Yale Art Gallery 3

Chloe Oliver 

Professor Nevins 

The Museum Experience 

11 May 2024

Today I went to the Yale University Art Gallery again. This time I went with another friend Tori who was eager to go. She had just gotten home from Uconn and had never seen this gallery. Going with her added another level of intrigue as it felt like I was again living through her my first experience of the gallery. Something I never noticed is the sheer size. Yale University Art Gallery has 4 floors and countless exhibits. Some of those floors are split into two different levels. I usually go left when entering the gallery but Tori wanted to go right. This made me appreciate the bust area more as I'm usually leaving through this area. This was my favorite area because of the light and architecture. Knowing that the building was built to play with light in certain areas helped me to appreciate the sculpture section more. As we explored hidden areas more I found out that there are many outdoor spots to explore as well. There is a sculpture terrace that overlooks Chapel Street! I think the environment is an important part to appreciating art. Although we are in a hub and concentrated area of art, I think it was cool to experience art outside. This almost inclined me and my friend when leaving to keep our eyes peeled for more art outside. When exiting we saw sculptures down the street that we might not have noticed. I think this goes to show that art can happen anywhere, just because it is in a museum doesn't mean that it was born there. Every piece of art starts as an idea and probably sits in a dorm room, apartment, or on the street until someone attracts attention to it. Anything that moves you can be art! It is all about perspective! This time I was able to stop and examine different pieces more in depth. It can be very interesting to see what friends are drawn to. My friend Eleanor loved a piece when my friend tori thought it was forgetful. 

An artist that I found very interesting was Alberto Giacometti. I first saw him in the modern art section. He had many sculptures featured ranging from a few inches to a few feet tall. He was a swiss artist. He mostly sculpted painted and was a draftsman and print maker. He was born in 1901 and died in 1966. His work centered mostly around Paris. While he himself started ann artistic movement, he was influenced by cubism nad surrealism. The sculptures that I saw seemed mostly like surrealism as they seemed to pay tribute to the human condition in Paris. His sculptures were often size accurate to the distance from his model. 

The piece that drew me to this was Femme Debout. It translates to standing woman and is attached below. First seeing this piece made me feel uneasy. It was definitely surreal as the bodily proportions were almost alien like and starved. Reading the blurb and researching on this piece had me finding that this piece was supposed to represent not one woman but all people in paris after world war 2. they are starved and broken but they are standing tall. Although the figure is stripped of brute strength it has pride and posture to show for itself. Upon further research this piece is valued at 4,000,000 - 6,000,000 GBP. 

https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artists/alberto-giacometti-1159

Another work of Giacometti's is two side-by-side around 2 inch sculptures. One is small bust on a pedestal and the other is small bust on a double pedastal. These two made me and my friend laughed because we didn't understand why their would be an even smaller version of the sculpture to the right. Upon further research we learned that these two sculptures were solidifying the importance of considering where the artist is. Since Giacometti only sculpted his models from where he actually was, it makes the viewer wonder why didn't he get closer.  Giacometti claims that it is important that he capture that moment from that distance or that the whole sculpture changes. Perspective

is key.