Art Visit

For my Art Visit I chose to visit the Crocker Art Museum is Sacramento, CA. I went on Wed. June 25, 2008 at about 10:30 am with my boyfriend. It was very quiet when I visited, which made it kind of nice because I was able to really take in the art. At the Crocker Art Museum I visited all the galleries, but the two main ones that I viewed were Tsakopoulos Gallery, which was contemporary art, and the Cowell Gallery, which is a special exhibition.

While visiting these two galleries I found two pieces of art that were my favorite. I will talk about the Tsakopoulos Gallery first. My favorite piece of art in this gallery was the New Acquisition. This was a piece of art by artist Andreas Nottebohm and was made in 2005. This was a beautiful massive aluminum plate. It was Oval in shape and really caught my eye because of how unique it was. This piece of art was about 68 X 96 in. This piece of art was very unique, because when you would look into it, it made everything seem 3D. I would love to have something like this is my house, but a little smaller. This was so cool and I stared into this thing for about 10 min.

The other piece of art that I really enjoyed was a Painting by Fortunato Arriola. He was born in Mexico and lived from 1827- 1872. This was a beautiful painting of the beach and was painted in 1866. This was an oil painting that was about average sized. I really enjoyed this painting, because of its beach scene. I am a beach lover and am moving to live on the beach next year in San Luis Obispo. I also find that I like this piece of art because it is bright and the light in the picture really sucks the viewer in. I got a feeling of wanting to go to the beach because of how much emotion this painting conveyed.

I thought that seeing art is person was much more effective than viewing art online or in a book. I think that this is because I could get up close with the painting and be able to look as close as I wanted to see all the great details. I could also see the texture in the painting, which makes a huge difference while viewing art. I think that it helps to convey the emotions and meaning of the picture. I also enjoyed viewing art in person more than online or in a book because I was able to see them in their actual size. While reading the book or looking at art online it often looks dual and small. When I saw the art in person I was able to see the actual colors, instead of a blend of colors that I have to guess. I love to see the bright and vibrant colors that really bring the picture to life.

I thought that the Art Visit was very good for this class and was a great way to get us students to actually go out and view art. I personally had never been to this museum or any art museum for that fact. To be honest I don’t really enjoy museums and this one wasn’t my favorite, but because of this class I was forced to go out and view art, which was a great experience for me. I personally have a hard time liking to view art that is not modern. My major is landscape architecture and I find it hard to be interested in art that isn’t outdoors, but going to this museum helped me to appreciate the art that decorates a museum and see the true beauty in it. I thought that this museum was better than I expected it to be, mainly because all of my friends talked it down to me. I regretted having to go and view the museum because my friends said that it was boring and a waste of time, but when I got into the museum to view the art I was blown away by how different I thought it was going to be.

I personally really liked the contemporary art gallery, because it is a lot more like my style. I also really liked the set up of the museum and how open and quite it was, because it was easier for me to concentrate and really take my experience in. The one thing that I didn’t like very much is the ground level floor, because I didn’t seem to find any piece of art that I enjoyed and I felt very uncomfortable because of how low the ceiling was. I know that sounds weird, but I spent literally 2 min down stairs, because I didn’t like the environment. Other than that I felt that visiting the Crocker Art Museum was a great experience, I don’t know that I plan to visit it again, but it was good for me to get out and visit an art museum for the first time. I hope to visit other art museums in the future.