Art Institute Field Trip

Here is a picture of the beautiful architecture inside the Art Institute of Chicago.

This is my teach, Professor Peck acting spastic. Just kidding, don't lower my grade.



Contemporary:

Out of all of the things we viewed at the Art Institute, this would have to be one of the works that most inspired me. This is a Jackson Pollock painting. Pollock was famous for laying his canvases down on the floor allowing him to splash different forms of paint onto them. He also included random items such as cigarette butts, shards of glass etc. This is inspiring to me because it allows you to use your imagination and interpret the work as you please. It's more enjoyable to look at then a painting that recreates reality in my opinion because instead of just staring and thinking "Yeah, that looks like the real thing all right" you get to work your imagination. When viewing his paintings I don't seem to find one definite focal point, and this is another reason why I love Pollock so much. Your eyes just can't seem to focus on one thing, they tend to follow the different splash marks and colors throughout the whole canvas. There are so many details to look at you can spend an hour viewing one of this paintings. 

Another painting we viewed that inspired me was Mark Rothko's Untitled (Purple, White and Red). I've loved Mark Rothko long before this field trip but have never gotten a chance to see any of his paintings. Let me tell you, I didn't want to walk away from it. I love how he lets the paint and colors speak for themselves. Unfortunately, this photograph doesn't come close to doing the painting justice. It's a simple work, but when you view it in person you are able to see the brush strokes, the heavier areas of paint and lighter layers of paint as well. Again, the eyes don't have one set focal point to pay attention to. The white center balances out the darker top and bottom colors. It is one of my goals and dreams to visit a Rothko gallery; I believe I could spend all day there. 

      This is a piece called "Ice, 1,2,3,4" made in 1989. The craft of this piece is much like a Jackson Pollock except I don't this these canvases we're laid on the floor like a Pollock work. The artist obviously used a ton of paint to get a thick consistency on the canvas. You can see smears fading into another color. There are also very vibrant colors on top of a background consisting of blacks grays and whites. This type of background makes the colors really pop out at you. When viewing this piece you eye has no place to rest, much like a Jackson Pollock. I personally enjoy getting up close and really seeing the smears and thick portions of paint on the canvas. The viewer can just let their eye wonder over these pieces without a central focus. The concept I believe would be letting the paint speak for itself. There are obviously no renderings of an object, just paint. This is why I love contemporary works, because you can be free to think and see anything in the canvas as opposed to classical where all you see is a rendering of reality. Sure there is amazing accuracy and use of colors, but your imagination has no room to be free.