annalooksatart-blog - Tumblr blog

[annalooksatart-blog]

Guggenheim and Jewish Museum, 11/30

For the Friday students’ last trip to NY of the semester, we got to see the Hilma af Klint show at the Guggenheim as well as the Martha Rosler retrospective at the Jewish Museum.

The af Klint show was intriguing. While her work does not fall under the scope of modern art that we are studying in the semester, her work had a large impact on abstract and modernist art and artists. Her use of spiritualism made me think about the art making process more than just the work in front of me. Abstract work tends to not be my favorite, and even though I study it, I do not tend to focus on it in my studies. This show made me actually think about the process behind creating abstract work and what specifically goes into it. Even if an artists is not working in spiritualism, there is still a method to how the work is created.

Both times I have visited the Guggenheim, it has caused me to think about how art is displayed, specifically how it is displayed in the Guggenheim. Since it is an unconventionally designed space for displaying art I wonder how that impacts what work gets displayed there. One question I had was if the art is hung level or at the same angle as the incline of the floor. I couldn’t tell either time I was there to investigate. This curiosity was also peaked when I saw the R. H. Quaytman show on the top level of the museum, which was made to be shown in conjunction with af Klint’s work. In each display space, there was a work of a white circle with a dark background. In the first space, this piece is displayed in the top left corner which gradually moves in each display space until it is in the center. However when these displays are seen from the opposite side of the museum, they appear to be hung all on the same level, it is just the angle of the floor that makes it appear otherwise when looking up close.

The Martha Rosler show was incredible, and even though I had seen some of her works before, I was not very familiar with her as an artist. I had previously seen her work The Bowery in two inadequate descriptive systems at the Philadelphia Museum of Art and also studied her work Still from Semiotics of the Kitchen in the Digital Video class I am currently taking. I found her feminist work compelling in its explicitness and directness. Her work also brought up issues of war and violence as well as gentrification and consumerism/commercialism. Though, as stated earlier, I was not previously very familiar with her work, it was interesting to see how her art developed over the years and what topics she chose to tackle.

The first room in the show showcased some of Rosler’s collage work. It was different that other collage we have seen this semester. For example, we saw John Ashbery’s show “The Construction of Fiction,” in which the collage works seem to mimic his poems in their form, many of them combining only two or three elements, and incorporating ideas that reflect his poems. Rosler’s work on the other hand is extremely detailed and seem to be seamlessly put together. The collages make statements about war and draw connections between war and the home, transporting images of war into the domestic sphere. She also had works spanning all the way to 2016 (or so) depicting Donald Trump. Even those these works more relevant to experience I live, I was captivated by her older work. While her work carries universal themes and truth, specifically about women and feminism, there are aspects in her work that do date them. I was particularly interested in the piece Unknown Secrets (The Secret of the Rosenbergs), which depicts a life sized photo of Ethel Rosenberg and on the wall is a jello-box set atop a rack with a towel inscribed with a section of a letter from President Eisenhower. I do not know much about the Rosenbergs, just the very limited amount I was taught in high school history, but the piece brought up strong feelings about the demonization and mistreatment of women. Many other pieces in the show also brought up these issues but Ethel stayed with me because it challenged my vague preconceived notions about this historical figure. Rosler has a way of evoking strong emotions while also subverting the usual in her work.

[annalooksatart-blog]

Galleries with Eleanor Heartney, 11/16

We had the opportunity to visit several galleries in Chelsea with the writer and critic Eleanor Heartney. In each gallery we were given some information about the show by Ms. Heartney and then we had time to look around on our own. We saw shows such as Faith Ringgold at ACA Gallery, Paulina Olowska and Nina Beier at Metro Pictures, Ken Price at Matthew Marks Gallery, Lorraine O’Grady at Alexander Gray Associates, and Betty Tompkin at P.P.O.W., to name a few.

At the end of the day we meet back to discuss different themes that could be seen throughout several of the shows and talked about different shows/aspects that left an impact.

The shows that most intrigued me were Lisa Yuskavage’s “Babie Brood: Small Paintings 1985-2018” at David Zwirner, Nick Cave’s “If a Tree Falls” at Jack Shainman, and Ken Price’ “Sculpture” at Matthew Marks Gallery.

David Zwirner showcased Yusakavage’s smaller, not typically seen works, since she is known for her larger scale paintings. Many of these small works later became large scale works. The work focused on the female body, specifically the nude body. While some of her works were painted in a style reminiscent of the Renaissance, others had a more cartoon quality. This show really made me challenge my own conceptions of art and what is considered as “high art.” Yusakavage’s more cartoon-ish pieces reminded me of art I would usually see on platforms like Tumblr, often what some would call “fan-art” (it’s also interesting to think about this in conjunction with Tumblr’s new anti adult content rules). While I still consider this art, it is not what I would expect to see in galleries or museums. This show made me reevaluate my own prejudices when it comes to art and the spaces different types should occupy.

Cave’s work explores issues of racism and critiques the black experience in America. Many of the works incorporated sculpted heads which were reminiscent of the West African style of sculpture. Pieces also incorporated a sculpted arm and fist, which could be read as a black power fist. However, where we usually see this symbol of black power upright, these sculpted pieces were either on their side or pointing downwards. There were similar pieces that used the typical prayer hands and subverted their imagery by placing them in unconventional positions. All of the works were very memorial, with many of the pieces including flowers and white cloth. There was one piece in particular made up of heads and hands on a long low black platform that appeared as a funeral pyre. It also seemed to represent the tradition of many cultures of placing the dead on a boat and sending it out on the water. In this way, Cave created a sense of loss and tribute.

Price’s show was the most fun of the day, since his work is bright and colorful and also takes on a myriad of interesting shapes. The shapes seemed organic, with a few people remarking that some looked like sea creatures. To me, the works seemed like body parts, specifically cellular structures. The show felt like a biology text book come to life, complete with all the eye catching colors.

Through all these shows, the image of bodies appeared to me. Yuskavage focused on the female body and form, Cave incorporated the black body, and Price represented the inner aspects of the body.

[annalooksatart-blog]

PS1 and Sculpture Center, 11/9

MoMA currently has a large retrospective of Bruce Nauman’s work, filling the entirety of MoMA PS1 and a portion of MoMA’s main building. The class only saw the part of the show in PS1.

A lot of Nauman’s work is about testing the viewer, pushing their comfort level and seeing how much they can “take.” As the MoMA website states, “For Nauman, both making and looking at art involve ‘doing things that you don’t particularly want to do, putting yourself in unfamiliar situations, following resistances to find out why you’re resisting.’” I must admit that there were several pieces I did not wish to view for more than a few moments, and I did not follow my resistances to find out why I was resisting; I was pretty sure about why. One of these pieces was the video work just showing the artist’s scrotum. The work was not shown to be objectifying the male body as a protest to the way women are objectified, but instead just as a direct depiction or a fragmentation of the body. The work was in a side room off one of the other galleries with, to my recollection, little indication about what was in it. This leads me to believe that the work was supposed to garner shock value, similar to the Clown Torture piece that was also in an offset room.

The work also acts as a self test of how much the viewer will actually stay to see. Even though it is Nauman who has created the work and the situation, it is up to the viewer to control their viewing of the work. While I understand that that is the point of much of his work, I could really have without seeing some of this work.

One video in the show was of the artist painting himself different colors, titled Artist Make-Up: No. 1 White, No. 2 Pink, No. 3 Green, No. 4 Black. I walked into the room just a bit after he started painting himself black. Although I understand that it was probably not the intent of the video, for someone walking in at that moment, it evoked thoughts of blackface and minstrel costumes. I sat through the long video up until the point where he started painting himself white, in part to test my own self in how long I could sit through the video (which was only a fourth of the entire thing), but also to get a visual that did not automatically evoke thoughts of racism.

Although there were obviously some pieces I did not enjoy in the show, as a whole it was an interesting look into work of one of the most important artists working today. It was impressive how much his work varied, in genre, medium, and content. I was only familiar with him a limited amount, from a few of his early video works and what was shown at Dia:Beacon (as well as the Body Pressure poster my sister has hanging in her living room). On one hand his concept of testing the viewer and pushing them out of their comfort zone is interesting to think about, but on the other hand, I don’t really want to be that viewer.

We also visited the Sculpture Center to see the work “Before Projection: Video Sculpture 1974-1995.” This show revolved around video art and specifically how it is displayed. The show included work from artists such as Diana Thater, Dara Birnbaum, Ernst Caramelle, Friederike Pezold, Mary Lucier, Maria Vedder, Muntadas, Nam June Paik, Shigeko Kubota, Takahiko Iimura, and Tony Oursler. Despite the digital age we are now living in, most of the works utilized old T.V. sets in the sculpture aspect. Each work utilized screens in a different way, from reflection to screens un-viewable by the audience to creating a human form. Since all of these works were produced before 2000, I would like to see a show about how video art and video sculpture has changed with the digital age.

[annalooksatart-blog]

Julia Jacquette, 10/26

On Friday Oct. 26 we traveled to the Lower East Side to visit galleries and see the artist Julia Jacquette’s studio. Jacquette is a realist painter who uses images from media and advertisements to critique the idea of beauty. She describes herself as a neo-pop artist or a second generation of pop art because of her use of media images in her work. Though I have seen some works similar to Jacquette’s, we have not really seen hyperrealistic and pop art paintings yet in this semester.

Jacquette discussed how images in media manipulate the viewer and define beauty. She tries to subvert this idea of beauty in her work. To do so, she purposefully crops the images, and she often does not include faces. However, despite the lack of a face in most of her media images, she tries to steer clear of using naked women in her work because of the objectification that occurs in the media and advertisement industries. Some themes and/or repeated imagery appear in her work. Many of her paintings have a strong emphasis on gold for the color palette. In the series Water, Liquor, Hair, Jacquette incorporates gold both in the liquor and the hair paintings, as well as a few of the water pieces that include reflection. One of the pieces she discussed with us was a painting of a very close up and cropped image of something gold. It was an image taken from a Dior ad, in which Charlize Theron is dressed all in gold. Without this provided context the image would be unrecognizable. Many of her paintings of media images are the same, almost unrecognizable but still beautiful.

(image courtesy of Jacquette’s website: http://www.juliajacquette.net/water-liquor-hair/enq4jcmq1tmjew1l8hp7k3dcotr5lz)

We also got to see some of her new work, which makes a political statement. She explained that since the 2016 election, she has felt sick and nauseous a lot of the time, so several of her new works incorporate vomit (for which she uses plastic vomit as a reference) as well as masks or images of Donald Trump. The works also incorporate images of Princess Leia figures and other influential women, including Anita Hill in one piece. Though Jacquette doesn’t explicitly try to make any of her pieces feminist, many (if not most) turn out to be. She explained that often times, when one sets out to make a feminist piece or an explicitly political message, they turn out cliche. It was interesting to see what images she chose to use in her work, specifically what images of women she used in her latest work. She incorporated Anita Hill into her work even before the Kavanaugh accusations and hearings, which then added an extra layer to the new piece. I was interested to see the female figures that she chose to include in these new works, each of which she identified for us, as well as the discussion of feminism in her work.

We also visited galleries in the Lower East Side, such as Rachel Uffner, Pierogi, Olsen Gruin Gallery, and Sargent’s Daughters. The shows ranged from photography (both black and white and color) and video, to sculpture, to paintings, to drawings. While it was interesting to see more galleries in a different part of New York and the work was all interesting, no show particularly stuck out to me. However, I am interested in visiting some of the other galleries in the Lower East Side on my own that we did not see on the 26th.

[annalooksatart-blog]

An-My Lê, 10/19

Though I was not able to attend class on Friday, Oct. 19, when we visited An-My Lê’s studio, I have done my own research into her background and art. Lê is a landscape photographer that was born in Saigon, Vietnam and fled the country with her family during the last year of the Vietnam War. Though photography is usually not my favorite medium of art, Lê’s work explores themes about war and place in visually intriguing and thought provoking ways.

Though most of her work revolves around the idea of war, Lê does not explicitly take a pro or anti war stance with her work, but instead seems to just show the realities of war, specifically how it changes and interacts with the landscape. Lê’s work is interesting because she is not actually capturing real moments in war, even though some of her photos appear to be from real wars. She instead photographs different places and events somehow connected to war. In her series, Small Wars, she photographed reenactments of the Vietnam War that take place in South Carolina, and in the series 29 Palms, she photographed test scenarios run by the army. She focuses on the landscapes in these series and how they are affected by the imitation wars on their soil.

In an interview with Art21,  Lê explained, “[W]ar can be beautiful. I think it’s the idea of the sublime—moments that are horrific but, at the same time, beautiful— moments of communion with the landscape and nature. And it’s that beauty that I wanted to embrace in my work. I think that’s why the work seems ambiguous. And it’s meant to be.” Even though Lê lived through most of the Vietnam War, which one would expect to have galvanized her into making anti-war art, she presents the subject in a neutral and beautiful way.

Lê works almost exclusively in black and white photography but even the works she shoots in color often have a black, grey, white or muted colored subject. There is rarely any bold color in her work. However, despite the lack of color in most pieces, she manages to play with the lighting and shadows to make them striking. Several pieces focus on trees and their leaves, manipulating the light in the shot. One piece in the 29 Palms series shows soldiers underneath a camouflage net, which creates a complex pattern in the image both from the actual net, the shadows it casts, and the camouflage of the soldier’s uniforms.

(image courtesy of Lê’s website: http://www.anmyle.com/29Palms/8)

Many of her pieces incorporate smoke or fog, which she manages to translate even on black and white film. These elements are specifically present in the series Viêt Nam and the previously mentioned Small Wars and 29 Palms. Different works within these series capture a hazy sky/background, smoke from military equipment or simply kicked up dust and dirt. She is also able to capture movement in her work, as often times a part of her photograph is blurry but still striking. In one photo there are blurry birds against the sky, while other pieces show the movement of people in the landscape.

As a young person, I have a very limited knowledge of the Vietnam War (and war in general) and I have no real personal connection to the history. Lê’s work presents Vietnam and the war in a way that does not make me feel disadvantaged by not knowing the full history. And the pieces do not instruct the viewer on how to feel about this history, instead encouraging the viewer to consider the place and the landscape of war.

[annalooksatart-blog]

Hyperallergic and Galleries, 10/12

For the New York Art Semester on Oct. 12 we had the incredible opportunity to meet Hrag Vartanian, the founder and editor of the art blog Hyperallergic. We also visited Pratt Galleries and White Columns, one of the only not for profit galleries left in New York.

At Pratt Galleries we saw John Ashbery’s show “The Construction of Fiction.” The show highlighted the poet’s collages, some of which only used two or three elements, while others used many pieces mounted on different images or old board games. I liked seeing this show because I am interested in making collage myself. His small pieces that used only an old postcard and just one or two other images were the most intriguing because of the way it constructed a narrative with so few elements. His larger pieces used cartoons and childlike images or elements, such as the board games. Though the pieces were supposed to reflect a childlike and playful image, they seemed creepy, since in a lot of pop culture and media older cartoons and games for children are associated with the horror genre. The show also evoked a connection to Ashbery’s poetry because of the similar ways poetry and collages are constructed. It was easy to see how pieces could become poetry or how they may have reflected an already existing piece.

The theme of collage was carried to White Columns, where we saw a show by Dr. Lakra, a physician from Mexico. In his work, Lakra uses images of body parts as a substitute for the faces of notable male figures. In this way, he takes away the work’s grandeur and importance. As the White Columns website states, “Dr. Lakra subsequently subverts the original image’s intent – i.e. to celebrate and aggrandize its subject - through an often sardonic reconstruction (or de-construction) of the subject’s identity.” There were almost no female figures used in the show, which causes it to make a comment on masculinity. The images could be seen as grotesque and disturbing or comical, all things not typically associated with the tradition of portraiture.

Though we did not see any art at Hyperallergic, we got to take an inside look at a different aspect of the art world, one that I am very interested in getting involved in. Vartanian talked about his start with the blog and different aspects of his work. He talked about how a lot of the expectations and customs of the art work are nonsense and explained that to become a respected source on art, he just sticks to what he is interested in and what he believes, instead of being caught up in fads or expectations from the art community. He writes about what he is interested in and what he would want to read about, and he often lets writers present their ideas for articles. I was not familiar with Hyperallergic before this class but the site intrigues me and covers topics in art that are of interest, specifically political topics. It branches out from traditional art coverage or criticism and offers a new look and outlet for art discussion, and I now plan to be an avid reader of the site.

[annalooksatart-blog]

Chelsea Galleries, 10/5

On Friday, Oct. 5 we visited several different galleries in Chelsea, such as Metro Pictures, Lisson Gallery, Petzel Gallery, and David Zwirner Gallery among others. The shows that stuck out to me the most were Mary Weatherford at the Gagosian Gallery and Simone Leigh at Luhring Augustine.

The work in the Mary Weatherford show, titled “I’ve Seen Gray Whales Go By,” combined large canvas paintings and neon lights. The paintings were abstract and they had one or more lights mounted to their surface. Some of the lights matched a color within the painting and some  instead complemented the present colors. The lights drew the viewer's eye along the piece and served as a sort of guide of how to view the piece. The work was reminiscent of the Dan Flavin, Bruce Nauman, and François Morellet pieces we saw at Dia:Beacon in the use of light within the work. Like the François Morellet piece No End Neon,Weatherford had exposed wires on her pieces, that usually hung downward across the paining. The wires themselves also became part of the work, not quite guidelines like the lights but still adding structure and form to the abstract pieces. I was particularly drawn to the reflections cast on the floor by the artwork. The floor of the gallery was shiny and highly reflective and with the lights, there were distinct reflections of the paintings. To me it seemed that the reflections became a part of the artwork, whether intentionally or not. In this way the actual physical space of the gallery was incorporated in the work. Though this aspect would change depending on the exhibition space, in the Gagosian it acted as a sort of breaking of the fourth wall.

The Simone Leigh show featured sculptures, specifically ceramics focusing on black female subjectivity and issues of the diaspora. I had looked into the exhibit before class and was excited to see her show because of her work with feminism and black feminist discourse. Since I am a Women and Gender Studies minor, I often am more interested in works that explore feminist themes or theories. Most of her work depicts the bodies or heads of black women, some of which are containers as well, such as bowls and jugs. In some of the pieces, the container was attached to the top of the head, while in others a container replaced the head. The concept of a woman’s head, specifically a black woman’s head, as a container to hold different materials, was interesting. My initial interpretation was that it was a way to show the emotional labor that women, specifically black women, perform regularly, whether they want to or not. Women are often the keepers of men’s feelings and problems which are poured into them. Other pieces in the show were life-size ceramic forms of the body with large straw skirts that were reminiscent of haystacks, although one of them was on a stack high above the rest of the show. Not only were the works visually stunning but they made the viewer look at and contemplate the form of black women, a group that is absent from much of art history.  

One of the highlights of the day was actually on the walk back to Penn Station. Apparently the Wednesday group had seen Mark di Suvero possibly installing a sculpture in an empty lot two days before. When we walked by the lot on Friday, the sculpture made with bright orange I-beams was already up, contrasting against the grey and brown buildings behind it. It was very similar to the sculptures of his we saw at Storm King a few weeks before, even down to the color. It is uncertain how long the piece will be up, but it was exciting to see a work by well known artist in the middle of Manhattan that had not been there two days before.

[annalooksatart-blog]

Whitney Visit, 9/21

The David Wojnarowicz retrospective show, History Keeps Me Awake at Night, at the Whitney that we saw on Friday 9/21 was a powerful and moving show. The work spanned different mediums and each gallery within the exhibition had a different feel.

The anger in Worjnarowicz’s work was palpable, not just in the physical works but also in the recordings of his band and the audio piece in which he read different works aloud. In the second gallery, which had work from the early 80s with elements of graffiti and pop art, anger had a clear presence. This was aided by songs from Worjnarowicz’s punk band playing overhead. There were also repeating images, such as the burning house and the falling figure, that exemplified this anger. Within this gallery there were many representations of the male body and men having sex with men. This motif carried on through many of the other galleries as well. In the gallery that displayed Worjnarowicz’s series The Four Elements, there was one piece that stuck out to me. The painting representing the Earth, while fitting with the style of his other paintings, felt different. In contrast to the Water painting hanging on the next wall that continued with the depiction of the male body, the Earth piece seemed to depict the female body. It was the only piece in the entire collection that evoked this image.

In Gallery 9 were the pieces that used images of Peter Hujar as the main subject. Hujar was a close friend of Worjnarowicz, and the two were also lovers for a brief time. There are three photos of Hujar taken right after he died from AIDS, one of his hands, one of his feet, and one of his face, and one other piece that used the image of Hujar’s hands as a repeating background. Though I knew to expect these pieces since they were discussed in the articles read before class, they still took me aback and were hard to look at. Even though they were difficult to look at I found myself almost unable to look away. This was near the end of the exhibition so there was not much time to take in the pieces, but even without reading the full text overlayed the last collage piece, its impact was felt. All of the works in these last few galleries were full of emotion. Though the anger in these galleries may not have been as overt as the anger in the second gallery, but it was still present. Near the end of the show was the work Untitled (One Day This Kid). This was another powerful piece that made a commentary on the U.S. and it’s treatment of LGBTQ people. The most amazing part of Worjnarowicz’s exhibit was how many of the works are still poignant in today’s world. From the punk rage against the government, to the defending of LGBTQ people, to the works protesting the treatment of the environment, all still ring true in this day and age.

[annalooksatart-blog]

Dia:Beacon Visit, 9/14

Dia:Beacon was an interesting visit. The museum, which was formerly a Ubisco boxing factory, is an amazing architectural space to display art, with large open rooms and tall ceilings. Even the outside of the building is meticulously designed, as Dia commissioned Robert Irwin to design the exterior of the space. The museum uses almost all natural light provided by skylights to display their collection. The Dia website states, “The original building had many key design elements that made it an appealing site for contemporary art, including broad spans between supporting columns and more than 34,000-square-feet of skylights. Today these skylights provide natural light in the galleries and have uniquely established Dia:Beacon as a ‘daylight museum.’”

However, despite this impressive and distinguishing feature, many of the museum’s exhibitions included light works, such as those of Dan Flavin and Bruce Nauman. Flavin is an artist that works with fluorescent lights to create pieces, using both color and white lights. Nauman, who is known as a video artist, also used neon and fluorescent lights in several of his pieces that were on display. One of the works at Dia, Left or Standing, Standing or Left Standing, uses yellow fluorescent lights within a constructed room, while other of his pieces are neon shaped into a specific image. In some cases these works were displayed in darker rooms which enhanced the viewing experience. Nauman’s work was displayed in the basement, which had little natural light. Half of the Flavin pieces were displayed in the back right corner of the building, which created a dark space perfect for displaying his fluorescent works. However, some were displayed in well light rooms. This really made me consider the curation. For example, the other half of the Flavin pieces were displayed in a front room with windows all across one wall. Most of these works were made with white fluorescent lights, which were referred to as monuments. While the works were still incredible they lost some of their brightness, and it somewhat lessened the viewing experience. The curration of some exhibitions were well thought out and put together while others, specifically of the light works, seemed to take away from the actual work itself, such as the natural lighting dulling the appearance of the light works. There was also a piece by François Morellet in the basement along with Nauman’s works. It seemed to be installed in the building’s former parking lot. While the piece, No End Neon, which consisted of neon lights and wire, worked well with the construction of the room with many columns throughout the space, there was natural light coming in through one side. This light work was one of the few that was not negatively impacted by the natural light of the building.

Despite these somewhat confusingly curated exhibitions, there were others that were actually enhanced by the natural light. Many of the Robert Smithson works within the museum would not have had the same effect if they were displayed with artificial light. Several of his works used mirrors and the reflections become a part of the work itself. Another piece, Map of Broken Glass (Atlantis), used shards of glass, which were all piled together on the floor. The natural light reflected off the glass, drawing the viewer’s eye right to it. I would like to revisit Dia:Beacon on my own time when I am able to take my time and view the entire museum.

[annalooksatart-blog]

MoMA Visit, 9/7

On Friday, September 7, we visited MoMA. During our visit we were able to see the exhibition “The Long Run” which features works from later in artists’ careers. Some of the artists included in the exhibition were Louise Bourgeois, Gego, David Hammons, Agnes Martin, Joan Jonas, and Ellsworth Kelly, just to name a few. The exhibit spanned from photography (both black and white and color) to paintings to sculptures to even a sound/video installation. This show gave us the opportunity to see work that is usually not shown in exhibitions of the artist. I was not very familiar with any of the artists we saw, but I was able to get a sense of their work from the MoMA website beforehand. Yet what we saw was very different than the works seen online. Most of what I saw when I looked up the artists were their earlier work, from what is referred to as their “breakout moment.” It was interesting to see how artists’ work changed over the years, whether in subject, form, or medium, but how in some ways it stayed the same. I specifically looked at the work of Ellsworth Kelly before this visit. Earlier in his career Kelly used simple lines and blocks of color in his work, working mostly with paint. The work we saw in the MoMA exhibit however, displayed some of his later work, specifically his sculptures. While he still created abstract work, the sculptures did not carry any of the bright colors from his earlier pieces. However, all of his work seemed to be concerned with shape and form, which was present in both his earlier paintings and his later sculptures and paintings.

After seeing the exhibit, we had the opportunity to visit the museum’s paper and photo conservation lab where we met with Leanne and Annie. I have never thought much about art conservation so this was an interesting peek behind the curtain. From the set up of the lab, with north facing windows, to the different methods and tools used in conservation, I started to consider a part of art I had never paid much mind to. We were also able to see some of the pieces that they were in the process of conserving, and the different types of damage that they handled in their specific lab. Some of this damage included tearing, scratches, stains, etc. This made me consider different factors about the making and displaying of art that artists and curators must consider. How art is displayed is an important part of the art world, as it is important to display pieces in a way that they are easily viewable to visitors but also in a way that they will not be damaged. The most interesting part of the visit was when the conservationist explained that the goal of conservation is not to make the works pristine but to simply clean the pieces up. I had always thought that conservationists tried to restore works to the exact condition of their first production (if possible). This visit broadened my understanding of conservation, and therefore art in general.