Wallace Collection

1. I liked the fact that the artist and titles were engraved or painted on the frames of the art rather than on small labels beside the work.  It really worked in terms of keeping the labels consistent with the feel of the house.  As the intention of the designers was to make viewers feel as if they were viewing the piece in it's original place, having small labels beside the works would "kill the mood" so to speak.  Having the artist and/or title on the work made it look as if it were really located in someone's home.  Not all font sizes and types were the same throughout the museum, and I thought this was also beneficial to the houses' design for the same reason.

2. My favorite object in this museum wasn't any one particular piece of art (though I enjoyed a lot of them, and a lot of the furniture as well).  My favorite object was the grand staircase that is encountered upon first entering the museum.  I feel it set the tone for the entire visit perfectly, the red carpet and railings were picturesque for a Victorian home-style setting.  The two portraits at the top of the stairs were grand and beautiful, and were a good representation of the rest of the collection.  The staircase was a wonderful introduction to the home.

3. I didn't feel intregued or disgusted by any one particular object in the museum as much as I did about the overall layout of the collection.  I really enjoyed the classical Victorian feel of the house, and the elegant display rooms for the pieces.  The color theme in each room was selected to compliment the pieces within the room- and really drew your attention to the focal point of each piece.  The large chandaliers, brightly colored wallpapers, and classy window shades really made the collection seem like it was in it's original placement.  I think this adds a great deal of awe when viewing the collection.  The curators did a fantastic job with the design and refurbishment of the house.

4. My favorite museum was the Saatchi gallery.  I really enjoyed being forced to try and figure out what each piece of art meant by myself, while having some of the more ornate, complicated ones explained to me.  I like the idea that the owner of the museum collects the art for himself, and actually goes out and actively collects it rather than waiting for it to be brought to him.  I liked the set-up of the museum: how there was plenty of room to enjoy each piece from all angles, and how there was adequate room for larger pieces to be displayed.  I have often had difficulties interpreting modern art, but this museum chose pieces that I could understand and relate to, which made viewing them much more interesting.

5. I enjoyed all the museums we visited in this class, as I knew most of them were not places I would have taken the initiative to visit by myself. However, I most enjoyed the more obscure, less visited museums.  I feel they were more unique and there were not as many people/distractions around which led to me having more time to actually appreciate the art.  I feel each of the museums from later in the course had something different and creative to offer.  I am definitely less intimidated by art than I was at the beginning of the semester, more or less because I have been forced to face the fact that there is no right or wrong answer; this fact was hard for my science-orientated self to accept at first :)  It makes viewing art much more enjoyable, as it is merely an interpretation of feelings.  I also notice the logos of museums to a much greater extent now, as I am able to evaluate type face, legibility, color palettes, etc.  I am very happy that I took this class and I feel viewing things in a different way than I am used to is something I will be able to do more successfully now; it is a skill that I will be able to use in many areas of my life upon returning home to the States.

6.  Thanks for such a fun and interesting semester, Steven!  It was really fun getting to know you and explore London with you.  Not to be cheesy, but our class really couldn't have asked for a better professor to share this experience with :)

Design Museum

1. Architecture: I really enjoyed the image of the Void House in Brussels, Belgium:  it is open, appealing, and allows for a lot of color and light in through the main windows.  The staircases present outside and inside the house provide a sense of flow throughout the house, and allow for easy movement throughout; the design has a modern feel without taking away the sense of character.  The lack of a ground floor provides for easy access to the street and makes the house appear almost as if it were floating. 

 

Furniture: My favorite display of furniture in the gallery was the black iron chair, which contained a design solely composed of "thin black lines".  The caption talked about the black lines merely being an outline, and causes the piece to be a mixture of 2 and 3 dimensions.  I enjoy the simplistic color and style of the chair, and the fact that it is completely basic in it's function was what drew my attention the most. 

 

 

Transport: Following with the theme of simplicity, for transportation I most  enjoyed the VANMOOF no 5 bike.  It is a practical, lightweight bike designed for use in the city;  this bike would be convenient for travel as well as attracting the eye with its rust free aluminum frame.  It also contains a lock and headlights, which are hidden within the thick tubing of the bicycle.  This bike is ideal for someone who uses biking as their most prominent form of transportation.

 

Graphics:  For my graphics award, I definitely give that out to the designers of these advertisements for IKEA.  They were displayed on a TV screen, but were all patterned and parallel and created a very pleasing scene.  They were made from all foods and drinks, which was original and the colors worked together very well.

 

2.  I enjoyed the work of Wim Crouwel.  I think many of his works could be seen as minimal, but as a designer knowing when to be minimal and basic should been seen as a strength.  Many of his works were eye-catching and tasteful, and I enjoyed many of the architectural designs he did as well as some advertisements.  He uses type faces and colors to his advantage, and creates an overall pleasing design that incorporates some of the main aspects of the building, company, etc. into his work.  To describe Wim Crouwel's work I would say it is uncomplicated, indispensable, and innovative. 

 

I definitely wouldn't relate what how I viewed Wim Crouwel's work to Jackson Pollock's.  Crouwel's work is much more simplistic, basic, and organized.  The lines are parallel and complementary much more than Pollock's random abstractness.  I found his work to be much more similar to that of Mark Rothko.  Not only are the colors more similar to that of Crouwel's, but the basic design and flow of lines/creation of space throughout the works are much more similar.  The basic, engaging draw of Crouwel's work is mirrored in Rothko's.  The symmetry and simplicity of Donald Judd's designs I can also relate to Crouwel's.  Though no font or wording is used in either of these last two artist's works, the basic themes and principles of art are the same.  Crouwel just uses a new dimension in his artwork, and this dimesion is known as text.

 

When I looked into artists I thought to be similar to Crouwel, I realized matching styles of topography is a very difficult thing to do.  I finally reached a conclusion, however, when I spotted the work of Neville Brody.  He has a similarly simple style, yet appealing because of the type face and color usage.  He is a little more bold with his works than Crouwel but I enjoyed them all the same.

Saatchi Gallery

1. The Saatchi gallery was definitely the most accessible museum yet in terms of viewing all angles of the objects.  I feel this is necessary for this type of gallery because of the uniqueness of the objects.  A lot of them are not merely 2 dimensional works of art, but are 3 dimensional objects that require multiple views in order to be fully appreciated.  There was also space provided for each individual painting which was beneficial to viewing as well.  This was definitely different from the crowded walls or large, ornate frames of previous museums.

2. The Saatchi gallery had an interesting approach to captioning their work.  Where most museums would provide a little information about the artist and the meaning of the work, this gallery merely provided a small label for the piece.  The tour guide explained to us that this is because the gallery wants viewers to interpret the works for themselves, and I believe with the type of artwork they display, this is a very efficient method.  However, I really enjoyed hearing about how the artwork was obtained and placed in the gallery, and I think this could make a great addition to the small labels placed with each work of art.  Because the artwork is so unique, I feel it would be interesting to viewers to know who created it and how Mr. Saatchi came up on it.

3. I really enjoyed the modern, creative works of art this gallery contained.  I felt the art was much deeper and more meaningful than some works of art I saw in other museums (though I know this feeling is totally subjective).  I felt there was a real presence behind the works, and they were very thought provoking.  Though the tour guide explained some of the works to us, I was able to look at a few on my own and come to my own conclusions as to what the artist was trying to get at the work of art; I am not always able to do this when observing pieces of modern art.  I truly enjoyed Mr. Saatchi's collection and I would love to have a chance to meet him and try to understand why he picks the pieces he does.

Wall Art



This photo was taken on my visit to the East End of London.  It's really a shame that this mural hasn't been kept in better contact.  You can tell that it's really faded and it looks like a few hoodlums have marked over it a bit.  That being said this is a very strong piece to me.  I think it's works like this that seperate the labels of "graffiti" and "wall art"  There's passion in this work and so many lines.  It really delivers a message to the viewer rather than just reps a name.  Also sometimes black on white is as bold as you can get.



  



This photo was another taken on my East End walk.  The only thing that really pops into my head when I look back at this picture is blah.  It seems that multiple people have put little scribbles on it and the paint is practically all chipped away.  Accompanied by poor management one can't even comprehend what this wall is supposed to say or look like.  I would not be happy if when my city gets brought up this is an image that pops into outsiders minds. 

This photo was taken at the train station I visited in Copenhagen, Denmark.  I have to give it to the artists on this one.  Their lines are on point, there are few to no mistakes and it seems in all it was well put together.  But I feel you have to dig a little deeper than that.  Notice how I said I took this photo in Denmark.  This type of graffiti is so common.  I could get 500 shots of this same shit in London, back home in the states, as well as hundreds of other countries.  Also, if I were an artist of this type, an important roll that played into my works would be geographics.  This mural is done on the side wall at a run down train station.  This is where people will stop looking at it as art and start looking at it as vandalism.  I don't know about the artists but I'd pick the first.  



This wall art was some I found in the dorms of my friend's university in Aarhus, Denmark.  This is so cool.  How many university dorms are old and boring with plain white walls?  If I walked into my dorm everyday and got to view great art lining the walls as I did so, I can guarantee there would always be a smile on my face.  Also, this work had to be done by different people who had access to these dorms.  They are leaving their stories behind for the newcomers to see.  You could almost look at this as tradition.  I think it's really great to be able to see all the diversity here.



Anne Frank Huis

This weekend I was in Amsterdam and I had the opportunity to visit the Anne Frank house.  It was definitely an unnerving feeling to see the home where 8 Jewish people hid from the government (and daylight) for years.  Inside the house was even more of an uncomfortable (for lack of better wording) feeling.  All the windows were blackened to imitate how the Franks and their family friends had to live.  I couldn't imagine being locked in such a small area, though the annex was a lot larger than I initially thought, with a small amount of people for such a long time. 

The amazing thing about Anne Frank is, though, no matter how tough and unbearable her living situation was, she was able to see the positive side of things.  She wrote affectionately in her journal for all the people in her annex, and also wrote of her dreams, hopes, and wishes.  To have that positive of an attitude given her circumstances is absolutely amazing to me.  The area in which they stayed was small, dark, and cramped.  The kitchen also served as a living room and dining room, and there was only one bathroom for all 8 people.

Visiting the house was a dream I have had since the first time I read Anne Frank's diary when I was 14 years old.  To actually walk the stairs she walked, duck behind the bookcase into the hidden annex, and see the attic in which she escaped to see blue skies was a dream come true and absolutely disheartening all at once.  It takes your breath away, and I don't think I was prepared.  I wasn't prepared to feel overcome with dread, trying to imagine what life here must have been like.  I wasn't prepared to start to be scared while in hiding, trying to imagine what it would be like to be arrested and killed merely for your genetic background.  There are pages of the actual diary on display, pages from her original diary and the many, many notebooks that served as diaries after she had filled the first.

There was also a display on her sister Margot, and all her dreams and accomplishments.  I had never heard much about Margot, so this was all new to me.  She was smart, driven, and motivated.  Though she was different than Anne in many of her views on things, the two got along very well.  She was an inspiration to Anne, and deserves as much credit for that as she can possibly be given.

Everyone knows that what happened in the Holocaust is an unspeakable tragedy, but being this in-depth made me view everything ten times more in depth.  Anne Frank is a legend and a hero of many young girls for a reason, she is an inspiration to the entire world.

The National Portrait Gallery

1. I like the simple font of the logo.  It is clear-cut and professional looking.  I also think, for this museum, it is appropriate to have a black and white color palette as the museum houses a lot of classical, historical pieces.  However, the type of art displayed in this museum is certainly not contained to only one style.  There are multiple styles, colors, and types of art in this museum; I feel this could be more incorporated into the logo.  The building itself is a little plain, but I I think it suits the logo as well as the type (and variety) of art housed inside.

 

2. Mary Wollstonecraft "Paige Thompson" Shelley

I was having a very difficult time deciding which portrait I thought most represented myself.  I didn't know which approach to take, from which angle I should view this problem.  As I browsed portrait after portrait, I came across Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley.  I read that she was one of the first women of all time to partake in scientific research.  That made my decision pretty easy.  My defining article in this portrait is my green laboratory goggles.

3. Queen Catherine "Katie Trokey" of Braganza

This portrait staded that Queen Catherine was well-liked, shy, and solemn.  This reminded me of Katie Trokey, because she is pretty laid-back and easy to be around.  In this photo I drew her defining aspect to be her curly dark brown hair.

4. Queen Elizabeth "Lauren Rosenfeldt" I

I found this portrait and read that Queen Elizabeth was immensely popular before and throughout her reign.  I decided this would be a good opportunity to draw Lauren Rosenfeldt, as she is very popular throughout our group here.  I think her laugh is contagious, and everyone likes to be around it.  Her defining characteristic in this portrait is her red hair.

5. Catherine "Lauren Cantu" Douglas, Duchess of Queensberry

This portrait said style, and immediately made me think of Lauren Cantu.  It went on to say that she was a famous beauty, as well as casual, and full of wit.  Seeing as Lauren is my roommate and gives me all kinds of fashion advice in the mornings, I thought this portait fit her quite well.  Her defining article in this portrait is her long dark brown hair and bright red baret cap.

6. Mary "Lauryn Besasie" of Modena

Mary of Modena was said to be educated and dedicated.  I knew this portrait could fit someone I knew, but I wasn't sure who.  Then, it hit me.  As soon as I saw that Mary had chosen to have her portrait drawn with her dog, I knew she would be most fitting to Lauryn Besasie.  That's why the dog, in the corner, is defining Lauryn in this portrait.

The National Gallery

1. I think this logo is mainly just a typeface, and could definitely be adjusted more to represent the collection of the museum.  I enjoy the plain, simple font and coloration- but I feel this artistic simplicity could be more representative of the works inside.  The vast collection held in this prestigious museum has quite a range, though it contains a lot of classical works.  This could be represented in some sort of variation in the logo- whether it is shown with a change in font, color, boldness, etc., it could really begin to portray the vast collection one might find in the museum.

2. I've never much understood evaluations of artwork- mainly, I think, because I lack any form of creativity.  Van Gogh, however, has always stood out to me as an artist because of how I feel when viewing his work.  I absolutely love his color palettes- for example, the happy, yellow color he uses for Sunflowers contrasted with the more relaxed pastel green and purple colors used in the Water Lily Pond and Japanese Bridge piece.  The colors, brushstrokes, and subject matter of both pieces fit together like the pieces of a puzzle when viewed and gives an overwhelming sense of the emotion Van Gogh is trying to portray. 

3. It might seem a little cliche- but I would absolutely love to have a work of Van Gogh's in my future London home. :) I think a piece such as Long Grass with Butterflies from 1890 would be absolutely perfect overlooking a peaceful London park.  The colors are soft and serene, they would look perfect placed on a light green or light purple wall. 

 

4. I prefer the brighter wall colorings in this particular museum.  I feel the type of art work displayed here is more enhanced by the coloration rather than the color being a distraction.  The color palette of the walls should be in direct relation to the type of artwork displayed- the Tate Modern houses more modern art which seems to require more of a blank surrounding in order to be able to have full appreciation for the art.  However, with the classical art, you can get more of a home-y feel and admiration for the work.

5. I don't think the use of objects from the collection necessarily diminishes the work of art.  I think, in some ways, it does make the work of art seem more common and less original, but at the same time by making some pieces so ubiquitous it actually enhances the effect of viewing the original work of art.  I do think some forms of merchandise- such as postcards and posters- are more acceptable than a piece of artwort thrown onto a t-shirt, mainly because in that sense they are still viewed as the art work and not just a pattern on a random object. 

6. I really enjoyed viewing all of Michelangelo's works, mainly because he is so famous and I've learned so much about him not only in art classes but in history classes.  A piece such as The Entombment from 1500-1501 is definitely something to appreciate.  I would also really like a chance to view Michelangelo's work on the Sistine Chapel in Italy while I am in Europe because I know seeing photos of it doesn't begin to do it justice.  I would love to return to The Entombment to view it again because the emotions of the people within the portrait are so overwhelming. This, in combination with the colors, (which seems to be a theme throughout this musem) really portrays the feelings of the painting as well as an important historical scene.