Chloe Oliver
Professor Nevins
The Museum Experience
12 April 2024
The Yale Art Gallery
On Sunday I went for my first visit to a museum. I chose to go to the Yale Art Gallery. It is free and easy to find. Parking was a little difficult but that is because we were in the city. Most museums seem to be in cities, I guess this is because cities are usually hotbeds for culture. What better place to set up a reflection of society over the years than in a highly populated city? I went with my friend Eleanor who also likes art. She has been there before and therefore was able to help me navigate the halls. Because there were many floors and many things to see it took us a long time to get around. Thankfully the security people were very helpful and often led us to exits and entrances when we were lost. My first impression upon arriving to the museum was a little bit confusing I didn't know where to start. Luckily Eleanor grabbed a map at the help desk and they pointed us in the direction we wanted to go.
The Yale University Art Gallery looked old but charming. It was founded in 1832 and holds nearly 300,000 objects. It is one of the largest in the country. I never knew what a magnificent number of relics were only 20 minutes from where I lived. The museum is rich with history, however, the York Times published an article on March 1st, 2022 stating that the Yale University Art Gallery is dealing with accusations that some of their pieces were stolen from their countries of origin. It is interesting to keep this idea in mind when thinking about how we ascertain things in America. The founder of the Yale University Art Gallery was Lous Kahn. He designed the structure adn layout of the gallery. The Gallery opened in 1953 highlighting spaces for student snad artists to learn and work in the gallery. Khan’s style called for “simple geometric forms and complex play between natural light and materials” says the
Universityhttps://britishart.yale.edu/stories/louis-i-kahn#:~:text=From%20the%20mid%2D1950s%20onward,Gallery%20(completed%20in%201953).
We noticed this, skylights and large windows accompanied painting that called for more light
while enclosed areas housed darker paintings. .
Overall I very much enjoyed the collection and wondered how the pieces were made. Some of my favorite pieces are shown below. One of them called Verbe by Dorothea Tanning shown below, reminded me of a fly-eating plant as a seed in the ground. The description had little information other than the year it was made 1969 and the materials used. It is a large stuffed animal-looking creature shaped like a bulb and with a gaping mouth and green teeth. It is made out of tweed, flannel, wood, etc. This piece intrigued me because I wanted to understand why the author made it and what she was modeling it after. Upon further research, I found out she lived from 1910 to 2012 and made the piece when she was in her fifties. She is from Illinois and was mostly a painter but was also a print maker, sculpture, writer and poet. The description shows verbe depicting “1969-70
Ms. Tanning lived to 101 years old and very importantly, was the wife of Max Ernst. Ernst was a profoundly influential artist and was a primary pioneer of the Dada movement and Surrealism in Europe. This movement was extremely influential on so much 20th century art, film, poetry and more.
ReplyDeleteTake a look at this article on her at Artnet: "Dorothea Tanning, the Surrealist artist who made it from the small town of Galesburg, Illinois, to the center of New York’s avant-garde art world, lived until she was 101, but she never got the major museum survey she deserved in her lifetime. A show of around 100 works at Tate Modern in London spanning her 70-year career is putting that right." https://news.artnet.com/art-world/dorothea-tanning-tate-1479292