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November 15, 2005
MFA Questions
The museum feels like a safe place to me, a place of art, and a place where one can express himself/herself as an artist and as a viewer. The floors, walls, and architecture made me feel like I was in a place where I never am. It is all so beautiful and big, so creatively designed. It’s all one big piece of art put together to make one big work of art. However, when I was in the Ansel Adams exhibit, I felt over crowded, but that’s just because there were so many people in there. But once I moved to a place where there weren’t as many people, it was relaxing and quite enjoyable.
I went into the MFA thinking, okay, let me just look and get out of here. I like going to Museums, but I’m never one to look at things for more than a minute or two, unless it’s something that absolutely blows me away. I find the things in museums, paintings, statues, etc. all to be so interesting and intriguing, but I’m not one to look at them all and interpret them and stand in front of them for 5 minutes or so. I guess my assumptions about this exhibit were that there would be photographs, and they would be nice and probably of some things I have seen before, but just that, photographs. But, I was taken away by the photos that Ansel Adams took. They are so different, but yet so similar. A lot of them are photographs that if you don’t snap the camera at that particular time and second, the picture would be totally different. I thought, before I actually went into the exhibit, that they would just be regular black and white photographs, things that are clear cut and you could tell exactly what the picture is and what its meaning is, but I was wrong.
Landscape- Roaring River Falls, Kings River Canyon, California. About 1925; printed in 1927 I think that nature was important to Ansel Adams in the particular image. He was trying to capture a moment in nature, one that you don’t see everyday and that you need to go looking for in order to see it. Also, I think peace is important to Adams in this photograph. The river is not calm, but by looking at it, a sense of peace comes over you. I think he is trying to say that time rushes by quickly and that it is real, not something that is just made up. He shows a river rushing through a canyon which can represent many things. But I think for this particular image, he is trying to communicate time as a passage and as movement. Everything moves over time and gradually over time things change and become different. He uses representation because this river in a canyon is what he sees and what he knows to be a river in a canyon. He uses this because this is what a river and a canyon resemble to him based on his experiences. If this photograph resembled a lake to him and his experiences of lakes, he would have probably called the photograph something different. The river symbolizes time and how it is rushing by us.
Maynard Dixon, artist, Tuscan, Arizona. 1945 I think that failing health and age was important to Ansel Adams in the photograph. This is shown by the wrinkles on the man and how he is in a shadow. His age is defined by these wrinkles and the shadow symbolizes that he is not going to be here much longer, he is already have covered by the shadow. This man is sitting down and looking out a screen window. He is behind the screen which can mean that he is taking it easy now, watching from the inside because he is too old to go out and experience it himself now. I think Adams is trying to communicate that people all have a time and they need to just take a step back at the end, relax, and enjoy the rest of their days. Also, I think he is trying to say that as you grow old, things seem to slow down. I think that taking one last glimpse as the world and what is important to you is another thing that Adams is trying to show in this photo. The old man represents old age for Adams and this is how he uses representation in the photograph. However, the old man also is a symbol. He is a symbol of relaxation and a symbol for the time in life when it is your time to sit back and pass. He uses abstraction by the shadows and the screen.
Freeway Interchange, Los Angeles. 1967 I think that this picture is abstract in a few ways. Adams is trying to show that life is important in the photograph. Life goes rushing by and passes really quickly, as shown by the cars on a freeway, where speeds are pretty fast. He is trying to communicate that everything is fast paced and tangled together. One way, leads you to another and another, bringing you on life’s journey. I think he is trying to say that we need to slow down and take the road less traveled. The picture represents a free way and the business of people in our world today. It symbolizes time and how people are just rushing to get to their next stop. It is abstract because the picture is all tangled together, going this way and that.
A painting that spoke to me is the same one that I chose to write about for the landscape. Roaring River Falls, Kings River Canyon, California. This photograph is one that I could look at forever. It always seems to be moving and every time I look at it I see something new. I first saw rocks and a mountain with water rushing through it. Then I saw time and how it just passes us by. After that I realized that it could represent destruction because it is so strong and powerful. However, it can also symbolize peace and calamity. I saw something new every time I looked at this photograph. When I saw it as peace and calamity, it meant that I need to take things in and treasure the little things and moments like this. It meant that I need to search for these unusual things that aren’t evident in everyday life. When I saw it as destruction it meant that this powerful thing can ruin everything around it and that I need to be careful for what’s around me and what goes on in the world. I think this is a “work of art” because it is so beautiful and has so many hidden meanings to it. Also, it is a “work of art” because it can relate to everyone in at least one way.
Posted by lcisnelson at November 15, 2005 12:49 PM