Extra Credit

Lev Borodulin, Parade, Moscow, 1956. Courtesy of 
Lumiere Brothers Center for Photography, Moscow.

I hope you all enjoy your time off this spring break. Coincidentally,  Fotofest, the oldest and largest biannual photography festival in the country, also begins this week and lasts for a little over a month. It is mostly focused on Russian photography but it goes beyond this with photo exhibits literally all over the city. People from all over the world come to Houston to attend this festival and I thought it would be a great opportunity to get to experience it especially since we will be covering photography soon. 

If you would like 10 extra point added to your midterm exam grade attend one of the many events or exhibitions (most are free) that are a part of fotofest and write about your visit (at least 100 words) and post it on the blog. Have fun!

The virtual online museum visit  The metropolitan museum of art is a very interesting place to visit on website.   There are a lot of galleries to visit:

The American wing, Ancient near eastern art, Arms and armor, Asian Art,The Cloasters,The Costume institute, Drawing and prints Modern and Contemporary Art

The one that I am most drawn to is Modern and Contemporary Art gallery:

The Metropolitan Museum has collected and exhibited work by living artists since its founding in 1870. Today, the department's holdings comprise more than twelve thousand works of art across a broad range of media from 1900 to the present

Using my favorite artist Pablo Picasso Standing Female was a highly abstract charcoal drawing of a standing female nude, although reduced to series of lines and semicircle, without any semblance of three-dimensional form. His famous remark about women being "goddesses or doormats" has rendered him odious to feminists, but a woman tended to walk into both roles open-eyed and eagerly, for his charm was legendary. Whole cultural industries derived from his much mythologized virility. He was the Minotaur in a canvas-and-paper labyrinth of his own construction.

Another is a Head of a Women this painting context was the irreverence fostered by Picasso’s Surrealist friends, but the subject is his deteriorating marriage to the Russian dancer Olga Kokhlova.

Virtual Museum visit

I chose the picture of the car because it showed a couple different things. The first thing is how vehicles have changed from the first car. The second thing is safety of vehicles has been greatly improved.  I enjoyed looking at the different cars from that time period.  The website as a whole was very informative but I wish it was easier to navigate.  Especially were the collections are they should have it were when you click on the collection you like it.  It shows all the pictures in that collection.  

Virtual Museum Visit

The Asian art collection at the Metropolitan Museum of Art was amazing to say the least.  I spent my entire time going and seeing all of the art work in that section alone.  I really enjoy Asian art from all parts of Asia.  The pieces that caught my eye the most were the jade pieces.  The vases, paper weights, and jewelry.  I have to be honest and say that I would have to spend at least 5 hours in order to truly appreciate all of the Asian art pieces alone.  I hope to one day visit the museum in person even though it is pretty awesome that one can visit it virtually.  Technology has come a long way and we as society should concentrate on useful and educational ways of using it like this instead of trying to figure out how to use technology to destroy each other.  I am really enjoying the experience and the eye opening that this class is having on me.  I never thought that I would see art in any other way than something only rich and wealthy people hung in their home.  I am glad that art is open to anyone with the means and anyone without the means to see and appreciate.  Peace.  

Fascinating Art!

I really enjoyed exploring The Metropolitan Museum of Art. They had a lot of variety of art; sculpture, and paintings. I'm really fascinated with horses and floral things so there were several of paintings that caught my eyes. The first one was,"Two Horses" by Unkoku Toetsu(Japanese artitst). Just love the black and white and how Toetsu use the technique to draw the horses' hair.


Next, also caught my attention. "Maria Luisa of Param" (1751-1819) by Laurent Pecheux.I find this funny because she has an undergarment that makes her dress very wide. However, her dress is beautiful with the floral design and it makes the dress look elegant. I also love the colors Mr. Pecheux use and how he added the objects to fit the painting.

Virtual Musuem Art Collection

"Ten Cents a Ride"- Louis Bouché

"Bullfight in a Divided Ring"- Francisco Goya

Browsing through the Metropolitan Museum of Art's collection was pretty simple if you know about some of the basics of what you were looking for in their collection. There were so many art pieces, however, that it seemed that it would probably take days or weeks to look at the whole collection. So in my first thirty minutes I picked out the two pieces of art that stuck out to me the most from what was currently on display. The first piece of art I chose was one by Louis Bouché called "Ten Cents a Ride," because it shows principles of art that we recently learned. In the painting there is a sense of asymmetrical balance that is made by the differences in both sides; on one side there are arched windows with trim that resemble columns from Greek architecture made long ago and the opposing side has a more modern, utilitarian look to it that counters those windows. Everything also seems to be happening on the right side with the negative space showing the beaches, the white newspaper and pink magazine on top of the red bench that draws your eye there away from the opposite blue wall trim. The empty bench even counters the full shelf up in the top left of the painting. Also, as to not through off the painting, the two men in the doorway also are contrasting by one wearing white and the other black These principles and elements aid in the whole asymmetrical balance of the painting. There is also asymmetrical balance, time and motion in my second choice, "Bullfight in a Divided Ring" by Francisco Goya. In Goya's painting it seems as though all the action is happening in the right ring because the bull is in a attack position and there are more people in the ring along with more lighting, but there is less people in the background and there is a very large, distant building in the furthermost area that all have light shining on them. In contrast, the left ring seems like a practice arena with the rider in the back near all the shadows on a black horse with many shadowed faces above him where he seems to blend in, and even though the crowd is larger they are not as noticeable due to the very close small houses and buildings casting a shadow over them. The wall is also combining these two fights, it seems, are occurring at different times like an early morning practice on the left and the afternoon main event on the right; this creates a temporal setting in the painting, showing the story of the bull fight. This further proves how artists can control and manipulate their art by applying these principle and elements along with others to get the desired effect to the viewer.

Online Museum Visit

While "visiting" The Metropolitan Museum of Art, two pieces really stood out to me. One is pictured bellow, "Midtown Manhattan" by Kurt Ferdinand Roesch, and the other is "The Ameya" by Robert Blum.

"Midtown Manhattan" by Kurt Ferdinand Roesch. Oil and chalk on canvas. 1939.

 The first piece that caught my eye was "Midtown Manhattan" by Kurt Ferdinand Roesch. The chaos of the piece is what immediately caught my eye. Roesch's use of lines and geometric figures makes the viewer feel as if he is in the chaos of a big city. The black and white used in the piece seems to signify how a city can be black and white, and having no "soul."

"The Ameya" by Robert Blum. Oil on canvas. 1893.

The other piece that attracted me was "The Ameya" by Robert Blum. This piece is of what seems like a group of Asian children watching an adult woman smoke. The faces of the children seem amazed of what the woman is doing, as if they have never seen anyone smoke in there lives. The feeling that is felt from the piece is of a Asian ghetto. The streets seem grey with what looks like mud. The children seem unattended, as if they run wild in the streets. The colors used by the artist seem dull and grey. A feeling of empathy is conveyed from the colors.