Yale Center for British Art

On Saturday May 12, 2007 I visited the Yale Center for British Arts. Visiting the Yale museums was nice for the fact that they were both free admission. If I were to do it again I would have gone to both the Yale Art Gallery and the Yale Center for British Art on the same day. I did not realize that they are pretty much directly across a street from one another.



Paul Mellon presented the Yale Center for British Art to the University in 1929. It houses the most comprehensive collection of British art outside the United Kingdom. It is not only a public art museum it is also a world-renowned research institute for the study of British art and culture. The center is the last museum designed by the great American architect Louis Kahn, who also designed the Yale Art Gallery.
As I was walking through the museum I noticed that there are quite a few portraits. The whole 4th floor seemed to be filled with them, so I didn’t spend too much time here seeing as they did not interest me as much as the others. I also noticed that there were quite a few paintings with horses. Just like this painting by Sir Alfred Munnings, Start at Newmarket: Study No. 4.



I really enjoyed this painting by Thomas Malton called Interior of St.Paul's Cathedral, ca. 1792. This was painted with watercolor, pen and ink over graphite on laid paper laid down on card. I really enjoy the detail in this painting. The halls seem to go on forever almost like it is three-dimensional.




The picture I chose is from Joseph Wright is called the Cottage on Fire at Night. Joseph Wright, byname Wright of Derby, was born in Irongate, Derby on September 3, 1734. He was an English painter who pionerred in the artistic treatment of industrial subjects. He was also the best European painter of artificial light of his day. Wright was trained as a portrait painter by Thomas Hudson in the 1750s. Wright's home was Derby, one of the great centres of the birth of the Industrial Revolution, and his depictions of scenes lit by moonlight or candlelight combine the realism of the new machinery with the romanticism involved in its application to industry and science.



I was really fascinated by how to orange color of the fire radiates throughout the painting, as it get brighter to darker. It also amazes me how the shadows in the painting follow the fire. It is easy to see how he can be classified as the best European painter of artificial light in his day.
The Yale Center for British Art was a very nice museum. The only thing I did not like is that it was not as diverse as the rest of the museums, for obvious reasons. Being a museum of British Art I missed seeing the types of art I have come to look forward to over the past weeks, especially modern art. I have come out of my museum experiences with a better appreciation of famous art that is within driving distance.

The Museum of Modern Art

On Friday May 4, 2007 I visited the Museum of Modern Art in NYC. It was a great experience and a wonderful. When we got there it was free admission because it was Friday around
5:00. It was so crowded I felt like I was going to a concert. Anyway here are some of my favorite pieces from this museum. Sorry again for the blurry pictures, the good new is I finally got my camera back.



This piece is by Henri Rousseau
The Sleeping Gypsy 1897
Oil on Canvas
I found this painting interesting from its colors. It almost seems like a water color painting.


Vincent Van Gogh
Starry Night 1889
Oil on Canvas
This was clearly the painting everyone was there to see. I had to fight through a crowd of people to get this picture. It was also my wife's favorite painting and she was disappointed we could not get in closer to admire for a bit.


Pablo Picasso
Card Player winter 1913-1914
Oil on Canvas
I really liked this painting. It looks as if there there are multiple paintings laid over the top of each other.



Giacomo Balla
Swifts: Pathss of Movement + Dynamic Sequences 1913
Oil on Canvas
This painting has nice flowing lines through the painting. It seems to get busier as it moves into the bottom right hand corner.


Jackson Pollock
Number 1, 1948 1948
Oil and enamel on unprimed canvas
I had to throw in a Jackson Pollock. I did my painting at the Met on him and I seem to have a new found appreciation since I did some research into his background. This is one of the pieces during the era when he used his "drip method".

Metropolitan Museum of Art

On Friday May 4, 2007 I took the trip to New York City to visit the Metropolitan Museum of Art. This was a trip I had planned to take earlier in the semester but kept getting postponed due to the weather. I was trying to avoid a weekend trip to New York City so on Friday I took the day off from work and hopped on the train.
It was such a beautiful day I decided to walk the 40 or so blocks up 5th Avenue to the Met. It was almost the perfect spring day and the walk by central park was enjoyable.





I finally got the museum and it was more crowded than I expected it to be on a weekday afternoon. I waited in line and walked in to the Greek and Roman Art exhibit. I felt like I got lost in this exhibit no matter how many people I asked for directions or how many times I looked at my map. I know I have probably mentioned it a few times in previous papers but I love looking at the Greek and Roman paintings and artifacts. I was really impressed with the rebuilt roman chariot they had on display.




They also had armor and weapons. I really amazes me how far back these artifacts date. Some of these items date as far back as 9th century B.C.






While passing through some of the other areas of the museum there were a number of paintings that caught my eye. This one called The Crucifixion by the Workshop of Francisco Zurbaran. Which is a very large painting of The crucifixion of Jesus.



It was when I made my way into the modern art exhibit is where I found the painting that intrigued me the most. It was very exciting to see some of these works from Jackson Pollock. The painting I chose is called Pasiphae by Jackson Pollock. I find the painting very difficult to read but can be looked at for an extended amount of time.

According to http://www.bama.ua.edu/~labra001/pollock.htm The painting was a symbol of the struggle with the dark animal nature of human beings. The story of Pasiphae restates the struggle with the physical union of a Cretan queen and a large powerful bull that leads to the creation of the Minotaur, half human, half animal. Although the painting and the story of Pasiphae are not exactly the same they both address the same idea from different angles.

I guess knowing the story of passiphe and a highly imaginative way of thinking this result can be seen.




Jackson Pollock was born in Cody, Wyoming in 1912. Pollock was introduced to the use of liquid paint in 1936, at an experimental workshop operated in New York City by the Mexican muralist David Alfaro Siqueiros. He later used paint pouring as one of several techniques in canvases of the early 1940s, such as "Male and Female" and "Composition with Pouring I." He began painting with his canvases laid out on the studio floor, and developed what was later called his "drip" technique. He used hardened brushes, sticks and even basting syringes as paint applicators. Pollock's technique of pouring and dripping paint is thought to be one of the origins of the term action painting.


"My painting does not come from the easel. I prefer to tack the unstretched canvas to the hard wall or the floor. I need the resistance of a hard surface. On the floor I am more at ease. I feel nearer, more part of the painting, since this way I can walk around it, work from the four sides and literally be in the painting."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jackson_Pollock


At the height of his popularity Pollock abandoned the drip technique and started to reintroduce figurative elements.

Jackson Pollock died of an alcohol related accident in August 11, 1956.

During this trip I felt like I had spent so much time in the Metropolitan Museum of Art that I did not get to see as much as I liked. It was getting late and still had to take in the Museum of Modern Art so I had to get going. Someday I will make the trip back where I will have more time to appreciate more of the exhibits, and try not to get lost.