Visiting the Museum of Modern Art - Term Paper Example

? Day Month Year Visiting the Museum of Modern Art Introduction To experience the true essence of great art,nothing can compare to a physical visit to a museum. It is there that the artist and his work truly come alive. We can see the brush strokes and begin to envision what thoughts must have been going through the mind of the artist when the work was created. By visiting a museum, we become transported to another time and place. While each museum may specialize in a particular type of art or collection, most retain a focus on great painting and sculptures. They are representative of the time and place of each respective artist and each has its own story to tell. One particularly famous museum in the Unites States is the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in New York City. This location is fascinating for the depth of paintings, sculptures, drawings, and recent digital work. It is truly a living and breathing museum. What follows is a brief synopsis of this student’s recent visit to the museum. My Experience While many pieces in the museum captivated my attention, I would like to draw the reader’s attention to two in particular. The first is an oil painting by the French artist Odilon Redon. The painting itself, at first glance, is simple enough. The title says it all ‘Rock on the Beach’. Upon further examination, however, I was drawn to this painting because of the detail of the formation. It is so unique to other renditions of the ocean, because Redon puts his focus on the rocks, as opposed to the water. You have to wonder why this is. This is certainly an impressionistic piece of art. The effect of light on the rocks and the overall landscape is evident and a strong draw. As I pondered the lighting, I noticed a lack of intensity. It is daytime, yet the picture appears dark and gloomy. This communicates a feeling of isolation and desolation. As we have studied in class, impressionists focused a great deal on nature. They examined, through their art, their own impressions of the natural world. Paintings are usually spontaneous and they attempt to capture a moment in life that can only be truly felt through the painting. ‘Rocks on a Beach’ is effective to this end. Getting close to the picture, I could see the rough brush strokes that captured the humanity, if you will, of this large rock formation in the middle of a beach. It seems as if this location had a special meaning to Redon and he wanted to portray the feelings he had as he witness this spectacle. We can envision that he was struck by the lack of clarity in this scene and, perhaps, it reflected his mood at that period in his life. I ended up reading the brief biography of this painter while I was at the museum and discovered that around the time of this particular painting he lost a child. The dark and gloomy nature of this impressionist piece of art could very well be reflective of that traumatic event. The final painting I want to discuss is a work by Pablo Picasso. I know he is one of the most famous painters in modern history, but I was struck by the privilege of seeing one of his pieces up close and personal. We are used to seeing the works of Picasso in detail in almost any art book. Perhaps we feel we understand his work already and simply move on. My experience at MoMA, however, helped me to realize that nothing replaces a real-life piece of art. The piece by Picasso that I looked at was his painting ‘Guitar’. This was oil painting on canvas paper. The first thing I noticed about this particular painting was the detail of the brush stroke. It is so refined that it looks as if a photograph was taken. I could barely decipher the difference. That is the brilliance of Picasso. The interesting thing about this picture is that the painting is not really reflective of a guitar at all, leading one to wonder about the title that Picasso gave this particular work of his. That is, I suppose, a topic for another time, but it is certainly worth noting. This particular piece of art appears to be a work of realism. Picasso did center a lot of his works on the common man. ‘Guitar’ is a simple piece of art that is certainly down to earth. He seems reflecting the simplicity of life by painting a simple picture of an object that gives so much pleasure to so many people. As opposed to many of his surrealistic paintings that are often difficult to interpret and comprehend, this particular painting is a return to a more neoclassical style of art that reflects the order and organization of life. As I mentioned, the piece I saw at MoMA is simplistic in its organization. There are only two colors used in the entire painting: A dark black, and then three tones of brown. He hints at a three-dimensional twist as he puts two layers into the painting, which is especially pleasing to look at. The guitar itself appears to be captured inside of a window or door, drawing the viewer into the painting. It was a great experience to see this famous work of art, and I hope to see more by Picasso at a later time. Conclusion This museum experience taught me that nothing replaces physically viewing famous works of art. I have been to museums countless time and always have enjoyed my time there, but never have I really stopped to examine paintings closely as I did for this assignment. Looking at art in a book does not enable us to see what the artist was truly trying to accomplish through the work. We cannot see the lighting and the use of strokes to create objects on the canvas. For a sculpting, we cannot truly see the roughness of the material used and how it blends together to create the piece of art unless we visit and view it up close. I will never see museums in the same light again as a result of completing this assignment. It is my hope to visit more famous museums in the future so I can relive the moments of the famous artists throughout history. Read More