When I was 23, my friend Wheels and I were hanging out trying to decide what to do.
He suggested going to the Philadelphia Museum of Art.
First, an analysis of “Entry into Port of a Ship with a Red Rose Aboard,”
and then a cheese steak for Pop Pop.”
And I looked at Wheels as if his body had suddenly been inhabited by an alien.
I mean, did he even know me ?
“Gue, I was an art history major. Let’s go and I’ll teach you a few things.”
Fine. We had nothing better to do.
This began a love affair I’ve had with art.
I’ve gone to the Hermitage in St. Petersburg,
the Louvre and Musée d’Orsay in Paris,
the National Gallery and Tate in London,
and many others here in the United States.
I am no expert in art or any art styles, but the little bit of knowledge I’ve gained, I’ve tried to share with students in the hope that they find art they enjoy at an earlier age than I did.
Along the way, I’ve had some inspiring students.
When I taught the European unit in Global Studies, I broke away from the typical and spent three weeks covering the “history of European Art”, which covered just about everything I knew about it (I wasn’t kidding when I said I wasn’t an expert).
I created a series of PowerPoint slides which covered everything from religious icons of the Middle Ages to the 20th century. At the end, I had the students take a test…but not any test.
They could, if they chose to, draw their answers rather than write them.
I’ve had a few colleagues walk into the class while my eighteen-year-old students were coloring, and I would usually laugh.
But the work! The students always impressed me.
Two of my favorites I ever graded:
Second place: one girl “painted” a series of dots on paper, all the same color (black) except for one, and she titled it “Alone”.
It was very reminiscent of the Blue series by Joan Miró (who happens to have painted my favorite painting of all-time, Dog Barking at the Moon).
First place: when I first looked at it, I wasn’t sure what the student was drawing – there were steps, but what the heck was on it???…and then I realized he was duplicating Marcel Duchamp’s Nude Descending a Staircase.
But instead of it being a model, it was the student’s best friend, a football player who was a “bit” overweight. He titled it _______ Descending a Staircase, substituting the athlete’s name for “Model”.
I don’t know how many students from my classes wound up enjoying art (in a survey after one of the tests, most agreed it hadn’t changed their opinion of art), but I certainly had fun creating a test that wasn’t the run-of-the-mill test students have taken since the beginning of time.
Do you enjoy art?
If so: What’s your favorite painting, and how did you discover it?
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I think a big reason why people don’t get art is because of artists and art museums.
I’m not someone who wants artistic works to be didactic– in my opinion, the greatest works hit on truths that can’t be reduced to simple verbal arguments. But still, artists and art curators often don’t put enough effort to engage the public, to encourage people to contemplate and wrestle with the meaning and worth of their art.
I am often eager to go to art museums, yet I’m admittedly underwhelmed once I’m there. I visited the Guggenheim for the first time this summer, and despite featuring some great Kandinsky paintings, the presentation made everything feel clinical, detached. It gave off a “check it out, I guess, if you feel like it” kind of vibe.
Some places do get it right though. The Hirschhorn in DC tends to have excellent exhibits, usually taking advantage of the unique building design to make every new step a surprise. The Mori in Tokyo and the Kolumba in Cologne, and the Museum of Fine Arts in Montreal all showed thoughtful hands in the curation process, gently guiding attendees to approach and engage specific pieces in specific ambient and aggregate contexts, in order to suggest possible themes to consider.
It definitely can be done, it’s just not done enough in my opinion. As a result of this, and artists today usually thinking of their work as apart from the general public, most people just don’t “get” art that doesn’t showcase obvious technical skill, and feel discouraged to even try to get it.
Kudos to your friend who took the effort to get you to lean the other way, and kudos to your own efforts to get your students to be creative!
Art is a funny thing. It allows people to express things inside them that they can’t do otherwise. It allows people to experiment and push the envelope with things that have never been tried before. Some art takes incredible levels of skill, while other art takes little skill and is still enjoyable.
Sometimes I find myself referring to art when trying to understand music and referring to music when trying to understand art. I may hear an ambient song and my brain complains, “Is this music? There’s no structure to hang my hat on!” But then I think of an impressionistic Monet painting that has little form, and yet it’s beautiful, and it helps me respect the music. Or I see modern abstract art that I look at and think, “What is the point of this mess?” And then I think of listening to a sound collage like “Revolution 9” (which I like, at times), and it helps me digest the art.
But water-colors. Man do I love water colors. And stained glass.
My great-uncle was a “big shot” in stained glass circles. He passed away when I was a freshman, and it only took me 15 years to get close to his widow. She was an AMAZING woman who started with NBC in the 40s and worked her way up to be the Executive Director for religious programming in the 80s.
Easter service filmed from the Vatican? That was her.
Documentary on Christianity in China? That was her.
As she grew older, we packed up her home in northern NJ so she could relocate to Manhattan. She handed me a vase that was sitting on her kitchen table. “What do you think of this?”
Frankly, I didn’t think much of it – it was black and white, weird designs on it…and I said so. She told me to flip it over.
It was a Picasso. Turns out they’d met in the late 50s, and they bought (were gifted?) that piece.
My uncle:
https://www.google.com/search?q=charles+blaze+vukovich&rlz=1C1GCEB_enUS998US998&oq=charles+blaze+vu&aqs=chrome.1.69i57j0i22i30.4770j0j4&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8&safe=active&ssui=on
I said freshman year – that was his brother Paul. Uncle Charlie died when I was a senior.
One of the great things about going to college in Boston was my student ID got me into the Museum Of Fine Arts for free. I could go even if I only had half an hour. I’d usually stare at whichever Monet they were displaying at the time. He’s still my favorite painter, and I love Impressionism in general.
I once mentioned in passing that Frank Lloyd Wright is my favorite architect and my son said, “Wait, you have a favorite architect?”
Yeah, I have a favorite architect, and a favorite painter, and a favorite sculptor, and so on. It saddens me a little that most people don’t. In the US, we’ve reduced education to STEM, science, technology, engineering and mathematics. It seems to me we should add the arts and make it STEAM. I guess we want good worker bees more than we want well-rounded humans.
I have a question for thegue and anyone else who’s been to the Louvre. Is it worth standing in line? We’re likely going to Paris in early February but only for a couple days and we don’t want to spend more time than necessary in a queue.
I’m only partially answering your question about Paris: we were there for a few days, and approached the line to the Louvre, then decided that we would save that for a longer trip!
Hopefully “STEAM” education will pick up steam!
The Louvre is overwhelming. The Mona Lisa is…mobbed, and I’m not sure why. In person, it is…a painting.
There is a LOT of great things to see there, but I preferred the Musee de Orsay. I rarely take tours, but this woman led us to Degas’ “The Glass of Absinthe” and had us create a story about the woman in it.
I shared that effort with my “art” classes, and I’d recommend a guided tour any day of that museum instead.
Have you been to Paris before?
Never. We’re going to see friends in England first. They may join us when we go from there to Poitiers, where my first ancestor to move to North America was from. We’ll spend a couple days there and then a couple more in Paris before flying home.
Only been to the Louvre once. Used to be that one Sunday a month it was free entry and it happened to coincide with my visit – don’t know if they still do that. Didn’t have to queue to get in but it is massive once you’re in there and there are certain points where you can end up standing round waiting your turn such as with Mona Lisa. If its a quick visit to Paris then it might not be worth the effort with the time it needs but then again its a long way to Paris and it is an impressive experience so all depends what your priorities are.
My favourite thing was the ancient Greek statue of Winged Victory of Samothrace. I didn’t actually see it from the front as the crowd surrounding it was just too much but I enjoyed the absurdity of being the only one stood behind it taking in the sight from the rear with the horde of camera wielding tourists with outstretched arms getting in each others way as they tried to get a shot of the statue.
Monet is also my favorite painter, and impressionism is my favorite school of art. I home schooled my daughter and exposed her to art early and often. I knew that I was doing something right when she was about eight or nine. She asked me if it was okay if Cezanne was her favorite painter instead of Monet like mine. My reply was that art appreciation is very personal and everyone is entitled to like what they like. She was very relieved.
You will be pleased to know that some school systems are indeed taking the STEAM route. Hopefully, that will expand over time.
I am exceptionally bad at art. My lack of ability highlighted by my art teacher at school appraising our homework which was to draw what we could see through a keyhole – I did the view from our front door through the hall to the kitchen, framed as though through a keyhole. She went through them one by one in front of the class, pulling out mine a look of disgust came across her face and she uttered the immortal question ‘Is this for real?’ I assured her it was, she dropped it as if worried it might infect her with its simplistic vision of form and shape and moved on without another word.
On one hand it was pretty crushing but once I came to terms with it there’s a certain pride in the fact that my creation was so bad it induced such an unprofessional response from my teacher.
Despite my own shortcomings I enjoy the efforts of others. I’m in no way a connoisseur but I like seeking out galleries. Not far from me we have Yorkshire Sculpture Park, a 500 acre 18th century estate with sculpture and artworks scattered throughout the park. Some permanent pieces from the likes of Henry Moore and Barbara Hepworth along with a revolving cast of exhibitions currently featuring Robert Indiana’s pop art including a massive LOVE sculpture set on top of a slope. Its a mix of modern conceptual art and more traditional sculpture and there’s also the incongruity of grazing sheep and Highland cattle wandering amongst the outdoor artworks. Some cultured farm animals right there.
The Winter Palace. I’m in awe. I saw Russian Ark with the general public. My experience was ruined by snoring and the occasional heckler. It’s a quiet film. I could hear people breathing.
How long did you spend time there? And what were your favorite works? Everything at The Hermitage looks pretty jaw-dropping.
I’ve had a very odd history with art. My parents never met a museum they didn’t want to tour, which of course included art. And I just didn’t get it. I liked objects and things that weren’t hanging on a wall with a frame, I appreciated them. But pictures? Perpetual blank stare from me.
Smithsonian’s National Galleries of Art; Philly Art Museum – those were the main ones we’d always go to. I distinctly remember doing an art study in 5th grade, and I came away thinking Keith Haring was the most interesting of the whole lot we studied. Took a Humanities class in college to make the effort to try and learn more about pre 1800 art. I learned about it, sure, but the appreciation for it still eluded me.
I like the National Portrait Gallery in DC, always enjoyed portraits. Maybe because they were just straightforward, I didn’t have to ‘feel’ something from it. Since we’ve moved to Metro DC, we do try and make it down to the various Smithsonian museums; MrDutch tries to explain what he gets from the art to help me better appreciate it. It’s slow going, but I’m definitely further along than I was back in school.
As for my favorite though? The Morse Museum.
https://morsemuseum.org/
World’s largest collection of Louis Tiffany’s work as I recall. It’s in the snooty arty Orlando suburb of Winter Park; we had no problem spending all day in there. Tiffany’s artistry was truly astounding.
(You been there, thegue? Sounds like it’d be right up your alley!)
I haven’t been there (try to stay away from Orlando…there’s a cult amusement park my wife is a HUGE fan of, and I’d rather not get so close…)
Funny story though: a friend of mine has his portrait in the Smithsonian! I don’t remember the artist’s name, but my friend’s parents were friendly with him, and he painted each of the family members (mom, dad, 3 sons), and their portraits are there, but as the museum rotates its collection, I believe they’re currently in storage.