Menil Art Review

 Menil Collection
Artist: Renzo Piano
Date: 1982

The Menil had a unique effect to it because it didn't seem like a very large building from the outside, but when you went in it seemed very large on the inside. In terms of size, from the outside it didn't stand out much from the surrounding neighborhood because it was not too tall like other museums. Also some houses in the surrounding area echo the "Menil Gray" of the museum so that it doesn't overpower the area. The roofing design was genius as well because it used natural light to illuminate the gallery without exposing any works to direct sunlight which gave everything a more natural look along with the gardens. The wants of the Menil's was the main focus of Renzo Piano's design, but he did not do exactly what they wanted. Piano, instead, tried to satisfy their wants through unique ways such as the ferro-leaf roof to let in the natural light, and blending the size and color with some of the surrounding houses. Overall he tried to incorporate some of his own ideas of green architecture into their museum to serve their purpose while connecting the building to the environment. The effect of Piano's design is very humble and ordinary on the outside while having a very unique experience inside with the natural light not usually seen in other galleries, which is typical of green architecture style.

"Untitled"- Richard Serra

Artwork
Artist: Richard Serra
Title: Untitled
Date: 1972-73
Materials: Paintstick on Paper
Size: 37-13/16" x 50"

I chose this piece by Richard Serra which is one of his many paintings in his vast collection of black and white paintings. It is not as large as some of his other works but still plays with some of the same factors of space as does the larger ones. His paintings cause the viewers to look at the room in a different perspective and how his drawing changes it with its presence. In this drawing he leaves parts of the white paper to kind of asymmetrically balance the contrasting space and makes you notice the positive and negative space just in the drawing. In his all black drawings however, he plays with the positive and negative space in the room by placing these large works in rooms of all white walls. In this he plays with the viewers perspective to make them imagine his drawing as a endless dark abyss in the wall. The materials Serra uses are also more typical of smaller drawings rather than large works. Most of his drawings, I believe, would fall under the category of nonrepresentational art because he is not trying to represent anything necessarily; he is just exploring and studying the elements that would make up a drawing. I found that Richard Serra's work might be very similar to that of Pat Steir, who shows different types of line that can be used in drawing. Serra's version is done in a more abstract way than Steir because maybe he wants the reader just focus on each element of line simply without the other complexities of drawing. He also said, “There is no way to make a drawing—there is only drawing,” which further proves why he does not label his drawings as "lessons" as in Steir's work.