The Museum of Fine Arts Essay

When I visited the Orange County Museum of Art (OCMA), I was mesmerized by the beautiful sculptures, paintings, and many other works of art. This museum introduces many different exhibitions at different times and dates. The exhibition that I chose to visit is called the “Sandow Birk: American Qur’an”. The reason why I was very interested in this type of exhibition was because it displayed Middle Eastern artwork. Another reason was because I am Middle Eastern and that I can relate to it. Although I was so focused on this exhibition only, I did not realize the other works of art. However, as I walked deeper into the museum, another exhibition caught my attention. That exhibition is called the “Olga Lah: Amass and Swell”. If anyone decides to visit the Orange County Museum of Art (OCMA), I would recommend to look online about any appealing exhibitions that are being displayed as well as calling their office to plan a visit. Furthermore, in my opinion, there were some types of art that I did not fully analyze because they were not relatively fascinating as the rest. Moreover, the artworks that I examined displayed unique qualities and their messages were demonstrated in a significant, yet informative way.

For my enrichment report, I decided to take a trip to the Los Angeles County Museum. However, I was trapped with the challenging choice of choosing only one museum for my cultural visit. Since, there are so many prodigious and amazing museums to choose from to visit in the county. But, I have heard many great feedbacks about the Los Angeles County Museum of Art from fellow classes mates, friends and family. So, I finally, had my destination set to and planned a visit to the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. Upon my visit my attention was already fixated on the unique building layout and the many arts exhibited located all around the outside of the museum building. There were several building that housed the many different art exhibits. Such as the first building I walked into, after purchasing a ticket. This building was called the “Ahmanson” building, which housed voluminous and diverse art of the European, Islamic, South and Southeast Asian Art, Art of the Ancient World, Art of the Pacific and Others. There were also many special exhibitions that was hosted at the time of my visit, such as the modern art gallery and Rifkin Gallery for German Expressionism. One of the sculpture centered in the middle of the building of the “Ahmanson” building called “Smoke” really caught my attention. As it quite an enigmatic and stunning metal sculpture that mesmerizes illusions based on your interpretation and perspective of the piece.

When I attend the Oklahoma Art Museum this morning, I was completely blown away by the different styles, technique, and artistic abilities that artist have. Art can come in many forms and can involve many different things. From paintings, sculptures, and abstract pieces of the modern world. Along with my visit, I got to experience a new collection of blown glass that was absolute remarkable. As I walked though the museum, it was as I walked though time and got to see how each period’s art changed throughout time. From the different shades of color to the different types of technique that filled the halls of the Oklahoma City Art Museum, each piece was genuine in its own way. I was starstruck as I witnessed Lowell Nesbitt’s Parrot Tulip, Richard Diebenkorn’s Albuquerque, and Dale Chihuly’s blown glass.

I visited the Vancouver Art Gallery to view the contemporary art exhibition by Takashi Murakami titled, “The Octopus Eats Its Own Leg”. This show holds more than presenting more than fifty works spanning thirty years of the artist’s career. Upon entering the exhibition, I was greeted by one of Murakami’s more recently completed works – an incredibly large sculptural piece titled “Chakras Open and I Drown Under the Waterfall of Life”, which is a piece made in collaboration with graffiti artists Madsaki and Snipe. It is nearly 20 feet tall and made out of Styrofoam, water-based urethane, wood, iron, and acrylic paint. The layout of the first room directs viewers to climb stairs that lead to the second floor which holds the majority of Murakami’s exhibition, and this allows for a better, more open, view of the first sculptural piece from all angles as well as a view of the colourful designs on the walls leading

The exhibit that I viewed at the Philadelphia Museum of Art was one about European Art between the years 1100-1500. This was a series of paintings, sculptures, architecture, and tapestry of the Medieval and Early Renaissance as well as objects from the Middle East. This exhibit was an important part of the history of the Philadelphia Museum of Art because for the first time, Italian, Spanish, and Northern European paintings from the John G. Johnson collection were shown. It gave me a good idea of what the paintings were like in these four centuries and reflected ideas of both the east and the west.

In order to compose this assignment, I visited the University of South Florida Contemporary Art Museum (CAM). The USF Contemporary Art Museum is a compact museum on campus located near the Dance buildings and the Theatres. The museum opened its establishment in 1989 and has offered a wide range of art from around the world including the United States, Africa, Europe, and Latin America (usfcam.usf.edu). In order to keep students engaged in the art, the museum changes its exhibits a couple times a year. Currently, the exhibition on display is entitled Extracted and incorporates “the extraction and circulation of natural resources around the globe” (Megan Voeller). Despite the museum being not large in size, I was able to attain a sense of nature through photographs, sculptures, video messages, and banners produced from artists including Otobang Nkanga, Marina Zurkow, Claire Pentecost, Mary Mattingly and Daniel Shiffman. The social angle most strongly related to the exhibit on display at this time is nature and culture. Extracted was motivated by relationships between humans and the environment referring to “complex technical processes behind oil drilling and mining or industrial agriculture” (Megan Voeller). Most of the artists focus their work on nature including the environment, ecosystems, and life itself.

The Museum of Fine Art in Houston (MFAH) is the oldest art museum in the state of Texas. The very first museum building opened to the public in 1924, known as The Caroline Wiess Building, which was designed by William Ward Watkin. The building itself represents the neoclassical style that was prominent in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. The formation of the building represented the determination of Houstonians to transform their growing city into a rich, cultural center. It’s function is to bring art into the everyday life of the citizens of Houston. These elements are instilled in the architectural design of the building. The setting, space, location, and lighting of the building all play a role in its overall function.

The Whitney Museum of American Art has often been referred to a citadel of American Art, partially due to the museums façade, a striking granite building (Figure 1), designed by Bauhaus trained architect Marcel Breuer. The museum perpetuates this reference through its biennial review of contemporary American Art, which the Whitney has become most famous for. The biennial has become since its inception a measure of the state of contemporary art in America today.

The work of art that I chose for my project is a painting called, Bowl of Goldfish by Childe Hassam. It was created in 1912 with oil on canvas. The subject of the painting is a woman inside of a house looking outside of an open window into a field of grass and flowers. While she is staring a bowl of goldfish swim around in a bowl on the middle of a table next her while on the opposite side of the table on a chair, rests a garment. The overall painting showcases the beauty of a calm and peaceful morning.

Macon Museum of Art Macon Museum of Art, a not-for-Profit Corporation, is facing major financial problems since 2000 and up till 2002. Actions were needed to stop this cumulative loss and to achieve some profit for 2003. After reviewing the case at hand, one can see through the brief history of the museum that it was founded since 1925. In 1998, its name changed into the Jonathon A .

The Dallas Museum of Art has a wide variety of ancient and modern art from around the world. The DMA’s Asian collection has a large array of artworks that represents Hinduism, Buddhism, and Islam. In the DMA’s Asian collection I found two statues that were both called The Lokapala (Heavenly Guardian). The Heavenly Guardians were the first thing my eyes settled on when I entered the room where they stand on display. The way the figures were displayed as well as being able to see them up close and in person allowed me to have a greater connection with the artworks as well as a greater appreciation for the craftsmanship of the pieces more than I would have if I saw them on a screen.

The sculptures and paint show details how society viewed and interpreted women body, sexuality, and maternity. In addition, revealed that these women were protected from threats around them with ornaments. Civilizations since early times, believed that we were in permanent threat from forces we do not see or cannot explain and because of it, we protected ourselves with artificial elements in a form of jewelry, crowns or caps. This idea has been continue from one generation to the next to the point that in modern societies some of us still use this type of protection in our bodies (e.g., small cross, divine images, tattoos, etc.).These pieces of art also indicate that humans believed in gods with superpowers and they are looking over us constantly. Humanity also believes in dark forces or demons trying to makes us do things that would upset the good gods. Some of the differences between these sculptures and paint are the material in which each one of them were created. The first figure, the Woman of Willendorf was carved in limestone, the second piece, the portrait of Queen Tiye was carved in wood and the last piece, the Virgin and Child Icon was created of tempera on a wood. You can also notice how the details on their faces and bodies changes throughout the time and years. The woman of Willendorf figurine offers details of a voluptuous nude women’s body but there is not face, or feet. Queen Tiye statue shows the face of a woman in detail closed to the gods but without any body parts and lastly The Virgin and Child Icon, is an expression of divinity of the views, reflections and beliefs from the gospel. Because communities started to innovate on the art of carving and painting, populations began to discover and/or create art with the objective of expressing different purposes of our daily lives, such as the beauty of a woman’s body, or to commemorate an ancient

The S.W.O.T. analysis for the Cinicinnati Art Museum is what gives the viewer the information to easily see what is wrong and isn’t wrong with the museum, while providing information on possibilities the museum can capitalize on and what threats could harm the museum.

A group of us Arts and Music students used the day on Wednesday to go into the city to visit the Boston Museum of Fine Arts. It was a cold, breezy day so we were all bundled up in jackets and hats. As we got off the E train and walked toward the museum, its appearance was not what I expected it to be. The museum was an elegant, beautiful building made of what looked to be marble; not the big, brick monstrosity I had expected. Once we walked into the museum, it was even more elegant on the inside. The marble staircase had sculptures on each side leading up to the rotunda where white Christmas lights were strung around the banister in decoration for the Christmas season.

The Museum of Contemporary Art currently has two exhibitions on view; one is called “Dirge: Reflections on [Life and] Death,” and the other is “Sara VanDerBeek.” One work of art that stood out the most to me was Epitaph from 2011 by Pedro Reyes. Reyes works are often meant to physically engage his viewers in order to shift their social and emotional expectations. The Epitaph invites his viewers to imagine a future in which they no longer exist, and then create a short message that conveys the life that the viewer has led or hopes to lead. Reyes points out a benefit to this type of therapy, which is that the patients who are participating in this work or art must embrace a certain degree of mortality. In today’s world we are constantly