my High museum paper

High museum paper




This was my first time going to the high Museum. It was a memorable experience for me. Out of all of the works of art I saw my favorite piece would have to be the Jesus on the Cross, created by Ulysses Davis. Ulysses Davis had a whole collection on his wood carvings. All of his work is very impressive but the Jesus on the cross stuck out to me the most. When I read the story behind the making of the carving love it even more. It said that Davis used the best wood for this carving which was the piece of cedar wood. Davis quoted that “nothing is to good for Jesus”. He did a preparatory sketch of his face first. He reduced the figure anatomy to simple geometric shapes to create the distinction from human and the divined. He used great detail on this piece. Davis spent 10 hours alone on the crown. This piece really shows his spirituality, and has great religious value. This represents what art is, stright from you heart and soul.

There is a piece that I like but would not take home.. It was called Abstract Painting, 1997 by Gehard Richier. I like his use of colors and I like how you can see each of his brush strokes. Even though I liked it, its not anything that I could see myself getting… The colors are difficult to match stuff with and Abstract art is not something that im really into. The description states that his paintings doesn’t make any reference to the world. He begins his process of by carefully composing geometric shapes and then he invites elements of chance when he paints. Basically saying that he paints from his heart. He used a squeegee like tool to spread the paint out, randomly and he mixes the colors as he goes alone. For some reason his painting reminded me of an under water experience, only with purple instead of blue water.


The piece that taught me something that I didn’t know was the Burkina Faso, by a Winiama Artist. This mask is used as a celebration piece in the town of Oury . They perform different ceremonies with these masks. They dance and with this mask during the dry season from Feb. to May. The masks are worn by young men and they dance in them to commemorate lives of decreased elders. Also the use this masks for their market day celebration and other festivals. The mask is very long reaches up to six feet tall.

The piece that made me sad was the Thomas Dorsey piece, 1994. This piece was to commemorate Thomas Dorsey’s life. When ever I see memorial pieces I get a little sad. This piece was a wood carving done by Leroy Almon. Dorsey was a Georgia Native who was a blues musician. He left blues and went into gospel after the death of his wife and son. He is known for his song precious lord and is considered the pioneer of the a new style of gospel music. He generated the popular styles of today’s hip hop music.

The piece that identifies historical moment in time are the arrowhead I saw in The first emperor special collection. These arrowheads are artifacts that come from the Qin Dynasty (221-206) B.C. in China. I also saw some ritual food vessel that came from the Qin state ( 222 B.C)

The painting yard Sale by Mattie Lou’ Okelly reminds my of Aunt. My auntie loves yard sales. If she‘s not throwing to one she is going to one. I remember one year I helped her one of her yard sale. Alone with selling her stuff we sold fly plates and had music going…almost like a big picnic. People would gather together and socialize .This picture kind of reminds me of that day.

The work of art the shocked me was the piece Vik Muniz called Self portrait. I couldn’t believe that he actually place the trash around to create a picture. At first I thought that it might have been graphically done but he actually places the trash around to create the picture. It look like it took forever to set up. He uses plastic toys, crushed soda cans, computer monitors and urinals. This was so creative to me and so unbelievable. After the trash was place together he took a photograph ofon top of a crane. And it looks just like a real face. He said that this picture was to exploit viewer’s tendency to draw quick conclusions. Like a photo illusion.

The Folk art to me seemed a little sloppy, not necessary in a bad way. It was like they didn’t follow the so call rules of art. In the contemporary art sections it seemed like hey just took the simple things and made them stick out. For example they would a shape and paint it and place it on the wall. Some of the folk art scared me…it was kind of hard to understand the concept of their art. They had weird shapes and weird concepts to their art. I like the contemporary art a lot better.

My whole experience of going to the High Museum was very enlightening. I never been there before. To see varies works of art was fun. I was a little confused with some of the art work but it makes me want to continue to go. I wan to be able to look at art and really appreciate it for what the artist intended it to be. Going to this museum made me feel like I was becoming more cultured and more intellectual. Plus it was good outing for me and dad during my spring break. The whole experience was meaningful to me.