Cultural Report # 1: Smithsonian American Art Museum in Washington, D.C.
Living in Northern Virginia allows me to visit a plethora of culture-enhancing sites around the Washington, D.C. area. For this assignment, I visited the Smithsonian American Art Museum in Washington, D.C. which is located a few blocks from the National Mall which features the more popular Smithsonian Museums such as the Museums of American History, Air and Space, Natural History and the National Gallery of Art. Information about the Museum can be found on their official website: https://americanart.si.edu/.
The Museum features all aspects of American visual art, ranging from the nation’s infancy to current art. The different types of American Art displayed include: photography,
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The backstory of the sculpture is almost as intriguing as the sculpture itself. Carved out of marble in 1876, it debuted in Philadelphia to great acclaim, but mysteriously disappeared for over a decade, eventually turning up in a Chicago salvage yard in the 1980s (The Death of Cleopatra, n.d.). The rawness and realness of the sculpture really stuck a tone with me as she appeared to have just succumbed to suicide by way of an intentional snakebite. Additionally, the sculpture contained many intricate details and symbolic messages carved into it, such as the hieroglyphics on the side and the matching sphinx heads on the ends of the armrests. Even though she had succumbed to suicide, she still portrayed a commanding quality as she wore her crown and royal attire with the poisonous snake in one hand and her limp arm hanging off the side of the throne. She defiantly killed herself rather than surrender to her potential captures which further made me feel the power that the sculpture represented, especially being a woman and reflecting on the power of her convictions. Additionally, the rawness of the sculpture appealed to me because the sculptor conveyed the shocking aspect of Cleopatra where she had already succumbed to death, rather than portray the moments leading up to her death, which would have elicited a much different
New York City is known for its extensive collection of art museums ranging from the Metropolitan Museum of Art which is usually the most renowned to others such as the the Solomon R. Guggenheim or the Whitney Museum of American Art which are popular in their own rights. This abundance of art museums makes the city very attractive for foreign visitors. However, this abundance of choice can overwhelm even the most informed visitors who have a finite amount of time to explore what the city has to offer. Although all of the above mentioned museums have great collections of their own, the often unheralded Frick Collections might trump them all in terms of exceptional works which include some of the world's most celebrated Western artists, such as Goya, Manet, Monet, Rembrandt, and Renoir.
This sculpture was most likely the artist’s attempt to capture the essence of some fable that had been passed down through the generations. Perhaps more likely, it could have been the artist’s own imagination that fathomed the macabre beauty of the rendered scene. The sculpture is done in high relief, carved out of a solid block of marble. The lines and curves of the sculpture give each character within it great definition. It almost appears though, from the way in which the centaur holds the woman, that he has no head. This adds to the already existing complexity of the sculpture. It is very similar to other sculptures of the Classical period in the way that it depicts a man at death’s doorstep, and a woman being abducted. It seems to be a reoccurring theme.
In 1876 Edmonia Lewis sent her sculpture “The Death of Cleopatra” from Rome to an exposition in Philadelphia where it became a sensation. The sculpture is made out of white marble and it depicts Cleopatra dying on her throne due to the bite of a poisonous asp. The sculpture weighted about 2 tons it was also exhibited in Chicago about two years later and it was also a big sensation, but was not sold. Since the marble piece was very heavy it was difficult to transport and Lewis did not have the money to ship it back to Italy and so she decided to keep it in storage. This art piece went through a lot from being on top of a horse’s grave whose name was Cleopatra to being hauled into a salvage yard. The statue was later found by a man named Harold
The Tampa Museum of Art was not always the same museum that we see today. It went through multiple stages throughout the years. The works vary, creating a large spectrum from the old to the new. The social angles change with the exhibits in the museum, combining to create the diversity we see today. Visiting this museum in person helped me to appreciate it even more than I would have thought possible. Observing and analyzing the other visitors helped me to understand the museum’s impact on the community more than I would have been able to just by reading about it. This museum is much different from others than I have visited.
George Gustav Heye Center - The Smithsonian's National Museum of the American Indian is a fascinating building at the Bowling Green area of Lower Manhattan. It’s close to Battery Park that displays an elegant view of the water. You can see ferries floating by headed towards Staten Island, since South Ferry Terminal is nearby. It allows you to appreciate the hidden gems of the city located in the outskirts Manhattan. One of those very treasures is the museum mentioned previously.
The exhibit that I viewed at the Philadelphia Museum of Art was one about European Art between the years 1100-1500. This was a series of paintings, sculptures, architecture, and tapestry of the Medieval and Early Renaissance as well as objects from the Middle East. This exhibit was an important part of the history of the Philadelphia Museum of Art because for the first time, Italian, Spanish, and Northern European paintings from the John G. Johnson collection were shown. It gave me a good idea of what the paintings were like in these four centuries and reflected ideas of both the east and the west.
In conclusion, visiting the History Museum of North Carolina was a great way to experience world culture. The assignment was truly amazing, because I went with purpose, and new look on the influence of the world’s culture today. It is very surprising to find so much of the world wrapped into one big melting pot. You experience the world around you outside of your textbook, living room, and computer. The people living next to you, and even in your very house makeup the different cultural aspects of our community.
In the text, “The American Cultural Configuration” the authors express the desire of anthropologists to study their own culture despite the difficulty that one faces attempting to subjectively analyze their own society. Holmes and Holmes (2002), use the adage “not being able to see the forest through the trees” (p. 5) to refer to how hard it is for someone to study something they have largely taken for granted. The Holmes' article focuses predominately on paradoxes within our own culture, many of which we don't notice. In a paradox, two contradicting statements can appear to be true at the same time. This essay looks at two paradoxes commonly found in everyday life: the individual versus the family and religion.
I visited the Minneapolis Institute of Art November 11, 2015 to study works of art in person and to consider how these works are displayed in a museum setting verses how they were originally intended to be seen. I will be comparing certain works of art from Greece and India, to other pieces if artwork found in Understanding Art 10th Edition by Fichner-Rathus.
...face a sense of life, while emphasizing the sadness of the moment; whereas, the snake biting her breast gives a sense of death. Her braided hair is drawn in a way that shows the individual strands of hair, while also showing the lines of the braids. She is looking away from the snake biting her breast, yet her expression seems all aware of what is happening. Michelangelo’s Cleopatra is a great drawing and the fact that there is a drawing on the reverse is just makes it even more intriguing than it already was. It is imperative that conversations such as this one of Michelangelo’s drawing, and the comparison to the drawing on the reverse side continue. Conversations such as these spark an interest, which encourages the research necessary to support a particular point of view. Research is the stepping stone necessary to obtain scholarly gold, known as knowledge!
Professor Richard Sandell proposes a museum-specific model of diversity management. (appendix). He suggests that there is a dynamic interrelationship among its workforce, audiences, and museum programs: increasing diversity in the museum workforce can increase diversity in both service delivery and audience profile, therefore eliminating the perception of the organization as a “white space.” I want to add that, in this way, more people of color might be more willing to go and get the educational benefits of museum visitation. Fred Wilson, an African-American artist, curated an exhibition “Mining the Museum” in 1992 at the Maryland Historical Society, to offer an entirely new perspective on the museum’s collection and fight against social injustices. For example, he juxtaposed a pair of iron slave shackles with elegant silver vessels, highlighting the marginalized history of African American and increase the awareness of the diversity in Maryland community. The minority curator is able incorporate new points of view that makes minority audiences feel included, and thus achieving audience
The snake has acted as a diverse symbol throughout history, representing immortality, evil, femininity, and masculinity. In the book Dream Animals, Marilyn Nissenson and Susan Jonas further reveal the awe that the snake has inspired throughout the centuries, "They [snakes] were believed to mediate between life and death, earth and sky, this world and the next" (19). The snake slithers through our subconscious, evoking varying associations. Cleopatra identified with the snake during her life, and it becomes even more highly symbolic in her death. By examining three movies (DeMille's Cleopatra, Mankiewicz's Cleopatra and the ABC version of Cleopatra) and two dramas (Shakespeare's Antony and Cleopatra and Mary Sidney's Tragedy of Antonie) different symbolic representations of the snake emerge along with contrasting depictions of the Queen of the Nile. These varying representations of the asp and slightly contrary portrayals of Cleopatra prove to us that we know very little about the enigmatic ancient Queen.
One pleasant afternoon, my classmates and I decided to visit the Houston Museum of Fine Arts to begin on our museum assignment in world literature class. According to Houston Museum of Fine Art’s staff, MFAH considers as one of the largest museums in the nation and it contains many variety forms of art with more than several thousand years of unique history. Also, I have never been in a museum in a very long time especially as big as MFAH, and my experience about the museum was unique and pleasant. Although I have observed many great types and forms of art in the museum, there were few that interested me the most.
As I walked in and looked around, I noticed how big it was and how many people there were. There was not only amazing art, but great views of Los Angeles, which I found really impressive as well. The work of art that caught my eye was Claude Monet’s oil painting Sunrise c. 1873. To its left was The Portail of Rouen Cathedral in Morning Light c. 1894 and to the right was Still Life with Flowers and Fruit c. 1869. The subject of the sea from Monet’s Sunrise I was able to associate it with, Hokouasi’s Thirty Six Views of Mount Fuji c. 1826-1833. The museum was a very fun experience, and finding a piece of art from our readings in class made the experience a lot more rewarding, because I was able to take what I learned in class and apply it outside of
The inside of the museum was intense because you walk into see two huge dinosaur structures in the front. There were also many entrances to different exhibits on top the entrances were enormous murals depicting various things. The murals showed all of the cultures around the world. All of the cultures are able to mix in with each other. For instance, the mural on top of the Asian Peoples exhibit was showing the many different Asian cultures such as Japanese, Korean, and Chinese mixing into one huge mural. There was the mural on top of the African Peoples exhibit that included prominent animals such as, lions and elephants. And lastly for the South American Peoples exhibit that included Theodore Roosevelt in the mural signifying the creation of the Panama Canal. I like how the murals all had the same color schemes. These murals showed the impact of various historical events having an im...