ART MUSEUM CRITIQUE

Use the following format for your museum critique; answers must be typed below the
questions and all questions must appear in full on your final copy. You can use this
document as your template. Pay careful attention to the required number of words for those
questions that have them. Failure to follow the instructions here and on your syllabus will
result in a substantially low grade. Minimal answers poorly written are a D grade or less.
Elaboration of points, excellent arguments, and good writing garner higher grades.
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Name: Morgan Owens

Class period/section: Humanities 1100

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}
Id gone to this museum a few times but I guess I had forgotten what was actually there.
There were quite a few themed exhibits on the upper level of the museum but one of my
favorite exhibits that Id gone through was the Egypt exhibit. This one stuck out to me
particularly because it showed and explained how mummification worked , giving samples
of what was used for that process thousands of years ago. It explained in great detail
through artwork and it even gave you the chance to smell the sawdust and oil (which smell
a little bit like Christmas), something they used to embalm a dead body before
mummification. The reason for mummification was because ancient Egyptians believed that
a new life began when a person died so they preserved the body (or mummified) the body
to keep it looking life like. The coffins for the mummified, gods are painted for protection.
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}
When you walk into the exhibit portion of the museum, to the right is one of the first
exhibits and the first thing you notice is the bright pink streamer-like hanging from the high
ceiling. It definitely got a lot of woes from the group, including myself, I was with. All of the
streamers were in rows and there had to be at least over one hundred of them giving the
plain white room a neon glow. This exhibit demonstrated looking at life in color. With this
work, the plain room came to life and whimsical definitely becoming one of my favorite
pieces.

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}
What I believe the museum administration wants us to learn is that the world was
something utterly completely different from the lives we live now. They want us to
step out of our world and take a sneak peek into someone elses for even just a

moment. Each exhibit tells a different story, some happy and some tragic. Through
these exhibits they teach us about what that persons (the artist) world was like
during that time period. Some can be very eye opening.
5) What kind of information is provided about the works? Where might you look for further
information if you were interested? (Name three possibilities)
Typically to the left of the art piece was a plaque that told about the work but on
some it gave very little detail about it. I actually was very interested in some of the work that
I wrote down the name of the artwork and the artist themselves to later look them up.
The internet is a very useful source though you must be wary of what sites you use.
You wouldnt use Wikipedia as source as it isnt always correct so finding a reliable source
online is useful. Another place to find information about an artist is the library. You can find
great books about artists and their work. Lastly you could simply ask a museum worker
about a certain piece and theyre almost likely to know about the piece.
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 work of art that appealed to me was Park Village East Winter painted by
Frank Auerbach. At first glance, I noticed the oil on the canvas. It was almost as if he had
just slapped some paint of an array of colors as if he didnt care about the texture or
darkness of the color onto the canvas and called it good. I deemed more interested in what
it meant and read the plaque and it told how the painting itself was based on wartime bomb
sites in London during the 1950s. I took a second look at the painting and was amazed that
I didnt notice the smoke floating into the sky from the burning buildings. The dark colors fit
in perfectly with the scene of the painting and I believe he wants us to see what London
was like in the 1950s as this was painted in 1999 and how far it had come.
A painting that moved me the most was The Kite painted by Charles Sims. He was
an artist of the 1900s and this particular work was painted 1910. Without looking much into
the meaning of the work, you just see a child flying a kite with a woman sitting nearby.
Charles Sims had painted this after the loss of his eldest son during WW1 to which he
never recovered from and you can almost feel his pain. He wants the viewers to see from a
childs perspective, to remember the youth in which case he demonstrates perfectly. The
painting didnt have very much detail as far as scenery goes, the people didnt even have
faces but the brush work was painted in detail giving it a vibrant color regardless of the fact
that it was painted out of sorrow.
The Bard painted by Thomas Jones caught my eye as I wondered what the man
walking through what seems like a storm was doing. The story of the painting is the last
surviving bard places a curse on the English invaders before leaping to his own death. The
painting was made in 1774. We dont hear it much often now but a bard was a professional
story teller, hired by a patron such as a monarch to praise the said patrons activities. It
recounts the tale of Edward Is massacre of the Welsh bards from the poem The Bards

written by Thomas Gray. The work was used with oil on canvas and the painter definitely
took a good amount of time perfecting it to detail. The Orange sky mixed with the dark
clouds gives it an eerie feeling which I think Jones wants you to feel with the thought of the
story running through your mind.
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}
One way I can relate the artwork to what Ive learned in class is how we interpret things
and trying to think how that person (the artist or people in a certain time period) thought.
For me personally I couldnt imagine embalming a dead body for preservation and the
mummifying it to protect it as it begins a new life. That is what life was like back in that
time period though and I think that if I were to have lived in that period, it would have
been a completely normal thing to me. Some pieces I couldnt really understand how it
was art but the more I thought about it, I realized an art piece told a story something that
can be really moving emotionally. Its all about stepping away from what youre used to
and viewing it on a level youre not used to. Its about taking on a new perspective.
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}
Getting to experience the museum was definitely a positive and content one. Getting
to see through the eyes of different people from ages ago gave me an emotional feeling. I
got to feel what the artist felt through their artwork to which is an amazing feeling,
something I didnt know that could happen. Id definitely go to this type of event again just
to experience different outlooks on things and step into someones thoughts. This is
something that I think everyone should experience at least once and I would recommend
starting at University of Utahs museum. Im certainly glad I was able to attend this.

As always remember that I want to see reflective thinking on your part. Show me you are
aware of your limitations, your biases, etc. Show me that you are thinking about your own
responses and why you respond the way you do.