Museums educate us with objects of art and culture from all over the world. Some pieces may have dramatically more meaning to people than others, but museums can’t be too conscientious about this or there would be very few pieces. Yet, if pieces aren’t displayed with enough emphasis of their importance, visitors may not even glance at them , and are even less likely to read the information about them. One piece at the Asian Art Museum in San Francisco, the “Head of a Buddha image” (Figures 1 & 2), is displayed in such a way that is very out of balance between Michael Baxandall’s “cultural terms” (1) of where the object is derived and (2) that of the viewer’s when considering everything for exhibiting an object (1991). It is proposed that the …show more content…
It is ten feet up the wall, as can be seen from Figure 1, and it is hung on the wall next to the corner. At this position, people are most likely not going to notice it just because it is so much higher than people’s fields of view. From Figure 3 it can be seen that the other objects are in people’s general field of view and that the “Head of a Buddha image” is way out of this field. This general field of view is the same throughout the room, and there are dozens and dozens of other objects set in this position. In addition, viewers will not be able to see the details of the object, and this is probably the most important reason for going to see what a museum has to …show more content…
The case below the head will have a holographic projector in it so that when people look down into the case they will see the body belonging to the head. Figure 5 only gives a glimpse of how the hologram will be. The body will be standing in a landscape with monastic complexes in Gandhara as it may have been. The combination of this optical illusion of the ten feet tall Buddha coming out of the floor and the historical scene inside the case will give viewers a full impression of the history behind the head. There will also be texts at the corners of the case so that people can read about the Buddha in Pakistan while they are waiting for a turn to look down into the hologram inside the case. The corners of the case will be reinforced from the bottom to the top with the same width of the texts. Figure 5 shows an example of how wide a text will be, but it doesn’t show that the whole edge will be like that. Since people will want to touch the case or lean on it, the information at the corners will prevent this and keep people from damaging the case. Also, there will not be any seats in this room so that people won’t stay too
The object I chose in the Lightner Museum is a painting with a gold frame. The medium in which it was created is oil on canvas. Featuring this piece is a man on a seat in front of a podium. He looks around the age of fifty, wearing a black cap and glasses. His clothing consists of a collared shirt, a coat, slacks, long socks to his knees, and black shoes. In one hand he holds a small book, which he appears to be reading from, and in his other hand he carries a brown stick about a foot in length. Standing in front of the man is a boy about ten years of age. He is standing with very straight posture and his hands by his sides. The boy is adorned with a blue vest, a white collared, long-sleeved shirt and brown pants. To the right of the man is another boy with his head resting in his hands. He is sitting on a bench and appears to be sobbing. There is a boy ducking behind the podium with his hand cupped beside his mouth, inferring that he is whispering something secretly to the boy being addressed by the adult figure. The rest of the children in the classroom-type setting sit behind desks in the far right corner of the painting, each sharing a collective look of mischief and laughter. There also appears to be a chalkboard on the back wall of the room, and some sort of picture hangs above the board on the same wall.
The Buddha was and is an important figure in several different cultures, and his influence has spread over large areas. Across these different cultures, many forms of art portrayed him in different ways. In Japan, one of the Buddha’s titles stood out as the “Amida Buddha.” The statue that this paper will be detailing portrays “Amida, the Buddha of Infinite Light” (“Amida”). The statue is located in the Dayton Art Institute’s Japanese Art Gallery 105 with the acquisition number 1935.1. Created in the thirteenth century during the Kamakura period, this statue stands out in the Dayton Art Institute as a prominent Buddha figure. It is made of wood with lacquer and gilt, and it was built to be approximately the size of a normal person.
The Metropolitan Museum of Art has one of the finest Asian art collections that has enlightened and strengthened my understanding in my personal art experience. The Museum itself is an artistic architectural structure that graces the entire block on 82nd Street in Manhattan. Entering inside, I sensed myself going back into an era, into a past where people traded ideas and learned from each other. It is a past, where I still find their works of yesteryears vividly within my grasp, to be remembered and shared as if their reflections of works were cast for the modern devoted learner.
As indicated above, the exhibit is theme-based, centered around a historical period of time. Because of this, there is a large proportion of text, revealing background history, in relation to the actual artifacts. In my second, more thorough run-through, I certainly found myself reading more than looking at "things". In fact, it seems as though the exhibit only tells the true chronological history to those patient enough to read all of the text. A less thorough visit to the exhibit will undoubtedly result in a skewed view of the past. I will address this issue later in the Critical Assessment section.
When I entered through the main gallery entrance, the first thing that I noticed was this colorful glass sculpture in the middle of the room. I was in awe at how beautiful the sculpture was and the way how the light was reflected on the sculpture really emphasized the
Duncan’s (1991) analysis of western museums is defined through the theme of “durable objects” as a criterion to judge the heritage of American and European art as a ritual of the modern state. In this manner western art museums are built like “temples” as a symbolic and figurative representation of greatness of western culture throughout the world: “[They] are more like the traditional ceremonial monuments that museum buildings often emulate—classical temples” (Duncan 90). This interpretation of American/European museums defines a dominant source of cultural heritage that ritualizes
In Stephen Weil’s essay, he argues “the museum’s role has transformed from one of mastery to one of service” (Weil, 196). According to him, museums have changed their mission from one that cultures the public to one that serves
...troversy as all countries have lost, to a great or lesser extent, treasures of national renown and significance over time. Wars, theft, treasure seeking, changing boundaries and migration have all in some way contributed to this diaspora of art. There is clear evidence that the historic placing of objects in locations remote from their origin has on occasion afforded protection and preservation, The Elgin Marbles in The British Museum being a case in point. However, given the overarching principle of self determination it is difficult to argue that serendipitous historic placement is sufficient reason for items of true national heritage to be kept indefinitely. A world-wide system of touring exhibitions and cultural exchange, with context being provided by the originating society may provide the natural progression to the accessible widening of people’s experiences.
One pleasant afternoon, my classmates and I decided to visit the Houston Museum of Fine Arts to begin on our museum assignment in world literature class. According to Houston Museum of Fine Art’s staff, MFAH considers as one of the largest museums in the nation and it contains many variety forms of art with more than several thousand years of unique history. Also, I have never been in a museum in a very long time especially as big as MFAH, and my experience about the museum was unique and pleasant. Although I have observed many great types and forms of art in the museum, there were few that interested me the most.
Professor LaFleur in lecture on November 11 mentioned, “Museums were extremely powerful in shaping the way people saw the world” (Lecture 007). This same reasoning is why Fusco and Pena embark on this ethnographic journey. By displaying “A Savage Performance”, we see that they are subverting the past notions of ethnography. Ethnographic museums as the ones Sara Baartman was displayed in served a purpose and created a certain kind of discourse. “Discourse do not simply reflect reality, or innocently designate objects; rather they constitute them in specific contexts according to particular relations of power” (Lidchi, p. 185). Lidchi goes on to say that ethnography was created by the dominant culture in the imperial c...
During my visit to the Pérez Art Museum Miami, I did more than just observing beautiful artworks. With the guidelines provided I could appreciate and study also the hidden meaning of some of the pieces I had in front of me. Some of them were easier than other ones, due to previous knowledge I had, but all of them made me examine them in a critic way that enriched my cultural heritage.
In “Whose Culture Is It, Anyway? ”, Kwame Anthony Appiah begins by pointing out that some of the museums of the world, particularly in the West, have large collections of artefacts and objects which were robbed from developing and poor countries. He then raises a question: who owns these cultural patrimony and properties? Our first answer may be that since they make up the cultural heritage of a people, they belong to the people and culture from whom they were taken. Appiah has doubt about this and argues that if some cultural artefacts are potentially valuable to all human beings, they should belong to all of humanity. He thinks that when they make contribution to world culture, they should be protected by being made available to those who would benefit from experiencing them and put into trusteeship of humanity.
We visited the Museo Nacional De Antropologa in Madrid, and were assigned to analyse the Asian Room, which is focused particularly on the Philippine Islands because of their historical colonisation with Spain. The display of things in a museum are things that we look at as something that is outside of normal. In contrast to the movie or movies, where scenes substantially show how the person felt and dealt with situations and tools from their own perspective, with their own knowledge and experience and through different means such as real images, sounds, language and others produces a different knowledge on the racial discourse. When looking at exhibitions in museums the other culture is unknown, and almost uncomfortable to us, but in movies we can be standing in their shoes.
Dave has a new job: working as a security guard at an art gallery. He is assigned to one exhibit in particular: a piece entitled “Nipple Jesus”. Upon first look, Dave believes it is a painting of Jesus on the cross. He describes it as “…ten feet high, five or six feet wide…” He thinks it is beautiful. However, when he gets a closer look, he realized that the picture is a mosaic-type piece, made up of entirely pictur...
When first arriving at the museum it was an old styled, rustic, building that was not very modern, which I think fits into the theme of the museum. The outside of the building had history, similar to how the inside of museum is filled with a history. There was also an impressive statue of former president Theodore Roosevelt. I thought it was an interesting display, but Theodore Roosevelt was an advocate for the preservation of national parks and the conservation of animals, moreover, I thought it was a great tribute to him. I think the outside of the museum shows how rich the history of the world is and there is so much to learn. The past has been polished for the people of the present to understand and admire. Overall, I felt every exhibit was easy to understand and not intimidating; subsequently, it was easy for children and adults to look at.