Intro to Art [PAPERS SHOULD ALWAYS HAVE TITLES]

Intro to Art[MR1]

On March 21, 2003 at 12:00 pm, I went to The Art Institute of Chicago. There were quite a few paintings that caught my attention, but two paintings stood out. The two paintings had to deal with rebuilding a new life. I was interested in rebuilding of a new life because I have traveled around quite a bit and it was just like I had to start over. The first painting is The Movings by Louis Leopold Biolly painted in 1822. He was a Frenchman that [MR2] lived from 1761 to 1845. The painting is located on the second floor in Gallery 222 on the north side of the building. The Movings is 28 inches by 36 inches and it stands 4 1\2 feet from the floor. The frame is gold and has a crack on the bottom right, about an inch in a half long. The second painting is The Rock by Peter Blume, painted over a period of four years, starting in 1944. He was an American-surrealist painter, but born in Russia. Blume lived from 1906 to 1992. This painting is also located on the second floor in Gallery 244 on the north side of the building. The Rock is 36 inches by 46 inches [MR3] and it stands about 3 feet from the floor. The frame is gold with speckled painted spots. Both paintings are painted with oil on canvas.

Biolly’s painting takes place around the end of May in the evening because the clouds are very white and the sky is blue. The sun is setting and people appear to have had a long day and are ready to rest. Men, women, children, and animals are moving through the streets of Paris. They have come from the provinces and are trying to have a better life in Paris. I read the painting from right to left because a woman drew my attention to her and I looked over to the right after I glanced at her. This painting has

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Caucasian men and women. To the far right there is a brown and white dog stretching. In the right foreground is a black carriage with a man controlling it and brown apartment buildings with rectangle shaped windows.

The far right foreground is a man standing up, carrying a mattress and thin blankets on his back with a wooden stick in his hand for support. Next stands a grandpa who looks like he is taking a break, but is very angry and tired. In front of the grandpa a young girl is sitting down on the ground with a red scarf on her head. She is holding a light brown cat in her left hand and petting a brown and white dog with her right hand. The mom is standing next to her daughter. She is holding some bottles in a basket looking directly outward. She has on a white skirt with a blue shirt. On the mom’s left side a grandma stands there with a tan jacket and brown pants. The grandma has a white drinking cup and a white bag in her hand. Next to her is the mom’s husband. The husband is approximately in his thirties with dark hair and he is wiping his neck after he takes off his hat. Next to him a man and woman are trying to help push a wagon that has a white mattress, a wooden chair, and some brown boards. In front of the wagon, a man with a torn shirt at his shoulder is struggling to pull his wagon. They are going towards the apartment buildings.

On the left side of the man’s wagon there is another wagon being pulled by a brown horse, moving away from the apartment buildings. There is a man with a green coat standing by the horse and he is in charge of it. Under the wagon there is a black dog with a leash around his neck. In the wagon there are chairs, wood of some type, a broom, a basket and mattresses filled with hay. A woman is sitting on a mattress with her baby,

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holding a birdcage. To the far left of the painting there is a man walking on the side of his wagon. He has two tired dogs tugging his wagon with his belongings. On the left foreground it has an old man and woman walking towards the apartment buildings in Paris[MR6] . The man is carrying an easel. The left side of the old woman, there are women standing by a long wooden table going about their everyday lives. To the far left[ foreground [MR7] the Church of Santa Maria is located. It has statues of people at the top.

Biolly made the sky blue with white clouds so you know that it is a clear day. The sun is setting further in the back. There are no bright colors in the painting; it is different colors of brown. Biolly has linear and atmosphere perspective. The linear perspective is shown where the sun is setting and atmosphere perspective can be seen at the church. One can see how the painting has color [MR8] up front and further in back it fades its color.

I can identify with the daughter sitting by her mother. The reason I say that is because I always stood by my mother when I was the girl in the painting’s age. I would be very exhausted and ready to go to sleep and start my day over. I would like to visit Paris because it is a different place from the United States.

Blume’s painting takes place around the evening time because the sun is setting. I read this painting from the center and then everything around it. In the center of the painting there is a large red broken rock sitting on some kind of support. It is supported by the solid ground of the earth. The rock looks like it has been decayed. The rock symbolizes that the people have the ability to survive and rebuild their city. Beside the

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rock, on the support, there are broken bones of an animal and a red flower growing. It is growing out of a branch. The bones represent death and the flower is the beginning of

a new life. Around the rock there are Caucasian men and an African man. The woman looks like she is worshipping the rock because she has her arms raised to the rock, and one Caucasian man is shoveling the dirt by the rock. In the front of the rock, a Caucasian man has a nail and hammer breaking the stone. The African man is moving stones to the side of the rock. On the left side of the rock, a Caucasian man is struggling to pick up a stone. The man’s eye is popping out of his head. They are working hard to rebuild their city. On the right side of the painting, in the far back, a Caucasian man is working by a red brick house that is halfway torn down. There is smoke rising in the air towards the new building the men are replacing. The second level of the house has a picture of an old lady hanging on the wall by the window. In front of the house on the right side of the rock there is a red Coca Cola sign, broken glass and a wire. In the far left foreground the men are in the building, putting stones in place. There are two men pulling up stones with a rope connected to the stones. On the right side of the painting, the sky is dark and on the left it gets a little lighter. The sun is setting in the back of the painting.

Talking about Georges Seurat’s painting in class made me see three primary colors in The Rock, which are red, blue and yellow. You see the red flower, and the inside of the rock. The sky is blue and the dirt is a yellowish color. On the rock you can see triangular shapes[MR9] .

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I can identify with the Caucasian man further in the back trying to rebuild because I like to work with my hands building things. I would be frustrated because I would have to clean up what someone else has destroyed. This is not a place I would want to visit

because he drew this during World War II and people had to worry about the destruction of their property.

I decided to compare these two paintings because they are struggling to rebuild to put their lives back together. Both paintings have a few things in common. The sun setting in both are in the far back of the painting. The Movings is about people struggling to move their belongings through the streets of Paris. In The Rock the city has been destroyed and the people are struggling to rebuild. The paintings show the people are tired and ready to rest. They know they cannot rest because they have to get their work done.

The Movings is more realistic and The Rock is like a fantasy. The reason I chose to write about The Movings was because it reminded me of the Pilgrims and how they dressed. I chose The Rock because of the color, and it just stood out to me. You can see the people are anxious to get their city back to the way it was before it was destroyed. If I worked at the AIC I would have to get rid of The Movings because The Rock shows them working harder, trying to get their city back together. The people in The Rock are actually doing work and functioning together as a team. In The Movings, they are moving as a family to have a better life.

Overall, I think this experience was difficult for me because it takes me longer to analyze a painting. Some people can look at a painting and tell what they think it means.

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I have to look at the paintings and write down different interpretations of what I think it means and then chose the most logical one.

[X~ ], YOU TOOK ON A VERY CHALLENGING THEME AND REALLY IMPROVED IT IN THIS SECOND VERSION…IT DEFINITELY HAS “A” POTENTIAL BUT WITH MINOR ERRORS AND OMISSIONS REMAINING, IS WORTH A “B”. SO, WITH 3 BS AND 2 CS FOR THE COURSE [INCLUDING THE FINAL] , YOU’VE EARNED A “B” OVERALL.