Reflection on Smart Museum

I love the team project very much, and I never know what is going to happen in the team project. It took us over half an hour to go to the Smart Museum of Art, but we had a great time both in the train and in the bus. Even though we didn’t talk about art, we talked about our individual academic goals and what we were planning to do in the future. It was a good bonding chance for the four of us.
Generally speaking, Smart Museum of Art is a small museum, and it gives the first impression that there is nothing worth to see. However, due to the amazing arrangement of artworks and special decoration inside, you can see a terrific world of art in the museum. Basically, there are two kinds of art inside, the western style and the eastern style. I am proud that the ancient Chinese paintings have huge influence at the University of Chicago. Amazingly, I saw one Chinese color painting inside the museum, and I was shocked because most of the ancient Chinese paintings were painted in ink. Moreover, this painting is not about landscape, the subject most ancient Chinese paintings refer to, but it is about a typical class in the past. The color is very light, and there are few kinds of color in the painting. Maybe that’s because the painter wasn’t able to manage the color in his painting. Therefore, my teammates didn’t like that Chinese painting.
The western artworks include the painting, the sculpture, and the video. The themes in these artworks vary: some are about the beautiful landscape, some are about the perfect human body, and some are about love. The most striking artwork for me is the Heartland project. The Heartland project exhibits many different kinds of artwork, such as a show, a video, and a boat. Sadly, we don’t have a chance to watch the show, but we can see the setting of the show. The materials and the tools in the show are very weird, because they use skull, nets, and other strange things. However, we love the boat, and we love the idea that the boat is the vehicle to the wonderland.
To sum up, the Smart Museum of Art didn’t strike me as much as the Art Institute of Chicago did. However, the smart museum enlarges my vision, and I have some thoughts about beauty. In the past, people always think that only the beautiful things can be marked as art, but some of the artworks in the smart museum are not beautiful. Therefore, I think that art is not about beautiful things, but the art makes the things beautiful. I am happy that I can have a chance to experience a new art world, and I hope my teammates will feel the same way.

Reflection on MCA Visit

Contemporary art, nowadays, is the mainstream in the art world, and it has tens of forms which depict very differently. After the tour of Museum of Contemporary Art (MCA), I can feel the variety of themes in the contemporary art. In fact, I have never seen any contemporary artworks, except those from the textbook, before, so I was confused when I saw the contemporary artworks for the first time. However, thanks to the guide at MCA, I learnt some other information about the contemporary art which communicates with conversation. When I looked at Liam Gillick’s “Three Perspectives and A Short Scenario”, I was lost. I didn’t know what all the elements, light, texture, sound, and color, were talking about, and all I felt was a prison-like structure. Apparently, Liam composed such a scene for many reasons, but I couldn’t tell one of them. However, I did love one of the painting hanged on the wall because I could see it in two perspectives.
Afterwards, I felt better about the artworks which combine the technology on the second floor. Moreover, I loved the movie that made the winter forest look like forest in the water. Under the influence of light and the dark background, the movie perfectly changed my viewpoint and feelings.
The other artworks are still mystery to me, and I have to read the labels and the textbook over and over again to appreciate those artworks. Moreover, the contemporary artworks have so many subjects, like the wrecked car, the parallel cabinets, and the rainbow-like panels, that I have to think deeply. However, it is a great experience, and maybe I would like to visit the museum again when I have better understanding of contemporary art.

Reflection on County Fair

My first impression of these nine pictures is comfortable. Every picture depicts the closeness of human beings. However, when I look at these pictures for a long time, they strike my heart. Most people struggle for money and prestige in their whole lives, and few of them really feel satisfied and happy. As a matter of fact, money and prestige are like the wind, coming fast and going fast. All we need for a happy life are a peaceful place and a person we care for. In these nine pictures, there are adults holding children, friends holding together, and even old couples holding together. Furthermore, the old bonding couple is the most striking picture; when I looked at it, it reminds me of my parents. During these years, they get through the hardest time together, and they share happiness in every precious minute. Even though they will have fights on tiny things, they do love each other. Thanks for their love and care, my brother and I can live in a harmonious family and have a great childhood. Therefore, closeness, love and care, in my opinion, are the most precious things in the world.

performance and installation

Performance
Laurie Anderson
Stories from the Nerve Bible




Installation

Cai Guo-Qiang

Dream

Modigliani

Modigliani is an amazing movie that describes the late life of the talented Italian artist Modigliani. Modigliani has a terrible childhood when his family gets bankrupt, and he drinks and has drugs during most of his lifetime. Moreover, Mody is a genius in art, but he has a bad temper. He never sells his paintings in good price so that he lives a poor life throughout his life. He only has a one-man show during his life, but it is shut down by the local police because of nudity in the paintings. The majority of his paintings are portraits, most of which are naked woman, and the strangest thing in his portraits is that the figures are always closing their eyes. Furthermore, the movie focuses on the competition between Mody and Picasso. Unlike Mody, Picasso is already a well-known artist at that time, but Mody tries his best to mock at Picasso. Meanwhile, the movie also describes the love of Mody and Jeanne. Jeanne’s father doesn’t want Jeanne to be with Mody, and he sends their daughter away. Mody signs up for the art competition in order to get the prize money and get his daughter back, and Picasso accepts Mody’s challenge and signs up for the competition too. At last, Mody wins the competition with a masterpiece, Jeanne’s portrait with beautiful eyes, but he is beaten to death because he doesn’t pay for the drinks in the bar. The other day, Jeanne jumps out of the window and kills herself and her unborn baby.
The movie significantly shows the personality of Modigliani and the style of his artworks. Modigliani is always alone despite that he has few friends and some women. He drinks to get rid of his terrible memory of his childhood, and he has drugs to relieve the pain from his screwed life. He is talented, but he is poor. Most of his paintings are naked women lying on couches, and most figures in his portraits are closing their eyes. It seems that the figures are looking into their souls and are reviewing their lives. Moreover, the figures are usually long; for example, some figures have long faces and long necks. Even though the movie exaggerates the conflict between Mody and Picasso and changes the history a little bit, it is still good for those who want to know about Modigliani and his life.

Reflection on AIC Visit

The Art Institute of Chicago is an amazing place, because everything inside is associated with art. From the design of the building to the presence of famous artworks, AIC strikes my heart and soul.
My first impression of AIC is gorgeous. Not only the material of the building is fancy, but the computers in the front desk are expensive. I don’t know whether the fancy material or high-tech computers have anything to do with art, but I am sure every visitor can feel comfortable inside the institute. When we step into the first room of Van Gogh’s paintings, I am excited to see so many original versions of paintings. The differences between the original artworks and the photos of artwork in the textbook are obvious. From the textbook, I only can look at the artworks in one fixed angle and direction, whereas here I can view the artworks from different directions. I can tell how the artists construct their paintings, how the figures arrange, and how the paintings look like from different angles. By analyzing the artworks in this deep ways, I have a better understanding of the artworks.
After seeing the fantastic paintings, we have to analyze one artwork in groups. For the presentation, I didn’t do a great job in working with my partner. The reason is that we both are crazy about the artworks in the building so that we go on our tour separately. However, we did great in expressing our feelings about the chosen artwork, and I liked the collaboration very much.
The only setback of this tour is the limiting time. I don’t have enough time to enjoy the amazing artworks, not to mention to take pictures. I am hoping that we can visit AIC for more time.

Artloop Tour

Before listening to the audio tour, I have seen all the 17 artworks; however, I didn’t pay much attention to any of these artworks, nor did I know any story behind these artworks. It took me over thirty minutes to finish listening to all the audios, but it was totally worth. Not only I learned some background information of these artworks, but I have the desire to see these artworks in no minute. Therefore, I went to see them again with Jongboe last Friday.
It was a wonderful day, not cold and not hot, for outing, and we started our journey at Art Institute of Chicago. There were many people taking pictures in front of the building, and some people were lining up for visiting inside. The lion sculptures were attracted, and so was the Public Gardens. After that, we went to the Millennium Park where we spent the most time. It has been a year since I last visited the park, and there were more artworks in the park. Even though we couldn’t have a great visit to the Jay Pritzker Pavilion due to the closeness, I was glad to see the big red dinosaur in person. BP Bridge, the Crown Fountain and the Cloud Gate were still the hot spots for visitors. At last, we took several pictures of the Loop tattoo.
However, my favorite artwork was none of the artworks above but the Picasso’s Chicago. It was interesting because nobody can tell what it is, and everybody can see different shapes in different directions or angles. It killed me that I couldn’t see that sculpture because of my tiredness and laziness.
It was a great tour, and the artworks are amazing. I highly recommend to the visitors to Chicago and the people who are interested in art.

The Boat Ride

The boat ride last week was amazing, and I never knew how fantasy the architecture could be without this experience. During the boat ride, I couldn’t help to take as many pictures as I could, and I had to show my high respect to the architects.
In fact, I didn’t pay much attention to the explanation the lady gave while I was busy in taking pictures; however, I still could catch something the lady said. I learned that there were two bridges, the North Chicago Bridge and the South Chicago Bridge, during the boat ride, and I also knew that many of the architectures during the tour were built after the Chicago Fire in 1871. Moreover, the majority of the buildings were of latest design back at their time. The most interesting thing was that two buildings were refreshed for better light.
During my taking photos tour, I noticed that all the buildings could be classified into three types, the International type, the post-modern type, and the art deco type. The dominant type was International, and those building were always full of glass but lack of decorations. Nevertheless, I didn’t like this type, and my favorite building was the building with no right angles. All the corners of the building were curved, and I could think of the waves if I turned my head 90 degrees. However, I was surprised that two buildings, as I mentioned before, had to be refreshed. Obviously, the designers couldn’t expect more buildings around.
The wonderful one hour flied, and I still thought of the amazing buildings on my way home. I truly respected the creative designers and the skillful workers, and it seemed that everything could show up in their hands, the building lying alone near the Navy Pier, the building with waterfall shape, and so on. I really loved the outing; not only had it enlarged my vision, but may it lead me to my future career — architect.

The Wenbin Tower

The most impressive architecture for me is the Wenbin Tower, which locates at the center of my primary school in China. The tower has a history of over 100 years, and it is 20 meters in height. The tower is an octahedron, and it has seven floors. Lots of painting, mostly about birds and flowers, are on the back surface of the tower. The thunders stroke the tower to damage in 1979; therefore, there is a lightning rod on top of the tower from 1985 when the tower got fixed.
Inside the tower, there is only one little tiny light bulb on the seventh floor, so it is very dark even in the daytime. Moreover, there is just one long helical stair attached to the center column of the tower, and there is little room for each floor. The tower is not open for the public for some unknown reasons.
I have been to the tower three times so far. It was, generally speaking, short tour for the first two times, and I didn’t have enough time to look through the tower. Fortunately, I got the opportunity to go up the tower with my grandpa when I was in high school. The tower inside was messy and dirty, for there was nobody to clean it. Even though it was dark inside, I was still able to find out the painting on the walls with my flashlight. However, the lines and the colors faded so that I couldn’t tell the subject matter of the painting. When I was on the seventh floor of the tower, I could have a full view of my hometown through the circle window. Looking out the window, I was shocked by the differences between the far sight and the near sight, and I couldn’t help to imagine how my hometown had changed for the past few years. From then on, I love the tower very much, and I am looking forward to the next tour for the tower.