ART MUSEUM CRITIQUE

Name: Oscar Medrano Class period/section: Humanities 1100

1) Which Museum did you visit? (Check one) x Univ. of Utah

2) Describe at least one of the permanent collection exhibits (on a theme,
period, geographic region, or topic) within the museum. (150 words)
One of my favorite exhibits and it is a permanent exhibit at the museum is the
Egyptian Art exhibit. I enjoyed this the most because I have always had an
interest in the history of Egypt and love learning about it. Although a small
exhibit compared to others in the museum, I spent a lot of time observing the
different pieces and reading their display tags. This exhibit displays a variety of
pieces ranging from vases to jars, tapestry art work to art created on rock slab,
figurines, and of course no Egyptian exhibit would be complete without a
sarcophagus containing a princess mummy. A majority of the pieces were
created between the wide ranges of 1000-400 BC and done in a two-dimensional
tone using colors symbolically. They also used scale to show which figures are
the most important, usually referring to pharaohs or Gods as the biggest in the
displays. What I like most about Egyptian art is that its telling their history and
you dont need to read hieroglyphics to understand the story they are recording,
just follow the sequence of pictures.

3) Give a brief, one paragraph description of a special, temporary exhibit
(for help, ask museum staff what these are; they are usually in one of
the first rooms). {100 words}
The museum has as a temporary exhibit Alfred Lambourne: The Savage
Poem Around Me. It seems a majority if not all of the Alfred Lambournes pieces
displayed here are scenic pieces of the Great Salt Lake and surrounding
landscapes here in the state of Utah. Lambourne is classified as a romantic
realist landscape painter-using pen, pencil, oil, and watercolor to complete his
masterpieces. I really like how Alfred Lambourne uses light in his paintings to
draw more attention to specific points of the landscape, or at least I found that
my eyes followed the light to certain points in the artwork. Besides Egyptian
history, I like looking at scenic artwork and photographs, which made this
exhibit even better.

4) What do you think the museum administration and/or exhibit curators
want you to learn or gain from the exhibits you viewed? {100 word
minimum}
History. Art has always been a significant part in the recording of history. As
we toured the museum it reminded me of a little history tour starting with
Alfred Lambournes collection of the landscapes of Utah. Here he gives us, the
modern day viewer, a glimpse of the land he enjoyed. We look at our own
nations history in artwork depicting significant events in the American art and
Utah and the West exhibits. We then rounded through ancient Egyptian, Greek,
and Roman art exhibits. We toured through European artwork from different
centuries that were religious based and portraits of leaders. Finally, we ended in
Asian, Native American, and Pacific Island exhibits. These last three gave us not
only a historical look but also a cultural perspective. I think its worth
mentioning that the exhibit Exploring Sustainability doesnt provide us with
any type of world history, but is meant to have us rethink our global footprint
and consider doing our part to improve the environment. The last exhibits we
toured were Modern & Contemporary and salt 9: Jillian Mayer. These last two
exhibits I didnt feel had a message of history or anything like that but rather the
artists creating their ideas or world to share with us and to see it as they do.

5) What kind of information is provided about the works? Where might
you look for further information if you were interested? (Name three
possibilities)
All of the works had display tags that gave the name of the piece, the era it
was created, materials, a reference number, and named the artist if they were
known. Many even had a brief description of the piece, its history, and a little
background of the artist. Some even listed the collection that the piece came
from. If further information is needed I noticed that the museum had quite a few
workers walking around that were able to answer a few questions that I had.
The museum had lots of pamphlets and brochures available to take and even had
an automated tour for certain pieces that you could call from you cell phone to
hear more about it. Finally, the Internet is always a fast way to look up
information. As I walked through I used my phone multiple times to look up
more background information about events that individual pieces were
portraying, biographies of artists, and even different techniques used in creating
the art works.

6) Choose several works that particularly appealed to you. Explain why
you were drawn to these works. Comment on the subject, style,
medium, time period, etc. Who were the artists? What message do you
think the artists were trying to convey in the works you chose to
discuss? This question must be answered in its entirety. {This should
be at least 500 words}
There were many pieces that appealed to me and the very first was Alfred
Lambournes Sunset on Gunnison Island. This piece was created in 1882, its
oil on canvas, and its from the collection of the LDS Museum of Church History
and Art. After viewing this I want to visit Gunnison Island (my wife and I are
making plans for a summer excursion). Apparently Lambourne even lived on
Gunnison Island for a time. I think Lambourne is trying to capture the simplistic
beauty of such a small island. Its a panoramic painting depicting a sunset
descending behind the water line and two cliffs, one cliff rather large in
comparison to the other next to it. We see what appear to be seagulls flying over
smaller waves crashing into the island. The light from the sunset is absolutely
worth preserving through time, as it reflects off the side of the larger cliff leaving
the rest of the cliffs and water, a dark blue and purple.
Another piece that particularly appealed to me was the Urn of the Seated Deity
Cocijo. This piece originated from the Monte Alban archeological site in Mexico
and comes from the Zapotec culture created in the early classic period between
300-600CE. Cocijo is a rain god and I think he was one of the oldest gods to the
Zapotec culture. According to the description figures like this were probably
used as offerings and were discovered in tombs and underneath the temple
floors. My wife thought the figure looked scary, but I thought it was really cool
with fine detail for that time period. Cocijo sits cross-legged with his hands
placed on his knees wearing a large necklace that covers the front of his body.
He has a cloak placed over his shoulders that has little candy cane shapes
decorating it and a very large headdress. I assume these large apparel items are
there to show his worth and importance. His face is small in comparison to what
surrounds him with a huge earring in each ear and what looks to me like a
possible piercing coming out of his lip. The expression could be described as
stern or even fierce. I dont think the creator was trying to depict anything other
than that Cocijo was a god to be recognized, respected, and of course
worshipped.
Finally, another painting that eventually caught my attention was Princess
Eudocia Ivanovna Galitzine as Flora by Marie-Louise-Elisabeth Vigee le Brun. It
is oil on canvas created in 1799 and is a blending of Neo-Classical and Romantic
styles. At first glance I thought this painting was pretty but didnt really
appreciate it because I tend to prefer art that displays more action, mythology,
or scenic landscape and I dont care too much for portraits. However, my wife
educated me a little bit about the story behind it and the history of the artist.
This piece is located in the European section of the museum and depicts a young
woman, Princess Galitzine, with fair skin and dark hair holding a basket of roses
on her head and a leaf branch in her other hand. Everything about the painting is
simple and easy to look at. Instead of competing, the colors and shading are
complimentary. She stands in front of a background of mountains, a roman
building atop of a hill, and a small road. What I like best is that the young
womans skin almost looks like its glowing and she has a slight smile on her face
which only accents her dark eyes more. She is posing as the Roman goddess
Flora, goddess over flowers, spring, youth, and beauty. Since I like mythology,
this made me appreciate it more and in the end I kind of thought the picture was
peaceful. Vigee le Brun painted this while in exile during the French Revolution.
These pieces are all very different from each other, but I chose them to write
about because they all reflect what catches my interest when looking at art.

7) How did the artworks you looked at relate to material we have
discussed in class? (They do relate in many ways, you just need to look
for those relationships). {Minimum of 150 words}

A lot of the Artworks I looked at were similar in that each had its strong
centers; some like the Renaissance period had focused on positive spacing. In
the modern art section, there were a lot of sections with shapes that bore a
symmetrical pattern along with having boundaries and a strong center.
Lambourne had a lot of simplicity and inner calm in his portraits he does this by
the way he portrays the pictures with the colors he uses. Lambourne then
switches it up in that he uses roughness to portray the location he was in with
the crashing of the waves in the bay and the storms front. The Urn of the seated
deity Cocijo, use a lot of Roughness the sculpture also shows some local
symmetry. In the Death of Saint Joseph painting it shows some darker tones
on the outside where his friends are but there are bright colors, which center
him in the painting alongside Christ, who is comforting him for a job well done.
The artist Solimena, who made the painting, uses the element of contrasting.
Solimena uses a good balance of light and dark tones. Solimena also uses
positive space to help reinforce the viewers focus on the setting and the
importance of St. Joseph.
8) What was you personal reaction to this experience? Would you enjoy
attending this type of event again? Why or why not? {Minimum 100
words}
I will be honest; at first I wasnt all that excited about going. Fitting in time to
go to the museum with my schedule was proving harder than I thought, but I
was finally able to make it and my wife came with me and it turned out to be
really fun. Im glad she came and it was enlightening to have another persons
different perspective and to talk about the different things that we liked or didnt
like. Alfred Lambournes exhibit was a good exhibit for me to see first and get
excited about the museum. I really do like scenic pieces and he didnt have a
single piece on display that I didnt appreciate. The exhibits I spent the most
time in and obviously enjoyed were the Art of the Americas, Egyptian, Greek,
and Roman. The history and mythology of these past cultures is very rich and
something that Ive always been interested in. An exhibit that I didnt much care
for was salt 9: Jillian Mayer. I think her exhibit was supposed to be more
abstract but it just didnt appeal to me. Since this was overall a very good
experience for me I would definitely enjoy attending this type of event again, and
will actually look forward to it.