Ensayo de museo

Luis Rodriguez

Danforth Museum Essay Assignment

A Visit to the Danforth Museum

Why go to see art? Lots of people seem more interested in looking artworks in the computer than experiencing it. I prefer to see it in person because it looks totally different.  When I see the artwork in person I can notice the dimension, the texture and the quality of the piece. Just recently, I enjoyed viewing some original pieces of art at the Danforth Museum. I had the chance to experience Nan Tull’s “Sensuous Wisdom” exhibition, Yu-Wen Wu’s “Suspended, a Song Cycle” exhibition and the “New England Photography Biennial”. In this essay, I will talk about my experience, looking at one work of art in each exhibition, to get a better understanding of the different styles and techniques from the artists.

Part A

After the tour and looking at all the pieces in the New England Photography Biennial, I choose a photograph by Meredith Miller. I choose Miller’s Untitled (after Balthus) because it is beautiful and has an original theme. In historical terms, Untitled (after Balthus) was created in the year 2008, and has a dimension of 40" x 30" inches. In this image a voluptuous woman is sitting on the bed showing her breasts. Miller captures the woman in a private moment, where she looked distract and innocent. In this art piece the artist is photographing her model in the manner of some of her favorite paintings. Miller’s Untitled (after Balthus) was inspired by Balthus, a Polish-French modern artist who was famous for portraying naked young girls. Even though Untitled (after Balthus) has that playful vision of erotism, similar to Balthus work, Miller uses voluptuous models instead of young girls. The angle in this photograph is looking down. The artist adopts a higher angle shot to give the model a sense of sadness and meditation. I believe that the photograph conveys a lot more looking down because it gives a sensation that the spectator is consoling the sad woman.

The experience differs from when you look closely and when you stand back from the photograph. When I stand back from the image I was able to see the whole composition and experience the tonal variations better, but when I got closer to the photograph I was able to clearly see the details in the objects. I think that Miller’s Untitled (after Balthus) is a successful work of art because it is rich in color and tonal values. The artist used the model as a focal point, and created balance between the foreground and the background.  Miller used the tonality of the background and the contrast of colors to make the woman stand out in the center of the photograph. I believe that Miller wants to represent people with obesity in a positive way rather than in a negative one. Miller is changing the perception of what is beautiful in our society by borrowing a famous pose and re-creating it with a voluptuous woman.

Part B

Another exhibition that I enjoyed was Yu-Wen Wu’s “Suspended, a Song Cycle”. This exhibition consists of wall-mounted mixed media works on panel. The artist was intending to manipulate the visual effects of water to make visually musical compositions. All the pieces were beautiful, but the piece that caught my attention was Echo. Wu’s Echo was created in the year 2009, and has a dimension of 48” x 96" inches. This piece consists of two squares containing gray photographs of waves. The two photographs in the center are accompanied by photographs strips on the left, right and bottom of the composition.  I think that the size is appropriate for the subject matter because it gives the audience that sense of the real size of the ocean. I believe that the artist used a minimal color palette in this piece because it gives the composition a higher contrast between each photograph strips. The used of black and white by the artist affects my respond in a positive way because it made me feel relax and calm. After comparing the artwork to the reproduction on the postcard, my reaction to the piece was not the same. When I saw Wu’s Echo in the postcard, I couldn’t notice the dimension or the quality of the piece. The colors in the postcard are darker and I was not able to see the details from the waves. I was also aware that the artwork in the postcard was cropped in the edges. This also changed my reaction because some of the details from the waves were lost.

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