Nikki's Art Blog: September 2007

The High Museum of Art

My Favorite Work of Art: This is a really hard decision for me because I liked so many different things from so many different galleries but I really liked “Saint Matthew and The Angel” by Rembrandt Harmensz, Von Rijn (1661) in The Louvre Display. I just love the story behind it or the story it is portraying. The picture depicts Saint Matthew writing the book of Matthew in The Bible with an angel over his shoulder whispering to him, telling him what to write etc. I really enjoy art work that makes me think about the people in the picture and this one makes me feel like I’m looking in on an actually event in the past.

A work of art that I liked but wouldn’t take home: There were also several things that I really liked that I wouldn’t necessarily take home. Like the Peaches and Pears display on the Lobby balcony. I wouldn’t have anywhere to put them but I really liked it. It also made me think of my mom because she is a chef. Most of all I think I really liked The Veiled Rebekah by Giovanni Maria Benzoni (1864) in the American Gallery. I’ve been to The High Museum twice now and it is one of the highlights every time. I am just amazed at how the artist could carve something so realistic out of stone. My mom got scolded for breathing to close to it on this trip that’s how close we like to get to it.

A work of art that taught me something that I didn’t know: In the Louvre gallery there was a painting by Louis-Michel Van Loo called Double Portrait of the Marquis and Marquise (1769) the picture shows a man and a woman who are husband and wife. The woman is sitting at her vanity and the husband is standing up and fixing what looks like his cufflinks or something. The description of the art work said that because the woman is facing her husband to speak instead of facing the vanity while she talks to him shows a lot of intimacy between them and I thought that was very interesting. It is something that I never would have thought of or even picked up on before.

A work of art that felt sad to me: One of the works of art that felt sad to me was Mrs. Stedman Buttrick by Cecilia Beaux (1909) ~It was in the Cecilia Beaux display. It is a painting of a woman in a red dress holding a young child and the description said that the woman had died giving birth to that child and that was the artists’ depiction of them meeting. It just made me think about the child who grew up without its mothers and how sad that is. I also started thinking about what the mother might feel if she ever saw this picture.

A work of art that identifies a historic moment in time: There were several pictures in the Louvre display and the American Gallery that depicted historical moments but one that sticks out in my mind is The Hunting Party by Nicolas Lancret (ca 1740) it was in The Louvre Display. The audio tour person was talking about how it was very common in that period of time for groups of people to take breaks from hunting to have a nice leisurely picnic or lunch together and the “tour guide” brought up the fact that the picture doesn’t display any of the violence of the sport and that just got me thinking about that particular time in history, their customs and what the people did in their spare time etc. It’s much different than what we do in our spare time today.

A work of art that reminded me of something or someone: There were surprisingly quite a few things that reminded me of different people I knew but one that was pretty shocking to me was Mrs. Richard Low Divine by Cecilia Beaux (1907) in the Cecilia Beaux Display. The woman in the picture looked just like my Grandma Reep, even the way she was sitting is the way my grandma sits. Just to make sure I wasn’t the only one who saw the resemblance I asked my dad (it would be his mother) and he said that he thought the same thing when he saw it.

A work of art that shocked me: I don’t know if there was anything that really shocked me other than the sheer size of The Avoider by Michael Bornemans (2006) in the contemporary gallery. I’m not exactly sure how tall it is but if I had to guess I would say it is about 10 feet tall or more. I just don’t know how someone could paint something so life like when it is that large. I would think that the proportions would start to get messed up if an artist was looking at the canvas from such an extreme angle. When we came around the corner we all noticed that one right away.

Compare Folk Art Gallery to rest of museum: The folk art gallery is different from the rest of the museum. It had a little bit of a party feel to it as compared to the other galleries. It felt more hands on even if it wasn’t. I guess after spending most of the day in a museum filled with artifacts from so long ago walking into the folk art gallery made the art feel more alive. Some of the art work was very interesting to me and others didn’t do much for me but I enjoyed seeing and feeling the contrast the second I walked into it.

The Contemporary Gallery: The second we walked into the contemporary gallery my brother said, “Now this is what I thought an art museum was like!” I liked it. I felt a little bit like a kid darting back and forth to look at things a second time. Everything was spread apart and much bigger than the Louvre gallery which we had just come from so I felt like I had room to breathe and move around. I found a lot of the art work in the contemporary gallery very interesting. I felt like I hadn’t seen any of it before where as with the older art we have seen similar things so many times in our life that we forget how shocking it might have been at one time.

Experience that was most meaningful to me: I think that the most meaningful part of the whole trip for me was getting to experience it with my family. We went to a great restaurant afterwards and just talked about everything we saw.

Extra Credit: This statue by Auguste Rodin is The Shade. The statue was a gift from the French government on October 5, 1968 to the Woodruff Arts Center in memory of the 122 Atlanta Art Association members who died in a plane crash.