THE ART HISTORY MINOR

1 Park Guell, Antonio Gaudi

In case I haven’t made it extremely obvious so far, I love public art, and I love when art is open for people to make a part of their daily lives.  Park Guell was a fantastic example of that.  It combined all the visual elements of Barcelona: mosaics, color, classic architecture, and Gaudi’s recognizable curving forms.  We spent about two hours there in the evening, and we saw a ton of people exercising, spending time with their families, and walking their dogs.  Park Guell was not only incredibly beautiful, it provided a functional public service and I really enjoyed seeing that combination. 

2 Tilework in Park Guell Antonio Gaudi

I separated the tiles and mosaics of Park Guell into another artwork because they were so distinctive and so beautiful and I felt like they were very significant and unique from Gaudi’s other designs.  I liked how they took an element that we saw throughout the city, the floral mosaics, and broke it up and made it into a different kind of decoration.  

3 Sagrada Familia Antonio Gaudi

The Sagrada Familia was probably the most visually impressive thing I have ever seen.  The figures on the facade were really different from other churches, with their angular, almost abstract and yet incredibly emotive faces.  Like the rest of Barcelona, it combines the gothic, the Gaudi-ian style, and the modern.  Like the graffiti in Ghent, it was a great opportunity to see a work in the process of it being finished.  Especially when the work has been under contraction for almost 100 years!

4 Las Meninas Pablo Picasso 

I had no idea these existed, and I got to see a whole room of Picasso’s iterations on Las Meninas!  The whole trip to Spain kind of felt like a combination of modern influences and older concepts, like the gothic and modern architecture and Picasso’s take on classical paintings.  This artwork made me think about how artists are always responding to what has come before them, and how national identity plays into artistic choices.  Art history kind of feels like a building of traditions on traditions, and it is one of the parts of a nation’s culture that can be seen as a conversation throughout time. 

5 Casa Mila Antonio Gaudi

1 Church of Our Savior 1695-1752

It seemed like everywhere we went in Copenhagen we could see the spire of this church (which we later climbed for a fantastic view of the city).  Its ornate gold decoration was eye catching and very different from most of the architecture in the city.  It definitely hails from the Baroque time of heavy ornamentation and a decorative departure from the Renaissance.  I found  the contrast between the spire and the rest of the building interesting, and I like how various buildings throughout Europe (like this one and Saint Peter’s) are historical testaments to the changes in style throughout history. 

2 If You’re Reading This Be Kind to Animals

This was a large sticker on a lamppost, and I thought it was an interesting mix of advertisement, social justice and art.  It’s play of the popular Drake album cover grounded it with the younger generations, and definitely caught the eye of people familiar with the album. Since I’ve been traveling throughout Europe, I’ve seen many examples of artists using graffiti and popular culture to make social statements like this one.  

3 Ice Sculpture

This may be the most temporal piece of art I’ve seen so far.  On our way home from a long day of walking Copenhagen, we stumbled along a little “Winter Festival” by the water.  People were milling around drinking, and several ice sculptures were being completed and/or in display.  I chose this one because it used color on the inside of the ice, which seemed innovative compared to the others, and because I’ve seen a lot representations of tulips the last couple weeks, and this one was certainly the most unique.  It reminded me both of the temporality of modern conceptual and performance art, but also of the “sculptures in the round” from the High Renaissance. 

4 Mural Christiania 

This mural is one of the only parts of the alternative culture commune Christiania which is allowed to be photographed.  It stands just outside the entrance to the community, and features fanciful imagery like fairies and other mystical creatures.  It also feels a bit like a utopian landscape, with all the bountiful foliage and beauty.  It seems to stand as a sort of representation of the entrance to another land that is traveling to Christiania.  This style and imagery was repeated through the commune, adding to the artistic, free-spirited vibe of the place. 

5 Mural

I’m realizing now that all the art we saw in Copenhagen was public art!  From architecture to graffiti to the murals of Christiania, Copenhagen is full of a lot of art to be consumed for free.  I think this sort of reflects the socialistic aspect of their country, and the public sharing of so many different aspects of life.  

1 Paintings for the Four Seasons Mark Rothko 

We saw this series of paintings at the Tate Modern, after a very long day in London and after having already done the National Gallery.  And even though I was exhausted, I am so glad we made it to this room because it was such an interesting experience with Mark Rothko’s paintings.  These were originally created on a commission for the very fancy Four Seasons restaurant in New York City, but after completing the majority of them Rothko thought they were too dark and suffocating for that setting and gave them to the Tate instead.  After a few minutes in the room, I could see why he made that decision.  Rothko’s aim to create an emotional response within his viewer with his paintings was definitely achieved with this series of dark maroon paintings.  Filling the walls of the room, they create a feeling of being almost curtained in red darkness, and the initial relaxed feeling soon fades to a sort of uneasy pressure.  While they are individually beautiful, together they are an overwhelming force.  

2 Sunflowers Vincent Van Gogh

Like everyone else on the planet, I LOVE Van Gogh’s sunflowers.  And I think they are so well loved for good reason.  Van Gogh’s still lives seem so alive in their colors, in their composition and in their details.  I think his floral paintings have the same overwhelming emotional quality of his portraits, and I think that’s all about his use of color.  Van Gogh’s color choices are so visually provoking that there is an inherent emotional response involved.  The yellow of the sunflowers, the pink and greens of the rose paintings, these are all impossible for our brain to reject as beautiful.  Van Gogh’s still lives seem to be of so much more than just objects.  

3 Graffiti London

I”m not sure if this was technically graffiti or how it came to be, but this work was essentially on the side of a wall around a construction site.  It was extremely noticeable from the street, and we definitely weren’t the only people who stopped to check it out.  This was about a week after Valentine’s Day, so maybe a graffiti artist created it for that holiday.  Regardless, it was very cute but also has a little bit of implicit edge to it:  I liked that you couldn’t tell the gender of the two lovers, and that there was an emphasis on love being free.  In a society that is excessively ruled by capitalism, it was nice to see this piece of free art emphasizing the free-ness of the most sought after pleasure on Earth: love.  

4 Graffiti London 

We saw a lot of graffiti in London, but I chose this particular work because it was so clever and so conveniently placed within its contemporary time: I viewed this just a few days before the Oscars aired on TV.  Using the popular format (a lyric from a famous song) of “I got 99 problems but _____ ain’t one” in contrast with the image of a starving African child to talk about the issue of diversity in the arts (and especially in film) is graffiti doing what people love it for the most: calling regular people’s attention to social issues.  While I think Banksy is a problematic artist, I do think his use of his medium to provoke conversation about social ideas is admirable and has set a trend that will be explored in graffiti for years to come.  

5 Bathers George Seurat 

1 Guildhouses Brussels

One of my favorite hours of my semester so far was the hour I spent exploring the main square of Brussels.  After downing a praline (or five), we grabbed a map with information about the buildings and headed outside to learn about the history of the city.  I found this strip of old guild houses especially interesting.  I knew the important roles guilds have played in the Renaissance and in the cultural development of cities, and it was fascinating to see that illustrated so blatantly in Brussels.  For example one of the buildings was commissioned by the shipbuilders’ guild, and the architecture therefore mimicked the physical characteristics of a ship.  I also found it interesting how so many different independent groups, people and artists came together to create a unified and yet unique set of buildings.

2 Projections  Brussels

It was difficult to find the identification information for this piece, as it was a public work barely noticeable within the urban fabric.  It was made up of several circular projections of interior scenes on facades of buildings in Brussels, all within a few blocks of a neighborhood.  They seemed to mostly feature the same woman in the same red shirt.  I felt like the work was trying to bridge the gap between experiences and artworks that are private and those that are public, by projecting private scene on the public surface of buildings.  Like the bench by Jenny Holzer, this work was a conglomeration of function and decoration, public and private, noticeable and blended in.  

3 Graffiti Luxembourg 

I chose this image to represent the large number of works I have seen that feature this face, in colors either blue, red or green.  This one was taken on our way to the train station in Luxembourg City, but I’ve seen it under bridges, in alleys, and on trains through the country.  It’s so recognizable that I know the works are meant to be seen as a series and recognized repeatedly.  But I wonder what that means in the context of this community and what kind of statement the artist is trying to make.  

4 Graffiti Ghent

We were so lucky to get to witness a piece of graffiti being made on the Graffitistrat in Ghent, Belgium.  Nick and I traveled there together, and we’re both really interested in street art, public art and graffiti so this area of Ghent was a big deal for us!  It’s fascinating to think about how segregating a certain part of the city for graffiti kind of changes its function and its messages, making it innately less rebellious and underground, and more public and sanctified.

It’s also interesting to see the circulation of works with graffiti.  Like here for example you can see how there was something featuring the hat in the top right, and then there was the giant eye piece, and then various people have scribbled words and names over it, and now this artist is placing his work on top of all of that.  Graffiti can never really be singular or by only one artist, the works are really ephemeral and collaborative and always in conversation with the works, the buildings and the people around them.  

5 Stained Glass, Saint Bavo Cathedral Ghent 

1 Changing Place Changing Time Changing Thoughts Changing Future

I don’t know the artist of this work, but I’ve thought about it again and again since leaving Venice.  It’s such a perfect placement for the piece: within the courtyard of a modern art museum, looking out over the classic Italian architecture of the city’s rooftops. Neon is one of my favorite mediums, and I am really interested in statement as art.  Walking throughout Venice was interesting experience, and I thought this work reflected some of the discomfort it creates: there’s something odd about being so aware that the place you’re visiting depends entirely upon your presence.  Venice didn’t feel so much like a living town as a large tourist park.  While that may just be my small fish-eye lens view of the city, this work made me think about the time I am living in in contrast with the heydays of the cities I am observing, and the contrast between the changing organisms of the modern culture versus the one often admired in museums. 

2 Saint Mark’s Basilica

Saint Mark’s Basilica was essentially the first piece of art I experienced on my own this semester.  We arrived in a chilly and rainy Venice, but even in that environment the Basilica was pure illumination, pure light.  The mosaics exemplified the byzantine style left behind by Giotto and my art history classes: tiny golden tiles filling the heavenly space around elongated bodies and instructional narratives.  

3 Savor Kindness Because Cruelty is Always Possible Later - Jenny Holzer

I was so excited to see this!  Jenny Holzer is definitely a favorite artist of mine, and I loved that I almost missed this work on my way out of the museum.  I love Holzer’s way of weaving her work almost unnoticeably into the urban fabric: placing statements in places where text is often found, but entirely reverting the expectation for those statements.  I’ve seen this statement before in other environments, such as on a scrolling text screen in a museum and on flyers outside a movie theater. However, I thought this marble bench was an exceptionally fitting iteration of the work.  The relief of sitting down contrasted with a marble seat seemed like a nice touch on this version of the statement.

4 Nude Study (Sad Young Man on a Train) - Marcel Duchamp

Duchamp’s Nude Descending a Staircase is a favorite of several friends’ of mine, so when I glimpsed this over the fireplace in the Peggy Guggenheim Collection in Venice, I was ecstatic.  I think of this work as an intersection of so many different niches of art history: cubism, painting, sculpture, movement, photography, film, abstract art, and of course the impending Dadaism of Duchamp’s career.  There’s something about these paintings that seem to suggest that art was in the act of changing, of exploding, and that’s wonderful to view in person. 

5 Keep Your City