fangjDESMA9: Event #2: Hammer Museum

I was very happy to get a chance visiting Hammer Museum with a couple of friends. Hammer Museum provides a wonderful platform for students to learn about various artists and their great artworks. I believe building this museum is a great investment from the school and it is really great having a trip there at zero cost.

In the first place, the project “Cabaret Crusades” catches my attention. The Egyptian artist Wael Shawky initiated this project to tell the story of Crusades by showing puppet films about this period of time. I like his idea of using puppet in this short film. Puppet is created in ancient time and is a perfect representative of ancient art. The usage of puppet is the key element which enhances the mythical atmosphere of the film.

"a screenshot of the puppet film"

Secondly, I am very interested in a drawing called “View of Maya” by Forrest Bess. I guess most people do not understand what the artist is trying to convey in this masterpiece. The description tells me that the view of Maya refers to spiritual duality, illusions and other ideas of consciousness. I believe the contrast between the two colors in this painting represents the duality part. The stripes in line show some form of patterning and regularity. In the other hand, the purposely made overlapping of colors may refer to the uncertainty of illusions. I like these two colors the artist used in this painting. These two colors strengthen the contrast without have too much visual impact to me.

“View of Maya”

Lastly, I am intrigued by the masterpiece “Le passe. Le present. L’avenir.(Past, Present, Future)“ by French artist Honore Daumier. The artist intended to show the untruthfulness and snobbishness of politicians. I believe the most interesting part of this artwork is the difference in the three stages. The facial expression gets most intense when it comes to future. It seems to be the same expression for all three at first sight, but I find differences in the shape of eyebrows and mouth. Putting the three stages together strengthens the visual impact of this art piece.

“Le passe. Le present. L’avenir.(Past, Present, Future)“

There are a lot more masterpieces to explore in Hammer Museum. I will definitely recommend my friends not taking this class to visit because the artworks are very insightful which always make me think. Sometimes the artwork is just too profound that I do not even know what the description means.