Event #2

Event #2

"Leap Before You Look"

Friday May 13, 2016

For my second event, a group of my teammates and I went to an exhibition at the hammer museum. This event was the called Leap Before You Look: Black Mountain College 1933-1957. This was the first exhibit on this college in the United States. Black Mountain College was an experimental school that had a major effect on the way art was taught and practiced. When we first entered the gallery where the the exhibit was being held, we were very lost and confused. We seemed to be out of place because it seemed like everybody else knew where to go and what exactly to look at. Every piece of art seemed to be random because we could not recognize any flow or rarely any similarity. After doing some background research it somewhat made sense to me since every piece was done by different artist and they all had their own artistic style/perspective. Even all pieces had some interesting features, a few stuck out more than others. 

These pieces to the right suspended from the roof in the middle of one of the rooms it caught my attention. When I looked closer, I was able to see the unique convoluted design woven into these two parts. The artistic style is done in a fine threading fashion for this weaving. These would make for some fashionable curtains to say the least.

This piece to the right looked to be the funnest part of the exhibit. It is some type of clay-mation of people and a town. Not all art is pretty or defined perfectly to every degree but all art should make you say something or at least give you your own explanation to what you think it is and this piece is that. I do not think it was the most beautiful pieces in this collection by any means but it made me feel the most comfortable because it seems the most genuine and human. It's not perfect but it's art.

This last piece is the one I decided to take a picture with because its randomness. This piece is called Study for Pyramid by Mary Callery done in 1949. From far away it looked like a stack of sticks or branches or even a sculpture of a Mandarin figure. When you get closer and really look at it, it is a stack of people looking figures (one male with a female on top of him)  that are assembled in a pyramid. The artist is very clever for the name once I figured out what the piece was. 

For this being my very first trip to the hammer museum, I believe it was a success. I never knew art exhibits could be so interesting. It opened my eyes on how intricate every artist is with their very one style on every detail of their pieces.