Art exhibit

I was enticed to do a review of an exhibit called African American Art: Harlem Renaissance, Civil Rights Era, and Beyond on the Smithsonian American Art Museum website. I expected to find a highly antiquated collection of artwork that would bore me; I found artwork that ranged from the 60's to the 90's with themes that still occurring today. One piece is a dramatization of New Yorkers in their everyday fight to get to their train in time in Penn Station. It was appropriately titled Penn Station At War Time and even though Joseph Delaney painted it in 1943, this mad rush of people is still alive today in cities. This collection's title is about some of the darker periods in American history which I believe had good effects on history. Most of the pieces showed ideas of misery and hardship but they also showed strength and persistence though these hard times. I was intrigued by these pieces because of how strong the compositions were and because of the ideas behind them. The mix of old and new worked perfectly for me. They did not feel like historical paintings even though they delt with historical events. Overall, I enjoyed this exhibit and I think it would be very neat to someday see in person.

emma and vanessa's collaboration

When we began this investigation, I was not sure how having multiple artists creating one piece of art would turn out, especially with two minutes to add as much as you can. Each artist has his or her own idea on how they want a piece to turn out. I thought "What if someone ruins my artwork or what if I ruin someone else's!" I realized, in the process of creating the artwork, that it does not matter. It is actually quite more exciting seeing what people added on to my design. Having to decide so spontaneously on what to create, after a few pieces, took away the nervous feeling of wondering what to create because you just start and then roll with whatever you decided to do. Looking at the artwork after it is complete, I see the compositional unity between the 500-sum works. Recording, presenting and archiving have a role in What is art and who decides because people can work together and create something great. I think this investigation will make me not be as meticulous about my artwork in the future.

     

Essay

3.1-3.4

10.2-10.7

10.1

8.3

8.1-8.2

7.1

7.2

5.1

Landscape drawings

Still life drawing

Form vs content

4.1-4.4