Angela

Art 11

May 20, 2013

Museum Paper. Blog #10

 

In my Art 11 class I was asked to visit the museum and review a modern art exhibit. I want to say that my experience at the museum was a great experience, because I felt this new experience enriched my soul and will be the beginning of visits here and other museums.

While I was at the Metropolitan Museum of Art I noticed that the modern era art exhibit did not have many sculptures. I believe this is due to the fact that modern art uses more color and black and white painting. Honestly, at first, I was uncomfortable at the museum, because I really did not want to write a paper about it. After a while I was drawing the images that I saw, I felt relaxed and my mind was at peace due to the silence of the museum.

 The first painting that I am going to describe is Mr. and Mrs. Chester Dale,

Dine out, 1924. According to my research, this painting was made of oil on canvas, by the artist named Guy Pene du Bois. He was born in 1884 and died in 1958. He was an American-born French guy. I noticed that he was straight by reading into his personal life through his painting. In the painting he drew his first wife, Maud; she was a painter and a writer.  The painting shows him and his wife with a waiter at the fashionable hotel Brevoort.  I believe that one thing that makes him different from the other two artists is that he was also a wealthy investment banker and prominent art collector. There was a quote at the museum that caught my attention which said, “Pene du Bois’s portrayls of New York’s high society between the wars frequently record the telling body language of his protagonists”. I believe this means that this artist interpreted his art through people’s body language and reaction.

The second painting is Staatliches Bauhaus in Weima by Walter Gropius. Walter Gropius was born in Germany in 1883 and died in 1969. The book was published by the Bauhaus, preceding well known Bauhausbucher proper of 1925.  He had a unique way of using photography. The museum references said that the Thuringian Legislative Assembly, which wished to have a public display of the accomplishments of the first four years of his work. They also mention that Gropius chose the theme, “Art and technique: a new unity. This book was issued on the occasion of the great Weiner Bauhaus exhibition of 1923.

The third artist is Morris Louis. He was born in the United States in 1912 and died in 1962. He became a painter in the mid 1950’s. While I was drawing his painting I was able to learn more about his historical way of painting. He was known for his use of bright modern colors and washes of synthetic paint. I was able to learn about his way of painting by the references which said that Louis’s series of purely abstract works. They include his unfurled works from 1951-1959 of which the present work is an example. The painting demonstrated streaks of bold pigment, poured at angles to the bottom corners of the support, leaving a large area of raw, unembellished canvas at the center.

 

I saw works by three different artists using three different materials, oil, photography, streaks of pigments. They were different in their approach but they all had a story to tell in an abstract way. I guess that is what modern art is about hints which let the observer come to conclusions.    

 

References

·        Guy Pene du Bois. (1963). Mr. and Mrs. Chester Dale Dine out, 1963 Metropolitan Museum Modern art section.

·        Walter Gropus. (1925). Steatliches Bauhaus. Metropolitan museum section

·        Morris Louis. Untitled (1960) .Metropolitan Museum modern art section.