Metropolitan Museum Essay

      

The two works of art I chose for this blog are close to 100 years apart. At first I took a quick glance on these exhibits and assumed these artist's just wanted to capture a specific scene but after reading the label of the artwork on the left it came to result of being more on the darker perspective and the artwork on the right  perceive to be in value of dark and light. I became more concentrated on these exhibits because you don't have to express an emotion and/or mood in a exaggerated way to just let someone know that's what you have to feel but to think about it and know why the artist made it in a certain way. The artwork on the left is a painting(oil on canvas) by Kay Sage titled Tomorrow is Never (1955). On the right is a photograph ( transferred to salted paper print from paper negative) by John Beasley Greene titled Antiquities in the Museum at Cherchell, Algeria (1853-54). Although they represent two different images and are produced from different mediums they both give a familiar melancholy emotion.

Tomorrow is Never is an artwork produced by Kay Sage, one of the most important women of surrealism. Surrealism rose to its attention in the 20th century from artists or writers from combining unrelated images and events in a strange and dreamlike way. Kay Sage used her works of art to represent her state of mind. This painting and like others portrayed her as being lost and complicated. Kay Sage utilized a monochromatic use of grey also the rigid use of lines on her building and the inside the use of twisted ad uncomfortable layout. The sky used value of darkness approaching but I also noticed at the bottom foreground gave the same notion but from the wave of mist was a sense of uneasiness,despair and loneliness. From using certain colors and imagery it gave a certain feeling that she wasn't stable. In 1963, Kay Sage committed suicide. The photograph on the right, Antiquities in the Museum at Cherchell, Algeria represents three roman sculptures dug out in Algeria. The Cherchell Museum houses are considered to be at some of the best examples of Roman and Greek antiquities on the African continent. Even though it is a photograph which is portrayed to be two dimensional, the concentration of the sculptures especially in black in white gives the dimension to the photograph. In my perspective I see an outline of wings where the headless woman is sitting. The woman placed in the middle is the highlight of the photograph. Speaking of the headless woman there is a dark shadow above her head but its in a oval form slanted to portray the missing head. The sculptures are missing their body parts but it also demonstrates for it to still having a life and representing the memorable part of the era.

I perceive these two exhibits to depict a forlorn emotion. Kay Sage's painting gave a deeper meaning of her difficult part in life. Sage only painted the construction of buildings I believe it represents her mask and the inside of either being drapes or a curved sculpture may mean of just being placed there. Overall these buildings are incomplete and barely standing. In the background show less and less, glancing at the right of the painting is just a stick which is a loss of hope. This brings back to the photograph from the wings and the missing head. The woman is just in a corner of a room and left against an unsteady wall along with the other sculptures, shes alone. There could have been two landscapes and point out the difference of the era and techniques or the photograph of different perspective and the use of the medium but these two works of art grabbed my attention, I guess from its dark, deep meaning. From all the interpretation I don't see why it shouldn't be in the Metropolitan Museum.