Activity # 7

Art Exhibition- The Expression of life through a Human Experience

Welcome to “The Accept us as we are Art Center and Design”, where art is the creation of life through the eyes of humans by using their stories, experiences, and understandings to bring art to the world. We here at the center primarily focus on the theme of human experiences. The human experience is the sharing of one’s experience just by the virtue of being human (69). This exhibit is one way of expressing any human characteristics as the sharing of their personal freedoms of expression in this exhibition.

The following six sculptures are time pieces of history. They represent humanity, vision, and uniqueness while capturing the images in action. We will start with Harriet Goodhue Hosmer’s piece “Puck” made in 1855-56 from marble. This sculpture was created in a white color marble to indicate its pureness and counterbalance (279). Counterbalance is a pose that suggests the potential for movement and thus life in a human figure. However, this sculpture displays a young boy half kneeling on top of a stool with a mischievous expression and devil intentions from the life of “Puck” in Shakespeare. Sculptures are considered as one of the first discoveries of art and freedom of expression. Bessie Potter Vannoh’s creation of “An American Girl” in tinted plaster from 1895 really depicted the natural history in this sculpture. The slight tint in the plaster gives it more of a historical image. She uses the technique of values by creating this sculpture in a tinted color which displays a darker or worn color in its original contents and white or ivory under direct lighting (92). Values are when the colors are transposed into a light and dark color. Both artists offers the observer a past view of history while Elie Nadelman who produced “Dancer” in 1918-19 by a cherry wood carving gives hope and inspiration to the future. In this sculpture Nadelman draws the attention to this figure by the implied movement of it and the love of dance. He also uses cherry wood to give his figures the color of African Americans.

However, in J. Seward Johnson Jr.’s “Hitchhiker” from 1983 and Eduardo Paolozzi’ “Master of the Universe” that was designed in 1989 by artists chose to use bronze as their form of appreciation of art. Bronze is known for reliability and durability in any show piece which could be interpreted as a long lasting figurine. Both time pieces are site-specific and minimalism productions (285,288). Site-specific is a permanent installation that can only be understood in the context of that site and minimalism is when the implied art uses industrial material and their sculptures tend to be set in place. Unlike the creation by Elizabeth Catlett’s “IFE” in 1915 that consisted of a movable material of mahogany wood. In this sculpture, Catlett brings the attention to the viewer by showing the reality of her struggles. All of the mentioned artists have different reflections and understandings of art however; it is with the various forms, techniques, and materials that we the viewers are able to appreciate them all.