Art Exhibitions

The Summer of Love

One of, if not, the most intriguing exhibition I visited for class was The Summer of Love Photography and Graphic Design Exhibition. The Exhibition was meant to depict real life events during the summer of 1967 and the associated times. Works on display in the exhibition consisted of photographs of popular people of the era, mostly bands or musicians, and graphic design work, mainly album covers of the time or just work inspired by the album covers or music from that era. Therefore, a majority of the graphic design work was colorful and ‘groovy’. Personally, I believe that the exhibition did a good job of capturing the feeling and emotions of the ‘Summer of Love’. On exhibition was The Neon Rose Series, a series of twenty-six posters created from 1966-1968. This series was created by Victor Moscoso and was originally made in order to give musicians and artists a better deal when purchasing posters to advertise their work. All of the posters were psychedelic, many depicting musicians while some were simply designed to catch the viewers eye. I found this series to be the most interesting because of its eye-catching color and psychedelic designs. Also, on exhibit were many different photographs of popular musicians of the time period such as, The Grateful Dead, The Steve Miller Band, Janis Joplin, amongst others. These were mostly promo photographs for the bands/artists and simply showed the artists posing in various locations. I also found these to be very interesting but not because of their color or designs in particular but rather the subjects. The subjects being popular artists of the time, you could understand the feeling of the photograph just by looking at the faces of the men or what they were doing. All of the photographs were in black and white due to the time period they were taken. The exhibition was rather small but overall successfully captured the feeling and emotion of the ‘Summer of Love’.

Showdown! Exhibition

Showdown! was one of the exhibitions I visited for class. The exhibition showed works of art from two prolific Japanese artists, Utagawa Kuniyoshi and Utagawa Kunisada. The two were best selling artists during the 19th century in Japan and both used woodblock prints primarily. The two share a similar style and both are very highly respected artists, both when they were alive and today still. Before visiting this exhibition I had not knowingly viewed works by either of the artists on display but upon viewing I was blown away. Similar to the work of Murakami in that both styles were anime and Japanese influenced, Kuniyoshi and Kunisada took a more traditional approach to their works. Kunisada, who happened to be the more popular of the two artists during their lifetimes, was more well known for his realistic portraits both of famous Japanese actors of the time and beautiful women. Kuniyoshi on the other hand has become what some might consider to be the more respected of the two today, and is known for his prints of warriors and supernatural powers. Kuniyoshi’s work more closely resembles that of modern day Japan as it takes heavy influence from anime and manga stylings which are both very popular today. This is probably the explanation for Kuniyoshi’s late rise in popularity. Overall, I enjoyed the works of art presented in within the Showdown! exhibition but I would have to say that I ever so slightly preferred the work of Kuniyoshi. Not to say that Kunisada’s work was lacking in any respect but personally I just have more of an affinity for the “cartoon” or action-based work which is Kuniyoshi’s focus as well. Together the two artists’ work made for a great exhibition and one that successfully showed two different sides to Japan’s old school stylings.

Mise en Scene Exhibition

The Mise en Scene Exhibition was/still is an exhibition at the Museum of Fine Arts. The Exhibition features work by the conceptual artist Annette Lemieux. Works shown within the exhibition were inspired by films that Lemieux held dear to her when she was growing up, such as Fahrenheit 451, To Kill A Mockingbird, The Great Dictator, and M. Using photography and other methods Lemieux would extract the meaning or messages within these films and attempt to make them noticeable through stand alone objects and art installations. Personally, I believe Lemieux was successful maybe not in specifically getting the viewer to think about one specific aspect of a movie but rather to simply get the viewer to think. Every piece that was on display within the Mise en Scene exhibition made me stop and think about what made Lemieux create a piece such as this. The works that most intrigued me were works that incorporated photography. Lemieux didn’t use just a photograph as a piece of art but instead used photographs within her art. The Censor series on display at the MFA used film stills from the movie The Great Dictator in which a character is inspired by Hitler. Lemieux’s work shows stills of this character with censor bars covering either his face or what he is doing. This was sort of a protest against censorship because the film’s creator was later censored and called a fascist. This stemmed from him creating a film showing a character as such, although the film was actually against fascism. Another piece that caught my eye was Area of Refuge. This piece incorporated a photograph of To Kill A Mockingbird author Harper Lee in her home town of Monroeville, Alabama, overlaid with a green hue in which the letters AREA OF REFUGE are not affected. Lemieux is questioning the idea of home and safety as the piece suggests Harper Lee may be in an ‘area of refuge’. And maybe Lee does think of it as an Area of Refuge; but Lee’s home town was also what inspired the famous book To Kill A Mockingbird which doesn’t particularly represent an 'Area of Refuge’. Overall, the exhibition Mise en Scene by the artist Annette Lemieux was a thought provoking and interesting exhibition to visit.

Takashi Murakami Exhibition

One of the four exhibitions I visited for class was the Takashi Murakami: Lineage of Eccentrics at the Museum of Fine Arts. The exhibition did not include any photography but was very intriguing to view. Most of the art was created by Takashi Murakami while some of the art on exhibit were also created by fellow Japanese artists, Nobuo Tsuji. The pieces were for the most part colorful and cartoony. This made the pieces really pop and many of them would catch your eye as soon as you entered the room, partially because some of the pieces would take up the whole wall. One of these larger works was Dragon in Clouds - Red Mutation, a painting of a red dragon in the clouds. This was probably one of my favorite pieces within the exhibition because of its sheer size and the way it captivated the viewer. I found myself staring in to the painting for minutes at a time just mesmerized by Murakami’s work. The Red Dragon’s head takes up a majority of the painting accompanied only by a tree, some other foliage, and what looks to be the sun in the background. Most of the detail is within the head of the dragon and the parts of the body that actually fit within the painting. And the entirety of the piece was painted using different shades of red paint. Another piece I very much enjoyed to see was Murakami’s Transcendent Attacking a Whirlwind. This piece was the first work the viewer saw when entering the exhibition and it immediately took my breath away, grabbing my attention. It is similar in size to the Red Dragon, taking up an entire wall of the exhibition area. But this painting was much more complex. It included almost every color you could imagine as each of the painting's subject was painted with a different pattern of assorted colors Some of the subjects were actually outlined with gold making them stand out. The whole of the Murakami MFA Exhibiton: Lineage of Eccentrics was intriguing while the Dragon in Clouds - Red Mutation and Transendent Attacking a Whirlwind stood out to me personally.