's work express the delicacy of lace within the composition.



"Expres sions Dentelle" was a great outlet to explore my artistic interests and rather quite entriging to view, however to get the real affect and see its true quality I highly suggest view it yourself. The enormity found with Pascal's work is beautiful and simple, yet complex and all encompassing in person.

Museum Blog- Allie Pugliese

Instead of going to museums in a major city I went to the drag show in Carver Hall and an event called "Taking Back the Night" in Kehr Union. First, I went to "Taking Back the Night". I did not know what the speech was about before I attended it. I knew it was about victims of sexual assault but i thought it would be a routine don't-talk-to-strangers speech. However, this speaker was different than any I've heard before. Our speaker had been in Seventeen Magazine, and on radio and TV and now in front of us telling her story about how she was kidnapped.

She was a teenager working at the local mall in Chicago when one day after work she was walking to her car and noticed someone following her. She told us how she kept walking, thinking the person would go a different direction, but when she got to her car he put a knife to her throat and put her in his car, which was parked right next to hers. She told us how despite being blindfolded, she could see a little and memorized her kidnappers face and what direction he drove her in.

After she was raped by the man and set free, she went to the police station where she told the detectives about what happened to her. She told us that she included so many details that the police did not believe her story was real. They thought she made it up for attention. They finally listened to her and made a sketch which immediately was recognized. Her kidnapper turned out to be on 6 month probation for the same crime. After years of dealing with the court system, she was able to see him sent to jail.

Hearing this lady's story was incredible. It was amazing how she could take herself out of the story and tell us without breaking down. One of the questions asked at the end mentioned how she was so composed and if she ever gets taken back to the emotions she felt at that time. She said that yes, whenever she sees zip ties she gets a flash back because this is what he used to bind her hands. Just talking about the zip ties, i could see that she was getting red and uncomfortable.

She also talked about common problems with victims like herself. Often the police do not believe these people have really been through what they claim. Also, people blame the victim for the crime. They say the girl brought on the rape because of what she was wearing or how she carried herself. The biggest problem is that people don't report their crime and the offender is free to do it again. The event ended with a candle lit walk past the Quad to pay tribute to those victims of similar crimes.


The second event I went to was the drag show on April 11th. Going into the show, I had no idea what to expect. In my head I was picturing a runway and maybe a bunch of drag queens doing a fashion show.

When we got to Carver Hall, the room was filled with a surprising amount of people. I saw many people dressed in drag. These people were not in the show, however. I thought it was great how much audience participation there was and how high the energy in the room was.

When the MC came out, I thought she was a BU student but I learned later, she's a professional drag queen. I also learned the show was to raise money for charity which I thought was great.

The show turned out to be like a talent show. There were a couple of professional queens performing. The professionals were the best, but the amatures, who were BU students were good too. I didn't really have a favorite, I was equally shocked by all of them. I kept thinking to myself how my grandma would react if she was in the crowed. She would probably not understand this form of entertainment and be scarred for life.

Overall, it was a fun experience. I was happy to know it was for charity. I will think about going back if I get the chance, and I'll definitely try to convince my friends to go with me if I do.

Metropolitan Museum of Art and Ezair gallery

There were two main exhibits that I wanted to be sure I saw while visiting the Met. The first was the Egyptian exhibit. I always felt there was such a ridiculous, yet beautiful, mount of detail put into the Egyptian piece. All of the little blue men pictured above, along with the eagle, could only be two to three inches tall, or in the eagle's case, long. For such a small, portable figurine, it had to be very time consuming to carve and paint all of the tiny details. All through the Egyptian culture the art is planned and organized. Their stories and ideologies can be traced through out time even by those just beginning to look at art and it's context in society.


The second exhibit I really wanted to be sure I saw was the section on Asian Culture. I have always been interested in Asian art and culture, especially the Japanese. Both pieces in pictures require precision, mainly the stone. The stone is set so that the water on the top is able to flow across the surface with no emphasis on going one way over the rock or another. The other picture is of the artwork on a room divider. Each section of the divider shows a very calm, relaxing, and natural scene. I couldn't tell from behind the glass but it looked as though each woven piece was colored separately from the others and assembled afterward.

Ezair Gallery

The gallery was just a small second story loft with only about 20 to 25 paintings being displayed. It was located at 905 Madison Ave. between 72nd and 73rd streets. What was so appealing about the art displayed was its softness. The paintings in the right picture were the first to capture our eyes walking in. None of them had clear outlines. Considering both sets, I feel we were very drawn to the paintings due to the clear existence of a rainbow in each and the association rainbows have with the LGBT community.

Blog #3-Museum: Kyle Gosson

Instead of going to New York City, Philadelphia or Baltimore, I drove back to home over the weekend and went to two different museums in Boston. The two museums were Museum of Fine Art and Institute of Contemporary Art.

Museum #1: Museum of Fine Art

It’s similar to Metropolis Art Museum in NYC, yet, a lot different in other ways too. They have a new addition part, which is all about the American Artists. The first floor has artworks from the 18^th century, most of them are related to colonies era and then on the second floor is 19^th century to early 20^th century. Middle of 20^th century and after is on the third floor. The museum also has other sections, related to Asia, Egypt, and Europe arts. In the basement, they have photographs. Also it has a section for the contemporary arts, however it’s not completed, and will be complete by September 2011.

This museum does a very good job by the way they set things up in each room with all art pieces in there. They have painted walls that match to the pictures or those artworks. At the center of museum there is one tall tower that is made out of glasses, made by Dale Chihuly and this tower is called “Lime Green Icicle Tower.” He said that this tower is more than 40 feet tall and about 10,000 pounds while there is 2,342 individual glass pieces put together. It took a week for him and his team to make this.

I found it very fascinating, since I am sculptor. I really give a lot of credits to this man. I researched a little about him and I think I just, finally, found an artist who I would look up to. The reason why I really like things about him is that he believes “I tend to do things on a large scale because it’s exciting. I like to push things in new and different ways.” – Dale Chiluly. I agree with him, completely!

Museum #2: Institute of Contemporary Art (ICA)

This museum is brand new and unique. It’s on a waterfront, seaports. It has a lot of windows, which you can see the entire city of Boston and across the harbor area/river, with an awesome view. If you go to the fourth floor, you can see all planes land or take off from Logan International Airport over the bay with many of the ships coming in or departing.

This museum is related to modern/contemporary. They have Shepard Fairey’s OBEY artworks. He is well known as the designer of a poster of Obama’s “Hope”. His pieces are very amazing by the way he printed them, resulting in perfect and clean pieces. He used very bold colors to emphasis the visual eyes.

However, two things that disappointed me that they wouldn’t let me to take picture in the exhibitions, and three floor was closed to get ready for new art pieces coming in soon. I only went to one floor, which is the 4^th floor. At least they gave me the second ticket to come back again, by the time they have everything done.

Blog #3 Ashley Wingate

The first exhibit I would like to talk about is “The Mexican Suitcase,” which was on display at the International Center of Photography. This exhibit consists of the works of three major photographers from the Spanish Civil War, Robert Capa, Gerda Taro, and David Seymour. Most of this vintage film that was on display was a nitrate-based film, all in black and white. This collection of work as a whole is just absolutely stunning! The collection is made up of many powerful images portraying such vivid, visual documentation of the war. There were two pictures I was strongly drawn to in Navacerrada Pass, Segovia front, Spain by Taro.

The first photograph was taken on the Segovia front of a soldier in a tank. I really liked the vantage point from which the picture was taken. I feel like the tank becomes more abstract in the picture and allows me to focus more on the soldier. I also like the highlights and shadows throughout the photograph. The second photograph I really enjoyed was the republican soldier leading a wounded soldier down a path. I was drawn to this picture because of the focal length at which the picture was taken. Also the fact that the picture isn’t just focused on the soldiers going down the path, but it also includes the environment.

I believe The Mexican Suitcase as a whole works well together in displaying the Spanish Civil War. This collection of work depicts a great political struggle in Spanish history from the expansion of global fascism. I feel that all the single works in the collection work together as a whole, displaying a timeline of the Civil War. The photographs were similar to each other showing such emotional scenes of the war. I was very taken aback from the photographs taken of the morgue, which showed the chaos and massive amounts of dead bodies. At the same time, the outside of the morgue showed a crowd of people waiting anxiously beyond the gates.

Overall, I really enjoying looking through the contact sheets, printed photographs, and reading the various scripts about The Mexican Suitcase as a whole. I believe the three major photographers did an excellent job with recording visual documentation of the war. All of the photographs flow together quite well; creating such a powerful, vivid social documentary of the Spanish Civil War.

The second exhibit I was strongly drawn to was the Stieglitz, Steichen, Strand at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. I was drawn most to the work of Alfred Stieglitz, an influential advocate for modern art and photography in his time, as well as his journal, Camera Work. There were a couple themes displayed throughout the gallery of his work. One of the more featured collection of black and white photographs in this exhibit were the images of Georgia O’Keeffe.

Looking through Stieglitz’s’ work, I really enjoyed the photographs he took of Georgia O’Keeffe. I loved “Hands,” the highlights and shadows really helped this piece of work “pop.” It’s such a wonderful composite portrait and I feel drawn to it because of the abstract detail of the hands. This particular abstract view of the hands, sinewy fingers pressing into flesh, really shows the multifaceted personality of O’Keeffe. Another photograph I really liked was the “Steerage” one where the compressed composition emphasizes the closeness of space and accommodations of the lower class people. The overall graphic vision of shapes and balance really help make this photo stunning. I also like how the social conditions of the day are united in this particular photograph. You see the upper class people up top and then the lower class people below, divided by the levels and the walkway to board the ship.

Stieglitz works against pictorialism in his photographs because of the way he manipulates the images to look more picturesque, like art. I believe he does this quite well by way of the light and dark contrasts in his pictures, as well as the compositional structure and the repetition of forms. Stieglitz chooses subjects that deal more with the realities of modern life, creating more of an abstract art, like that of Georgia O’Keeffe’s “Hands.”