BMA Visit

Still Life With Lemons
Georges Braque
1928

This painting was very intriguing to me and was my favorite to look and think about. It is formatted using the golden triangle. In this painting, there is a smudge in the middle of it, looking as if someone swiped their finger across the painting. It looks as if it is accidental, but if you look closer then you can see that it was intentional. It made me wonder why that was there. It also made me look closer into the painting. The painting has scratched that look like grapes in them, but they are not their own separate color. Also, I spent a lot of time thinking and looking at the object on the bottom right of the painting, wondering what exactly it is.







The Shaded Stream at Le Puits Noir
Gustave Courbet
1860

 This painting was interesting to me because it was so dark and hard to see. You had to really look closely to see what was in the picture. This painting is split into "L's". There is a stream in the middle of the painting and it shows the reflection of the earth around it. There seem to be  cliffs, and in-between those cliffs there is a very dark cave. The dark cave is where my eyes first look. It makes you wonder what is in the cave and why it is so dark, along with the rest of the painting. The painting's dark, earthy colors make the painting seem scary and real, but it is also very pretty to look at.

Mont Saeinte-Victoire Seen from the Bibemus Quarry
Paul Cezanne
1897

This painting is split into horizontal thirds. The bottom layer of the painting is where the trees are and where the roots of the trees are, then the second layer is the next layer of cliffs. The next layer is the layer of the mountain and the sky. The mountain is very high and far away, while the trees are very close to the front of the painting. This painting shows the lowest point of the earth, the tree roots and the dirt, and it climbs up very high to the top the mountains, where the colors are grey and blues. The paint strokes are very thick and distinct, which makes the painting more powerful.

John Berger - Ways of Seeing

Ways of Seeing by John Berger brings up interesting points about how art can be affected so much by modern life. Every piece of art has its original, but many pieces of art have duplicates of them in many different forms. Even as I was watching the video, Berger says that this piece of art work is the original, then he says it is the original for him, not for us, the viewers. We are seeing the piece of art through he video camera, so we are not actually seeing the real piece. Art can be duplicated through a camera, a videocamera, other paintings of people trying to duplicate it, and many more ways. When looking at art, many people do not realize how important it is to look at every detail the piece of art has. 

Berger talks about the art works themselves and says that "this religiosity, usually linked with cash value, but always invoked in the name of culture and civilization is in fact a substitute for what paintings lost when the camera made them reproducible."  
Berger says that the camera destroys the meaning and value of a piece of art. He talks about how a camera does not have the ability to capture every little detail a painting has. Paintings and works of art are famous for every little stroke they make. Every stroke is thoughtfully put onto a painting, and a camera will not and cannot capture this detail. The meaning of a piece of art can be changed dramatically through the use of a camera or video. Berger talks about how a camera can zoom in to a smaller piece of the painting and change the meaning of the work as a whole. Music changes the way the viewer looks at a painting or any piece of art. The reproduction of paintings in different colors changes the meanings of them. 

This video made me realize how important it is to pay attention to how many different things affect how we see art. If we are simply looking at art through a camera, through pictures of paintings, then we are never going to truly see the real meaning of the work. We have to try to know and understand the meanings of paintings and we have to realize how everything affects how we see it; from how our daily life affects it, to the sounds in the background as we look at a piece of art, to the pipes of art around it. We have to be aware of how art affects us. 

Visibility

This article begins with the idea that "fantasy is a place where it rains." It talks about The Inferno and how God sends Dante images from the heavens through the rain. God is sending Dante messages through something that is so simple and so "normal" to humans in everyday life. It shows how Dante found signs and found something so special and important in such a typical, everyday occurrence. The article asks where these images come from and if it is imaginary. He sees mental images and turns them inward, without going through he senses.

Imagination is "stealing us away from the outer world and carrying us off into an inner one, so that even if a thousand trumpets were to sound we would not hear them, what is the source of the visual messages that you receive, if they are not formed from sensations deposited in the memory?"
He talks about the visions presented to him as if it were stories. Many artists try to put their emotions and what they're thinking and feeling into their art, as Dante does in The Inferno. He has to use his imagination for every aspect of work he uses. "We must make use of visual imagination of a metaphorical sort (the soul imprisoned in the corruptible body)."

Loyola says that "the person meditating has to put himself into the scene and assume the role of an actor in the imaginary scene." A person cannot fully experience his or her imagination if he or she does not put himself or herself into the scene. When a person imagines something, often times, they put themselves into the scenario they are imagining, and by doing this, it allows them to fully understand their mind and how it works. "Catholicism of the Counter-Reformation possessed a fundamental vehicle, in its ability to use visual communication... But it was always a matter of starting from a given image, one proposed by the Church itself and not 'imagined' by the believer."

Ball of Wax

Art is everywhere in life. In the article The Whole Ball of Wax by Jerry Saltz, he describes the relevance of art in everyday life. He uses the ball of wax to emphasize the importance of art; “art is not optional; it is necessary. It is part of the whole ball of wax.” Art is used in so many different ways and forms, many that most people would not think of as art. The way everything is laid out in front of a person’s eye is put together thoughtfully and caringly. Even as I am typing on this computer, every single letter was strategically placed on the keyboard to make it easier to type. The way the letters are laid out on the keyboard is art. The thoughts the person had while putting these letters down on the keyboard is a form of art. Even the letters themselves are art. Each letter is different and represents something different; each letter is its own and is unique.

Every piece of art is unique in its own way. Every alphabetical letter is its own representation of something so different from another. It has its own meaning, sound, shape, and design. As Saltz says, “art creates new thought structures.” Every time a person looks at a letter, the way they say the letter could be different than the person saying the same letter next to them. People have different accents and pronounce things differently. A person with a British accent is going to pronounce the letter “A” differently than a person who speaks with an Australian accent. The letters represent the same thing, and both people use the letters for the same words, however interpret the letters vocally different. One piece of art could have one thousand different interpretations, and everything can be interpreted as art.

Saltz describes a piece of art called Girl With a Pearl Earring and View of Delft. Many people think of these paintings as beautiful, however it is more than just that. The painter, Antionio Cassese, says that “these paintings were ‘invented to heal pain’; ‘they radiate a centeredness, a peacefulness, a serenity, and are a psychic balm.’" The purpose of these paintings were to sooth the viewers and make them feel calm and at peace. Every individual piece of art has its own meaning. The people who created every piece of art had a purpose. When looking at art, we need to look deep into it and think about every aspect of thought and purpose that was put into that piece of art. Art is deep and art is everywhere.