Name: Easton Tallon__Class period/section__Humanities 1100

10-1150_
1) Which museum did you visit? (check one) __Univ. of Utah __BYU
__Other (give name)
I attended the BYU museum.
2) Describe at least one of the permanent collection exhibits on a
theme, period, geographic region, or topic within the museum. (3)
Pocahontas and John Smith was a permanent painting that I viewed at
the BYU Museum of Arts. Victor Vehlig (1909) was the artist of this
amazing painting. In the painting it shows how Pocahontas saves John
Smiths life. He was lying on the ground with an Indian hovering over
the top of him, getting ready to hit him. Chief Powhatan is standing
above the crowd wearing a rawhide shirt that is very different compared
to what everyone else in the crowd is wearing so he really stands out.
The different clothing could stand for a couple of different things. He
could be symbolized as a leader because he is wearing something
different. He had new clothing and the others did not so maybe the other
Indians could adapt and see what he was wearing as an example of the
creation of style. I believe when you look at this painting, Pocahontas is
the main focus and what the author wants to stick out when you view
this portrait. She is standing in front of white smoke to force her to stick
out. Her skin is also very light compared to all of the other Indians and
their dark skin color. She adapted to the lifestyle very quickly as you can
see her saving John Smith when he is under attack.
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). (3)
Rebecca Campbell made a painting called The Potato Eaters. This is at
the museum from September 30, 2016 to February 18, 2017. She paints
this picture because she is expressing haunting memories from her past
family history. This one is very relatable because everyone has some
type of bad family history they do not like to reflect or look back on.
This was painted to help viewers look back on any time in their past life
and bring back memoires. This can be looked at as the Big Sister. Her
past times inspired her and she tried to seek out and help others
remember there past times by creating artwork. The photo showed to me
that she was very sad was crying while the other girl in the photo was
happy.
4) What do you think the museum administration and/or exhibit
curators want you to learn or gain from the exhibits you viewed? (2)
Art museums all have very similar purposes and I believe that purpose is
to show and express that all art is very unique and each portrait has its
own meaning as to what is being created. Artists always have their own
way of explaining the interpretations and reasons behind what they
create in the art piece itself. Often times people that view the paintings
will grab a different idea as to what the painting is expressing than the
idea the author had in mind when creating the art. It is important to
express your feelings in your own personal ways because of all the wide
varieties of artwork. Majority of art is past history that has taken place
and the author is bringing it back in memory so everyone can experience
the piece in history. You can gain a whole new perspective on art than
what you had coming into the situation if you explore the art looking to
gain more knowledge.
5) What kind of information is provided about the works? Where
might you look for further information if you were interested?
(Name three possibilities) (2)
Next to all of the paintings they list the artist, date, what was used and a
description from the time of history where it took place. You could
explore more information online or at the library about the artwork.
Another museum would even be a good idea to see if they had some of
the same displays.
6) Choose three or more 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.
(6)
A Visual Testimony: Minerva Teicherts Book of Mormon Paintings. I
liked this once because this was very relatable tome. We live in a very
Mormon heavy state and even though I do not practice a religion really, I
have heard and learned some about the LDS culture throughout my
childhood. She has expressed the book of Mormon through looking at
this painting. You can see some of the different stories in her paintings
and without reading it can see the theme and relate to what is taking
place. Her motivation of painting this was because nobody had ever
expressed it through images, just words. She believes strongly in the
Book of Mormon and wanted to express and show others what she
believes in. Looking at this exhibit made me want to read more about the
paintings so I can get a better understanding about what she is actually
trying to express. This made me feel good just because of how
passionate she was about the certain topic. Some people gain a better
understanding of things when they get a picture form rather than reading
and maybe she is trying to help those people out by painting what the
readings are expressing.
Plexus , by Gabriel Dawe was very appealing to me as well. It is right
inside the museum and this piece of art consists of 80 miles of string that
is very specific in how it was placed. It was calculated to create a
rainbow like piece of artwork. You can see the rainbow-based theme
when you look at it. Looking at this project made me feel
happyandthemoreyouobservedtheartworkthemorelittledetailsyouseemton
oticeaboutit. It was made of one long continuous string that was 80 miles
long. It had to be mathematically calculated so that the colors would
switch and match up to be just like the rainbow and have the same
effect. I think the artist is showing how you can do something so
amazing with something as simple as a long piece of string. It amazes
me how good and detailed it is with something so simple. He had to put
in a lot of work and calculations to bring this together. He has to have a
passion in mathematics and be good at it as well to perform this
beautiful work of art. This shows that anything you set your mind to you
can accomplish something amazing with something so simple.
To Magnify the Lord: Six Centuries of Art and Devotion. I liked this one
because I related it with the paintings of the visual testimony. They are
both referring to the lord and I liked how I could relate two similar
topicsinsideofthemuseumratherthantryingtorelateeverythingwithoutsidet
hings. I knew there would be some related topics and artwork to religion
because BYU is a religion based school.
7) How did the artworks you chose for question 6 relate to material
we have discussed in class? (2)
The art relates to a lot of questions we have asked in life and what we
study in class. Life examples that we can relate to are finding your
identity and following that is happiness. People paint for both reasons of
happiness and uncovering their identity. I think these two things go hand
in hand because once you discover your identity is when you become
happy and start experiencing what happiness is all about. They can also
reveal what the identity of the painting. There were many paintings of
women who seemed to be very upper and high class and this can be seen
by looking at the clothes they are wearing and where the setting had
taken place. The artwork could be similar to the authors identity
because they will express peoples work and past history that is similar to
them because that is what they find interest in painting about. If an artist
is painting images of Ladies of the House they could be explaining
topics and identities that are associated with them. We look at different
paintings and past time in class everyday so you can relate an art
museum to our everyday classroom discussions.
8) What was your personal reaction to this experience? Would you
enjoy attending this type of event again? Why or why not? (2)
I enjoyed the experience as well as my buddy I attended the museum
with (he was a good friend and didn't make me go alone, he also attends
BYU so he could help me out with where to go). Although this museum
I would not have picked as a fun thing to do in my free time, I would
still enjoy it if I were to attend it again. It was very cool for my friend
and I to see all of the different artwork and how anything can be used
and turned into art. What I thought was most interesting was how all of
the artists portrayed different ideas and have such wide spread
imaginations. There was only a couple that even had the same idea. I
discovered that the abstract works of art were more appealing. I enjoyed
the Plexus the most and trying to really see it from the artists
perspective. I like doing artwork, although I am not all that great at it,
this museum proves to me that you can turn the simplest things into art.