ART MUSEUM CRITIQUE

Name_______Chris Noffsinger______Class period/section_______0945________

1) Which museum did you visit? (check one) _x_ Univ. of Utah ___ BYU

2) Describe at least one of the permanent collection exhibits on a theme, period,
geographic region, or topic) within the museum. {150 words}

There are several permanent exhibits at the Museum of Fine Arts. The one I was the
most intrigued with was the Egyptian collection. They had a sarcophagus and a panel
that displayed what was important for mummification. They also had pottery that was
common during that time to go with the collection. They were arranged around the
sarcophagus which was placed in the middle of the exhibit so that as you walked
around it you could see the other items of the There are several permanent exhibits at
the Museum of Fine Arts. The one I was the most intrigued with was the Egyptian
collection. They had a sarcophagus and a panel that displayed what was important for
mummification. They also had pottery that was common during that exhibit. I have
always found sarcophaguses to be interesting and while it did seem small to me I was
immediately drawn to this piece due to that interest. It seemed like everything in the
exhibit was scaled down to allow as much as possible to be placed in the small area it
was in.

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}

One of the exhibits they just opened at the Museum of Fine Arts is a collection of
photographs by Fazal Sheikh who titled the collection Moksha. The photographer went
to one of the houses that women following the laws of Moksha go to when their
husbands die. He took pictures of their daily lives and the areas they live in. I found this
collection to be almost haunting in nature with some of the images and they are all in
black and white adding to that ominous tone. All of the photographs are wonderfully
taken, but it feels like he was trying to make it as uncomfortable as possible.

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}

I think that the curators were trying to showcase the art really, but they also wanted
to make people aware of things both farther away and here at home. By placing the
Moksha collection right next to an exhibit on the Kennecott Copper Mine, both were
wonderful exhibits full of pictures that make you think about these things. They are also
both from completely different areas and themes while the Moksha might be about
spirituality and identity the mine is more about nature making them different but both
informative.I think they were just trying to bring as much as they could to showcase
what there is out there.

5) What kind of information is provided about the works? Where might you look for further
information if you were interested? (Name three possibilities)
The amount of information provided depended on the piece and how much
importance the curators put on the pieces story. For more high profile pieces they would
have descriptions and the stories that inspired them. On most of the paintings and
photographs though it was just a simple plaque that told who the author was and where
they were from and the dates of their activity. Along with the title of the piece, what year
it was done, what medium was used, and who the piece was either bought or donated
from. Some other areas that the information could be found is through audio tours of the
museum, catalogs on the exhibits, and museum workers who might do tours through
the museum. That is where I would start looking for information if I would still unsatisfied
I might try searching the internet after that.

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}

The first one that caught my eye is probably just because it was one of the first ones
I saw. It was one of the photos from the Moksha collection by Fazal Sheikh it was last
year (2013). It was taken with a digital camera and then printed out and it was shot in
black and white. The photo focuses on a group of women entering an Ashram they are
all dressed in white and blurry making them hard to distinguish. I think the artist is trying
to say that the women that end up here are like ghosts of their former selves. They
seem to be drifting as if he is trying to say that they are haunting this building. I find the
image to be particularly haunting and with put within the collection that features several
shots of just outside this building with fog covering almost everything it looked more and
more like a horror movie in production.
Another painting I found myself stopping for was one titled Silvery Night by the artist
Ralph Albert Blaklock. It was painted in the late 1800s as oil on canvas painting.
Judging by the other painting in the museum around that time period it seems like it was
the favored method of art. For whatever reason as I was walking through this one
caught my eye I think it was because everything else around it had a lot of color in it and
was showing some brightly painted country side. I think that he was trying to say that
even in a situation that looks dark you can still find beauty. Yet here was a painting that
captured all the beauty of an area without having to use the brightly colored scheme of
a sunset to achieve it. I feel that there was more passion in this painting of a moon
hanging over a lake than I had seen in any other landscape painting. His use of so few
colors and still being able to create a scene that seems to be brimming with life is
almost unnatural and it would be surprising if anyone didnt stop at it.
The last painting I came across that drew my attention was a piece called Private
Car by Leconte Stewart. It was done in 1937 during a westward expansion which would
explain the use of the train car. Its an oil on canvas painting like a lot of the ones in this
area and used bright vibrant colors to in my opinion express the hope of expanding
westward. I think I was drawn to this piece because of the bright colors that seemed
almost out of place next to the faceless passengers riding the train cars. I think he did
that to sort of say any one of the men on this train car could be you if you want it to be
and look how bright the future is. The detail work on the painting was amazing too with
the words union pacific being painted onto the train cars in almost perfect form. I think
he might have used a stencil but the result is still an amazing thing to see.

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}

Some of the works were on the exact things we have discussed in class like when
we watched that seen from the movie water (I think that was the title) with the little girl
who loses her husband and has to go to a house for widowed women. That concept
was repeated in the temporary exhibit by the photographer Fazal Sheikh. The exhibit on
the copper mine is related to nature because it shows how we treat our relationship with
the world around us. One of the photos in that collection had a Native American Indian
looking over the mine which also goes into identity and spirituality. All of the portrait
paintings in the permanent collection had the overwhelming theme of identity as they
were all about how that individual was seen by the painter. The pottery and statues
were of a more spiritual nature as they were more ceremonial towards some god or
deity whose honor it was created for.

8) What was your personal reaction to this experience? Would you enjoy attending this
type of event again? Why or why not? {Minimum 100 words}

After finally going to an art museum I would have to say that going to another one
would not be an enjoyable thing for me. While I did find some of the paintings interesting
and they caught my eye long enough to stop my exploration, I found it to be boring. I
have never been a big fan or museums to begin with but at least with history museums I
can see dinosaur bones or how far science has come. While in an art museum it just
seems to be the same thing over and over heres another picture oh look a painting
after twenty minutes it becomes predictable and I no longer wonder what might be
coming next I just start to drift through the museum. On a personal note I understand
that Im not very refined and while they do make a good place for a date I just find
myself wondering about other things rather than enjoying the moment.