Step 1: The Exhibition
Questions about the exhibit:
1. What is the title of the exhibit?
Humble and Human
2. What is the theme of the exhibition?
The exhibition is in honor of the late Ralph Wilson and is filled with the great Impressionist pieces.
Step 2: The Gallery
Questions about the physical space: 1. What type of lighting is used?
The lighting throughout the exhibit is slightly dim. The rooms feel like they have ambiance lighting almost.
2. What colors are used on the walls?
The wall colors vary from room to room to compliment the collection of pieces in each given room. One room was a peachy/pink neutral while another was a beautiful dark blue/grey. The blue/grey is often used in gallery's I've noticed. I really like the color. It romantic, yet calming. It seems to make a lot of colors pop.
3. What materials are used in the interior architecture of the space?
The rooms are pretty standard art museum. The space has the architecture of the Albright with the marble floors and decorative molding. A gem in Buffalo's rich architecture.
4. How is the movement of the viewer through the gallery space?
The exhibit is made up of a series of smaller rooms with one larger central room. The smaller rooms allow the view to flow freely through the space without obstructions. The central room creates a figure eight flow. The view can move around the outside edge and then through the middle and around two floating walls.
Step 3: The Artwork
Questions about the artwork:1. How are the artworks organized?
The artwork was grouped by artist and then arranged near other artist that were similar in theme.
2. How are the artrworks similar?
All of the artworks are part of the Impressionist movement.
3. How are the artworks different?
There is a variety of subject matter in the exhibit from portraits to landscapes. They also vary in size. Some were a modest size like Van Gogh while others were quite large like the John Singer Sargents Madame Paul Poirson.
4. How are the artworks framed?
Many of them were in ornate frames. They were large and very decorative. Many were painted gold. The frames themselves felt like a work of art.
5. How are the artworks identified and labeled?
They were all labeled in a standard art museum kind of way. There was a label on the wall that had the artist, title, medium, size, and brief description.
6. What is the proximity of the artwork to each other?
They were a all spaced with a bit of breathing room. Nothing was stacked on top of another. There is space to stand and look at each piece without being in the way of another onlooker.
Step 4: Art Criticism Exercise
Select three of the artworks from the show and use the Art Criticism worksheet to desribe, analyze, bracket and interpret the work using the 5-step Art Criticism Process described. (see the sheet in the module folder)
Art Criticism: Describing, Analyzing, and Interpreting Artwork
Artist: James Tissot
Title of work: L'Ambitieuse
Media: Oil on canvas
Date: 1883-1885
Size: 56 x 40 inches
1. Be receptive - Keep an open mind. Look for what is good. No put-downs allowed.
I notice the detail in this piece right away. I love the detail of the fabrics and the detail of the faces all around the central woman. There is something so soft about the painting. I can almost imagine how the feather fan would feel sweeping over my skin.
2. Description – Describe what you see. (subject matter)?
The image is that of a woman. Most likely an important woman because of the high class event she is at. She is wearing a ballet slipper pink gown that is billowing in ruffles. She is carrying a pink fan made of feathers in her gloved hands. She looks pleasant. There is a large crowd all around her, but what is strange is that many of the on-lookers seem to be judging her. They are making strange faces or one man appears to be whispering about her to someone else. The woman seems to be poised above it all.
3. Formal analysis – (form) What principles and elements were used and how are they used? Contrast and texture are the most dramatic elements in this piece. There are dark blacks on the men's tuxedos while the woman is a vision in her pale pink. Texture texture texture. The ruffles on the dress, the velvet cushion in the bottom left corner, the feathered fan. Everything is rich with texture. The viewer could easily imagine what these surfaces feel like just by looking at the painting.
4. Bracketing - Is there anything in or about this work that reminds you of anything else? Do you see any symbols, metaphors, or allegories? (iconography)
The fan reminds me of a white feathered fan I used to have in my room growing up. and the pink color of the woman's dress is so sweet. It's like a baby pink or a ballet slipper.
5. Interpretation - (content) What do you think the artist was trying to say?
The artist portrays to us, a women, who is looked at and talked about (perhaps negatively), but she glides above it like a vision from above. She is lovely.
Artist: Vincent van Gogh
Title of work: The Old Mill
Media: Oil on canvas
Date: 1888
Size: 25 1/2 x 21 1/4 inches
1. Be receptive - Keep an open mind. Look for what is good. No put-downs allowed.
This piece have beautiful hues of blues and yellows and greens. The majority of the painting is made up of these three colors. I also appreciate the physical texture that Van Gogh created with his paint. It feels very emotionally driven to me as if each stroke was the transfer of energy onto the canvas.
2. Description – Describe what you see. (subject matter)?
The Old Mill is a paint of just that... an old mill. We see a mill on the french countryside. It appears old and rickety among overgrown shrubs and bushes. There are a few small buildings or houses behind the mill in the distance. Just in front of the mill is a man and a woman. The day is overcast; a blue-grey sky.
3. Formal analysis – (form) What principles and elements were used and how are they used? Van Gogh used color is portray a mood. The mood of this piece is calm and quiet because of the soft blues and earthy greens and yellows. He uses the line created by his brush strokes to show texture in the roof. The lines created by his strokes also create visual interest in the sky that has little value range.
4. Bracketing - Is there anything in or about this work that reminds you of anything else? Do you see any symbols, metaphors, or allegories? (iconography)
The man and the woman seem so small and frail compared to the mill and the wide opened landscape. They are almost like an aged Adam and Eve, dependent on the land.
5. Interpretation - (content) What do you think the artist was trying to say?
I don't think Van Gogh was ever really trying SAY something so much as make you FEEL something. I think he wanted you to feel calmly lost in this landscape. He wanted the viewed to feel in awe and in love with this beautiful landscape.
Artist: Paul Cezanne
Title of work: Mont Sainte-Victoire
Media: Oil on canvas
Date: 1904-1906
Size: N/A
1. Be receptive - Keep an open mind. Look for what is good. No put-downs allowed.
This piece by french artist Cezanne, FEELS french. the landscape is composed of beautiful blues and greens. There is green land and trees beneath a tall blue grey mountain under a soft blue sky.
2. Description – Describe what you see. (subject matter)?
The piece is a landscape. It is not painted idealistically so the viewer has to sort of guess what some of the shapes are. For sure we see a mountain. There is a wide space of green that we assume is trees and grass. The image appears to us like a dream; still a little foggy.
3. Formal analysis – (form) What principles and elements were used and how are they used? Cezanne uses organic shape to roughly lay out the landscape. The stronger element here is certainly color. He uses color to tell the viewer that we are looking at a sky, a mountain, a landscape. There are hues and shapes of blues and greens. My mother would say that this painting was made of God's colors.
4. Bracketing - Is there anything in or about this work that reminds you of anything else? Do you see any symbols, metaphors, or allegories? (iconography)
This piece reminds me very much of Van Goghs "The Old Mill". I would assume that is why the curator put these two pieces next to each other. They are painted in a similar way that there are no solid shapes, but colors to define the image. The painting is more about the feeling than the seeing. The colors are very similar and I imagine that these paintings are of similar places, maybe even the same mountains.
5. Interpretation - (content) What do you think the artist was trying to say?
I think it is the same for this piece as it is for The Old Mill. It is more about the feeling. The painting feels awe inspiring. We look at it and are moved by the beautiful landscape, filled with such beautiful and calm colors.
What did you think of visiting the Gallery and purposefully looking at the exhibition from a different perspective - the physical space, the architecture, theme, etc.?
I have gone to see the Humble and Human exhibit so many times. It is so beautiful. Every time I go I spend time with a different couple of pieces. Perhaps I'm strange in this way, but I always looks at strange things at a gallery like the actual physical space and how the art is mapped out. I notice the paint on the walls and the way the lights are angled... I worked in an art shop for about a year and we did a ton with displays. Everything mattered, The spacing, what it was near, the way the lights were angled, the way a person moved through the space. It's interesting to think about galleries in this way.
