virtual museum

Face Mask (Kpeliye'e), 19th–mid-20th century
Côte d'Ivoire, Mali, or Burkina Faso; Senufo
Wood, pigment The term Senufo refers to a group of more than thirty interrelated languages and the people who speak those languages in a region that spans the present-day national boundaries of Côte d'Ivoire, Mali, and Burkina Faso. Senufo arts and cultural practices display great regional variation. Three broad cultural divisions reflect general differences in dialect and sculptural style: southern Senufo in the region around the Ivoirian town of Katiola; northern Senufo in the vicinity of the Malian city of Sikasso; and central Senufo living in the vicinity of Korhogo, an important administrative center in Côte d'Ivoire. Bondoukou, Korhogo, and Boundiali, three cities across northern Côte d'Ivoire, have historically been centers where face masks have been produced and collected.
Throughout the twentieth century, male performers wore raffia-fringed face masks, capes, and full-body outfits to entertain audiences at funerals, commemorative ceremonies, and other events in Senufo communities. Masqueraders' feminine dance movements pay homage to the importance of women. The face masks often emphasize feminine facial features and are embellished with geometric and figurative elements. The innovative sculptor who conceived of this delicately carved mask elongated the figure's nose to create an attenuated pointed beak and underscored linear design elements.

I'm familiar with african art in general because my father is from Sierra Leon (South-West Africa). This face mask looks like the one my father had but not from the same tribe as I researched this19th-mid -20th century mask. My fathers mask was used for special occasions such as weddings but this face mask contrast my fathers because it is used in various celebrations. As I viewed the mask and its meaning it kinda touched me spiritually because of the symbolism that it holds for these cities. I used the Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History to reach this African mask, the information was on point and accurate.

Standing Male Figure, ?12th–?17th century
Western Sudan; (Dogon?)
Wood Although its precise culture and date of origin are unknown, this work is intriguing for both stylistic and chronological reasons. Its abstract, protuberant facial features, spare but elegant dress, and prestigious objects relate it to Dogon sculptures, but its style and iconography share much in common with that of Inland Niger Delta terracottas of the twelfth to seventeenth centuries as well. Indeed, it has been suggested that this sculpture is contemporaneous with these terracottas, a hypothesis that has been reinforced by early radiocarbon dates.
This wooden sculpture depicts a distinguished elder whose demeanor, attire, and presentation command respect. His short trousers and cotton cap are characteristic of traditional Dogon dress, and the L-shaped wooden staff slung over his right shoulder is used as a weapon, tool, and ritual object by Dogon men. Accoutrements such as the decorative pendant hanging about his neck and the knife strapped to his left arm call attention to and reinforce the man's dignity and high status.
At present it is not possible to definitely assert that this work was made by the Dogon themselves or a neighboring people. One of the many figures with unquestionably Sahelian features but uncertain provenance, this work and others like it are legacies of a region and history that we are only beginning to understand.


I enjoyed the african part of the meusem because of my heritage and I must say that this work of art hit home for me again. To imagin having this piece of art in my home would be great but I know it won't happen, I mean to me it is beauty, it says "wise man", not sure where he's going with his leg bent but if he's old he couldn't stand for long straight so he had to bend it to either move towards his destination or not who knows thats what I think the artist wanted us to believe, he sculpted our perception.

H. 25 3/8 in. (64.5 cm)
Gift of Lester Wunderman, 1985 (1985.422.2)

On view: Gallery 350   Last Updated February 28, 2012

H. 15 15/16 in. (40.6 cm), W. 6 3/8 in. (16.2 cm), D. 3 1/8 in. (7.9 cm)
The Michael C. Rockefeller Memorial Collection, Gift of Nelson A. Rockefeller, 1969 (1978.412.365)

On view: Gallery 350   Last Updated February 28, 2012

Virtual Museum Visit

Flowers in a Stone Vase

Peter Faes  (Flemish, 1750–1814)

Date:

1786

Medium:

Oil on wood

Dimensions:

19 1/2 x 15 1/8 in. (49.5 x 38.4 cm)

Classification:

Paintings

Credit Line:

Bequest of Catherine D. Wentworth, 1948

Accession Number:

48.187.738

I am a very big fan of paintings of flowers and this draws my attention especially because it is in black and white. My first thought after looking at this picture was I wonder what the flowers would look like in color. From the shading you can see white flowers and the others seem darker of maybe an orange or pink tint. I am usually a fan of paintings with a variety of colors (that is just what appeals to my emotions) but I admire the dark areas of the picture that seem to spotlight the flower arrangement. It gives a very dramatic or emotional feeling. Also the fact that some of the flowers appear to be leaning and dying adds to the emotional beauty. To me the biggest thing that stands out within all of the arrangement is the bright white flower that seems to be blooming perfectly. It stands out against the other depressed looking flowers. This says to me that you can still find beauty even within the ugly.

Mother and Child

Camille Corot  (French, Paris 1796–1875 Paris)

Date:

probably 1860s

Medium:

Oil on wood

Dimensions:

12 3/4 x 8 7/8 in. (32.4 x 22.5 cm)

Classification:

Paintings

Credit Line:

H. O. Havemeyer Collection, Gift of Mrs. P. H. B. Frelinghuysen, 1930

Accession Number:

30.13

I love this picture! It's so emotional and captures the irreplaceable bond between mother and child. The colors used are very warm and emotional colors of orange, brown, and black. I love how the expression on the mother's face shows that she is protective and the baby clings to her with such great need. It reminds me of the bond I have with my mother.  What also is interesting about this piece is the lone figure standing further away that seems to be watching the woman. It makes me wonder who he or she is and if they are coming to take the child away. Over all this painting is very pleasing to the eye. It tells a story and even the title being "Mother and Child" shows the power of this piece has. The white dress which the baby is wearing helps to show the innocence of the picture, a baby and a mother.

Shock! Horror! Response:

Incredibly disgusting! I was not please on watching these videos and I didn't want to keep on watching.  I think these artists who choose to draw dark,ugly, and horror paintings are crazy and heartless. I also think that they live with darkness, loneliness, and have something going on in their lives.

I'm not into horror things so this art was very unpleasant. This art shouldn't be allowed for public funding because it is something you can't enjoy. The mannequin of young girls that are create like sex toys is very offensive and disgusting. How can someone create such a terrible thing. My overall opinion of this clips is that they were truly horrified. 

Lovely Lovely :)

dazzling colors, simplicity, inner truth, beautiful people, acts of faith, beautiful ideas, smooth, soft, attractiveness. these are a few words definitions that the movie uses by some of the artist to describe beauty. beauty is evolving just like we are. Harmony, pure sensation is what motes uses to describe beauty "a comfortable arm chair for a tired business man to res in." beauty can be religious and is often found in chapels and churches. beauty is in faith because faith bring peace,beauty in a sense leaves u restless unlike that of "shock and horror" that keeps you on edge scared of what you might see next. beauty keeps your spirits high and your heart soft to what you might see next. beauty is relief. ugly characteristics in beauty is still beauty? Chris Ofili definitely thinks so, he's art strives on that very idea it makes you think, it makes you love the beauty and appreciate the imperfections all at the same time, he combines beautiful colors with an ugly women and people still say "this is beauty".he makes you question your definition of beauty when you look at the materials he uses such as piss and animal poo. how can this be beautiful? the way he incorporated these things into his art in a way where you see the beauty that they hold. everything has beauty in it.

shock & horror

WOW!! "reality is lies, so lets look at the lies." most if not all of the artist in these films actually found it hard to believe that their pictures paintings or films were given the label of being "shocking" mainly because they lived in a time where so much had already been done there was nothing really so "new" to the eyes of the world. i feel like they only expressed the thoughts that so many kept deep inside of them. Some thought there work was only meant to be funny; "bring me the head" and the abstract stuck together bodies of young girls. while i was watching the films i thought [this gives disturbing a whole new meaning]. distortion, desecration seeing body parts chopped off and hanging from trees people being pulled apart by their limbs. most of this kind of art is shown in figurines or films to give more of a dramatic feel, getting your point across isn't always the easiest thing to do in just a painting, you need sound you need  things that appear to be right in front of you in a "3D" human like appearance(figurines) . this would put in a position of desire, the deep dark desire of your mind, because darkness is always here. Is it art? yes. the art that makes you think it makes you keep looking while you ponder on the thought "why on earth am i looking?" because you want to see what happens next, or you want your mind to get lost in your own shock and horror film that your thoughts create; all you needed was a little push a jump start into these enclosed part of your mind the thoughts you tend to shun away from day to day. we all have them but humanity will tell you that they are not appropriate for the everyday world but in this art your mind can be free with out wondering "who's judging me". The viewers and the artist both decides what offends and sometimes the viewer may be a little more offended the the artist, you must consider what may actually be normally to a person who comes up with these types of art. "santa's chocolate shop" and "disasters of war" their minds go much deeper then the art they grace us with.

Virtual museum visit

Ok well so far I was on the website and I really like how they have it set up under the search the collections where you can click on the tabs to who, what, where, when, and in the museum that way you can either look up an artist or what kind of art was in a certain time frame. I went to the when tab so that I could browse any kind of art during the A.D. era 1-500

Shell fragments

Period:

late Sasanian–early Islamic

Date:

ca. 7th–8th century A.D.

Geography:

Iran, Qasr-i Abu Nasr

Culture:

Sasanian or Islamic

Medium:

Shell

Dimensions:

a) 2.3 cm x D. .4 cm b) H. 4 cm x W. 3.5 cm x D. .4cm + extra piece 1.2 cm x 1.3 cm x .2 cm c) 5.1 cm x 1.4 cm x .4 cm d) 3.8 cm x 1.9 cm x .4 cm e)3 cm x 4 cm x .5 cm f) 3.2 cm x 1.6 cm x .4 cm g) 3.1 cm x 1.8 cm x .4 cm h) 1.7 cm x 2.2 cm x .4 cm i) 2.5 cm x 1.4 cm x .4 cm j) 2.7 cm x 1 cm x .4 cm k) 2 cm x 2 cm x .3 cm l) 1.4 cm x 1.2 cm x .4 cm

Classification:

Shell-Ornament

This is one piece that I like because these were shell ornaments from the 7th or 8th century and I never would have known that they would even think to make something like that. One looks like a person with their arms in the air and of course one looks like a heart. it makes you wonder if they are the reason we believe a heart is that shaped and what about the other shapes it makes me feel like there is a meaning to these shells instead of decorations.

Date:

1700–1800

Medium:

Brass

Dimensions:

H. 16 in. (40.6 cm)

Classification:

Metal

I like this one because when I look at it it looks like people standing beside each other. I think out of the two pics I really like this one most of all

Online museum visit (blog #5)

I hope you all enjoyed the Museum of Fine Arts and seeing art in person rather than on a screen ( a very different experience). Unfortunately some of us have trouble making it across town to see the museum much less travel the world to see great art. Luckily today we have at our fingertips the ability to "see" many things online that would have otherwise required a plane ticket. Now with many museum's collections posted online you can see so much art for free anytime, and I want you to familiarize yourself with these great resources.  For this week's homework I want you all to spend a good amount of time, at least 30 minutes, exploring the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York  website  as if you were actually there looking for things that interest  you. The website allows you to search all of their collections by materials, time, etc or even look at a time line of art history . For the blog homework I want you to find at least 2 works of art that appeal to you and respond to them or respond to the website as a whole. (You could answer questions like, was the site easy to navigate? Were you able to learn enough about what you were interested in ? etc)

                                               Metropolitan Museum of Art  in New York

Museum Review

Queen of Paradise - Jules Olitski

The art that I chose for my review was Queen of Paradise by Jules Olitski from 1999.  This is a high baroque painting done with acrylic paint on canvas.  The first thing I noticed about this painting is the way the colors were mixed throughout the piece, with each color blending with another at one place or another.  The use of metallic paint also drew my attention, as it seemed to catch the light as I walked by.  There are also multiple spots where the paint was applied very heavily, which he then crafted into fish and shells; because of this I believe that this is actually a lake or some other body of water, with the blue-green and the tan symbolizing the water and the bed, and the black representing the land.  After seeing the painting and the title, I think that this is a nonrepresentational work of art meant to let the viewer perceive it in their own way.

Museum Homework

Art Museum Homework

The artist name was Georg Muechlich. The title of the painting is The Crucifixion dated c 1465-70. The material 

was tempera and oil on wood. The size of the painting is 18" by 26"..  When I saw this painting something 

about it that I could not take my eye off of it.  I saw the blood that was dripping from  Jesus hands, side, and 

feet raised above the canvas it looked almost real as though it has just nailed a minute ago.I really want to  

touch it to see if it was real blood strange but this painting made me feel as though he was being crucified 

as aI was standing there.  In the left hand  top of the painting the atomspheric perspective you can see a

city that looks like it might be going up into the heaven or sky it has a felling the it has a linear perspective.

I would say that this was done maybe in middle age because it is a painting of religious, it is also representatial

and it oblique projected because the sky and the city at the top of the picture.  The colors in this painting are 

a lot of primary colors such as red ,blue, brown and green.  You can see how far Jesus must have came from the city to the hill where he had to carry his cross.  There in front of the painting you have Mary his mother who just can't

take looking at Jesus on the cross stumped over, and a woman in front of the cross looks like she might be trying to trell

him something. You have other people who are just looking the you have the guards standing there to make sure

he stays there.  It a lot going on in the painting I could talk about this painting to someone for hours because everyone 

would see something else that I didn't see.  I really enjoyed my trip to the museum.

Lovely, Lovely

I believe that beauty in art can take many forms, and is still very important today.  Beauty still matters in art because it is perceived differently by people, and this allows for a larger diversity in art.  The image or colors aren't always what constitutes beauty in art for me, the expression and emotion can also create beauty in a work of art.  Even the darker pieces that may be intended to shock the viewer can hold a certain beauty.  Personally, I think that the work by Jules Olitski demonstrates this very well.  I was able to see some of his work on display at the museum, and it really stood out to me; not only the colors or the images, but the expression in his work had an element of beauty.  Every painting that I saw seemed to have a special beauty about it, as if he really put himself into the work.