Burchfield Penney Art Center
Questions about the exhibit:
1. The current exhibit taking place at the Gallery is called, “Involving People into this Magic” by Steina.
2. The theme was installation art, involving video technology and electronic imaging while placing an emphasis on experimental music and engineering.
Questions about the physical space:
1. The entry way uses a lot of natural lighting mixed with recess lighting, but the actual gallery utilizes track lighting in order to place emphasis on the paintings around the various rooms.
2. The walls are starch white except for in the rooms that display the video imagery for the exhibit. They are a darker gray.
3. The floors are a light blonde wood throughout the entire gallery, including the stairs. The center of the gallery is a circular room with what appears to be gray brick on the outside of the room and the inside has a round, blonde wood seating area.
4. The movement is in a clockwise manner, which takes you from room to room to eventually bringing you upstairs, and then you can head down a second staircase to exit the gallery.
Questions about the artwork:
1. The artworks are organized by artist and are hung at eye level. There are also display cases in some of the rooms that exhibit the actual tools used to create the artwork hung on the surrounding walls. For example, there was a case that contained the wood stamps that were engraved for the piece.
2. They grouped artists that use similar style and media to be in the same section of the gallery.
3. The artworks are different depending on what “room” you are standing in. Down stairs showcased paintings, prints, drawings, and the work done by Steina for the exhibit. Upstairs showcased 3-Dimensional work done by several different artists that were in some cases life-size.
4. The majority of artwork is framed using wood. Some were natural wood and some were painted various colors such as gold and black tones.
5. The artworks are labeled using thick white paper that’s outlined with a thin black boarder. Then the artist, name of the piece, year created, media and a short excerpt about the piece are typed on in using black ink. They mount the paper onto the wall in close proximity to the artwork it’s describing.
6. The artwork is hung in a very organized, spaced out manner. Smaller pieces were some times hung one above the other but never more than two. It allowed for a couple steps in between each piece to get to the next one while given the chance to read the label about them.
Art Criticism Exercise:
1. Charles E. Burchfield: “Genesis”, 1924
Watercolor, Gouache, Charcoal
This painting is made up of dark, heavy strokes to develop what appears to be an idea that the wrath of “God” is upon us. You can see a prominent figure with a muscular arm coming down from the sky that is filled with black, stormy clouds. There’s no life on the ground but instead different elements of land such as mountains, a green valley, waterways, and trenches. Because the name of the painting is, “Genesis”, the artist creates the idea of, “judgment day”. Amidst the heavy clouds you can see light as if the sun is battling the storm in a way that, “heaven battles hell”. The clouds also create a circular opening where the “beast” appears and it makes it look as if they are opening up for “him” to extend from.
Source: Picture taken by myself at the Gallery.
2. Wesley Olmsted: “Secretary Bird”, 1993.
Welded and brazed found objects
34 ½ x 37 ½ x 22 inches
This sculpture of a “Secretary Bird” is a representation of the actual species of birds, literally named, the Secretary Bird. I looked up the actual bird and Olmsted was able to recreate it using electrical and typewriter parts, brass strips, and paint. The feathers located off the bird’s head are done with several long, welded brass strips, letters off a typewriter make up additional feathers and its feet, and the beak has electrical wiring woven around and above it. This sculpture brought together nontraditional objects and combined them to make one recognizable structure, a bird. The emotional reaction I had was to laugh and I think humor is exactly what the artist was trying to convey. It’s fun and lighthearted. That is what the second level of the museum had in mind when they grouped the pieces together.
3. Bill Stewart: “Shaman”, 1989
Glazed Terracotta
Stewart’s sculpture inhabits both human and animal characteristics, which is so often portrayed in a fantasy world. This large, monochromatic piece has several hands extended from its center and there’s no representation of facial features other than several small holes punctured through the clay. This sculpture is not one form modeled into different shapes, but several pieces actually attached to one another giving it an even more fictional representation.
Source: Picture taken by myself at the Gallery.
I enjoyed my visit to the Burchfield Penney Art Gallery but I found that Steina’s exhibit took up a great deal of space that they have. It was in at least six different rooms and although they were spectacular to see, I would’ve enjoyed a little bit more variety. I’ve been to this Art Gallery before but it was interesting to go into it with so much more knowledge of art especially when looking into the exhibit. For example, I was able to explain to my boyfriend what lithograph is and how the process of wood engraving goes. It was even more humorous because he watched the video of installation art with me when we were at Cedar Point and I felt like we were trying to impress each other which all the information we retained from the assignments. I don’t think I would’ve picked up on the architecture in such detail had you not proposed the questions you did. I even went into side corridors, not because I had to, but to scope out the style.
Here are a couple additional photographs to document my visit:
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