Essay "El Museo"

Dear, Rodriguez Calero

Last week my peers and I, visited "El Museo Del Barrio,"I was delighted by your works of art, also, I was very intrigued by the tittles, technique and medium you have chosen. 

The "Divine Prophet" (Profeta Divino), 2012 was definitely my favorite, since I saw it on the wall because there is something very unique, different and refreshing about this painting, that captured my attention; I'd like to admit that I've never seen anything like it.

In the museum, I've read that your innovated not only technically, but also the depth of your vision has been termed as, "ACROLLAGE." but why? Clearly, I'd like to have the honor to share some thoughts and questions I have about your masterpieces. What lead you to have this innovated style? Did you create your own style? Who's your inspiration? What is the meaning behind these works of art? What is the message behind the religious tittles you have chosen? Are they related to your ethnicity or culture? Are you mixing the best of both worlds in one painting? Is Acrollage a mixed of painting and collages? Why did you decide to add printed eyes to most of your works of art? Your work is simply magnificent and I may never be able to fit all my questions in just one letter. 

At the museum I made this experiment, where I covered the printed eyes of the artwork I chose, immediately, the significance and meaning totally change into my eyes. In addition, I notice the vibrant colors, different styles and mediums you applied in your Acrollages on Canvas; In my opinion you are combining the past and present by mixing different cultures and time being. The uniqueness and rareness of your work adds freshness to the actual mediums we can admire and appreciated at the different museums. 

Humildemente quiero decirle que su trabajo es algo inigualable y de otro nivel, su vision es perfecta y encaja totalmente en el mundo actual. (Humbly, I’d like to tell you that your work is something unique and different, your vision is perfect and it fits completely in the world today). Many thanks for your time.

Sincerely,

Nina Love.

Blog 5/6

Tittle: The Standing Lion
Artist: Unknown
Date: Unknown, a few years ago.
Culture: Italian
Medium: Bronze
Dimensions: H. 10.5 cm
Classification: Bronze, Metalwork
Source: I got it in a Flea Market.

In my house there are a few objects that the museum may show them in their expositions and others may not. I've always been very passionate about lions and lionesses, for me they represent courage, monarchy, empowerment in the world and history.
The Unknown artist engraved "ITALY" in the bottom of the sculpture that gives me the sense of a historic meaning. The fact that the Lion is standing represents to me a battle where he is the king of Italy. I chose "The Standing Lion" because everything is related to the meaning we assigned to our different objects. Whether we got it from a family member as a gift, or that we bought it in a thrift store is simply relative, especially when it comes to being "rare."

So why this object isn't at the Museum? Because, it may not have the same value or meaning for some of the experts and powerful people that maintain the museums by choosing what they should put in their expositions. Just as John Cotton Dana in The Gloom of the Museum states by saying "They become lost in their idea of a museum and forget its purpose. They become lost in working out the idea of a museum and forget their public." In other words, what Dana is saying, is that most of the time they don't present what is meaningful for other people, base on their culture, beliefs and traditions. Basically, they only present what they think its best to capture the viewer's attention and not what's really behind of any other work of art, that probably has the same meaning in a different level and circumstance. The rich people that supports the museums are mostly based in wealthy people like them, but what about the lower class that always wanted to see rare objects from their ancestors? The truth is that we are usually attract towards rare objects that provokes certain kind of emotion whether is related to our culture, time being, religion or simply to the meaning we gave to an specific object.

Essay #1

These two works of art I have chosen caught my attention immediately, they both have at least 400 years separately but the artists depicted a nude woman and the medium of both paintings was oil on canvas.

The first artwork was done by Titian(Italian Pieve di Cadore ca. 1485/90?-1576 Venice) and workshop, titled "venus and the Lute Player. The second artwork was done by Gustave Courbet (French, Ornans 1819-1877 La Tour-de-Peilz), titled "Woman with a parrot." The years between these paintings are relatively significant, but somehow both artist had a similar vision. They depicted in the foreground of the painting the idealized women in the realistic world.

The medium of the paintings are oil on canvas, these 2D works of art and their visual elements are divided in the positive and negative space and the texture and shapes brings reality to the viewer. In addition, both artists depicted the nude woman in a similar way but with a different representation. The Italian artist put his characteristic work by adding a landscape which gave me the illusion of depth. "Following his death, certain parts such as Venus's face and hands were brought to a much higher degree of finish" (MET museum) In other words some of the work was complete after his death. In contrast the French artist depicted more empty spaces, something more abstract but if you look closer there is also a small landscape. Some people called Courbet's artwork a "lack of taste" when this painting was shown, but a few years later the young generation considered completely different.

Even though the years of difference between these work of art are considerable different, we cannot avoid the similarity between them, both artists represent the idealized female figure but with their own personality while they depicted a nude female and each figure is a stylized form to fits in the natural world.

Single vanishing point perspective is a form to described these work of arts where the abstract illustrations plays with some colors altering the real world, for example in the first painting there is not angel that we have seen or a child with wings, are they any? Maybe in the realistic world there is not such a thing while they only represent the real world and form as we see it, with the good and bad. In Courbet work of art he portrayed something that makes reference to a child with wings; in this case he depicted a bird lying into a woman's hand. Certainly his work falls more into the society now and days, we have females and birds maybe there is an abstract work with organic objects lining towards the representational style of figures.

P.S. looking forward for another experience like this, were I had the opportunity to delight myself with these masterpieces. These two work of art are just some of the amazing donations that belong to the Metropolitan Museum.

Sources

Visit to the Metropolitan Museum and online descriptions at http://www.metmuseum.org/

Post #1 "Sureal Sculptures" by Bruno Catalano.

When I saw this picture, I was amazed by the talent of this artist and certainly I was intrigue by his art. I wanted to know what was behind this masterpiece, who created and what was his purpose?

My first impression was "wow" how can this be possible?? and why he will design something like this?? In my mind I was thinking "is this person feeling empty? Is he leaving his town, friends, family and country??

Well, those were my predictions specially because if that was the case I can related with this magnificent piece of art. That could be a similar feeling I've felt when I left my country, and relatives.

Honestly nothing could describe me better than this back then and probably I still might feel this emptiness and loneliness once in a while when I think about my family.

At the end of the day I believe that everyone has different ways to perceive and represent art. This is the way I perceived Bruno Catalano's art.

In addition, I found out that his art is called “Les Voyageurs” in Marseilles that depict realistic human workers with large parts of their bodies missing. 

The sculptures were put on display in Marseilles to celebrate its position as the 2013 European Capital of Culture. They are skillful works of art even without the omissions, but the missing parts of the sculptures make them truly extraordinary. They leave room for the imagination--are they missing something, or is it something that these “voyagers” have simply left behind?? What’s especially impressive is that some of the sculptures seem to stand on very little support, giving them a sort of surreal and magical appearance right??. In my opinion the author created these sculptures to "Construct meaningful images and forms" and perhaps is also related to "Extra-ordinary versions of ordinary objects". So this way Bruno Catalano it's  expressing the way he feels by representing his art with these sculptures in a very particular and stunning way.

P.S. I may was wrong or right to make my own assumptions and predictions about his art but one thing I was totally confident about it was that Catalano's art is sincerely outstanding and unique--making an exceptional contribution to the world.

Ninotska Love.