ART MUSEUM CRITIQUE

Use the following format for your museum critique; answers must be typed below
the questions and all questions must appear in full on your final copy. You can use
this document as your template. Pay careful attention to the requirednumber of
words for those questions that have them. Failure to follow theinstructions here and
on your syllabus will result in a substantially low grade.Minimal answers poorly
written are a D grade or less. Elaboration of points,excellent arguments, and good
writing garner higher grades.
**********************************Name______Kayson
Gines_________________________Class period/section______Wed Night_____________
1) Which museum did you visit? (check one) _X__ Univ. of Utah ___ BYU
2) Describe at least one of the permanent collection exhibits on a theme,period,
geographic region, or topic) within the museum. {150 words}
Looking around and finding one of the permanent collection exhibits, I came
across Pacific Island Art. The Pacific Island room was filled with a lot of big pieces of
art that caught my eye, as I started to read some of the descriptions on some of the
art pieces it was very interesting to me that I knew this gallery would be a great
choice to write about for my permanent collection. Pacific Island culture and these
pieces of art originated all over the pacific islands most of these art pieces came
from New Guinea which is an island north of the continent Australia. The ancestor of
modern day Melanesians and Australian Aboriginals came to New Guinea and
Australia about 40,000 to 60,000 years ago. The one thing that I liked the most
about this gallery was that the islanders used shields for warfare and to protect
them against evil spirits and ghost, each shield was named after an ancestor who is
believed to be present in the shield; I thought that was so neat. Looking and
learning about pacific islanders the wood work that these people carved and made
are amazing pieces, the island people are very creative in what they believe in and
do in their culture was incredible. This was one of my favorite rooms to look at
because of their creativity, passion for art work and the craftsmanship that shines
through in all their art.
3) Give a brief, one paragraph description of a special, temporary exhibit (forhelp,
ask museum staff what these are; they are usually in one of the firstrooms). {100
words}
The special temporary exhibit that I choose was the Constructing the Utah
Landscape. This exhibited explores the way artist constructs landscapes using
traditional techniques to create Utah scenes and landscapes activities of Utah, the
way that they have show in their art pieces was really informational. Some of the
ways you can see and construct these art pieces of Utah can be seen by using a low
vs. high horizon for example as I was looking at the low vs. high picture I notice

right away that you are looking low to high because of the parallel lines that shown
the depth perception form close to far on the rocks of the picture as you work your
way to the horizon at the top of the picture I could see how they can really show the
magnitude of Utah and how extreme are rock formations are. I love Utah it is my
home state and where I grew up so looking at these pieces was really easy and
relaxing for me.
4) What do you think the museum administration and/or exhibit curators wantyou to
learn or gain from the exhibits you viewed? {100 word minimum}
I think that the museum administration and creators want you to learn from
the exhibits that you can see history we have in our world through art. I have never
been to an art museum before so looking at all of the art pieces I realized that we
have so much history around the world by just looking at an artifact hanging on the
wall. Culture is the second gain that you can take from going to this museum;
looking at each room you really can see the time period and the culture in every
piece of work. Before this experience I did not really appreciate why we had
museums in this day and age but now going and seeing fist hand how cool and
important these artifacts are, I think that I would go and see another museum on
one day.
5) What kind of information is provided about the works? Where might you look for
further information if you were interested? (Name three possibilities)
First the name of the artist was listed and is available to look up and see what kind
of art they enjoy doing and why. Also the name of the piece was listed as well, this
can give you a better insight as to what they wanted to say in this piece and how it
pertains to them and the big picture they want to show you. The year the picture
pertains to is also shown, this is great information that you could look up and read
about that time in history so you could better understand what was going on in that
time period as well as the country it took place. All three of these would be useful to
better expand yourself in what the artist was trying to show you about that time
and place.

6) Choose several works that particularly appealed to you. Explain why youwere
drawn to these works. Comment on the subject, style, medium, timeperiod, etc.
Who were the artists? What message do you think the artistswere trying to convey
in the works you chose to discuss? This question mustbe answered in its entirety.
{This should be at least 500 words}

Looking around I picked three works of art that caught my eye, the first one
was in the gallery of the American west room. This picture was painted by Maynard
Dixion, Sprig time on Bear Mountain. The picture shows mountains and one tree
with a rock. As I stepped up to look at this picture the first thing that came to my
mind is that It reminded me of my home mountains where I grew up. Then my eyes
moved at the bottom where there was a tree in the right corner then notice a rock
at the base of the tree, as I looked more I saw that I was looking on a mountain
side facing up toward the top of two mountains, the wavy lines and smooth green
colors work your way to the tip top of these two not rugged but soft mountains, I
think it is a very simple piece with greens and colorful scenery it is what made me
think about my home mountains when I looked at this piece of art work.
The second piece of art was down stairs in the temporary Utah section of the
museum, this is my favorite piece that I found in the museum it is called the
Brigham Canyon Wasatch Mountains 1870, painted by Randsome Gillet Holdredge,
This piece is beautiful it looks and feels so real when you look at this picture. This
picture really shows how realistic our mountains are on the Wasatch front. To me
this picture it develops a lot of meaning on how it really looked in 1870 and how
breathtaking this canyon is. As you look at this picture your eyes are drawn to the
river and you follow the river up a cliff over hang with the canyon that is green and
beautiful, the river disappears through the mountain range an above that is the
snow camp mountains which look incredible and rugged, and then I notice a small
group of Indians on this ledge which I had to step a little closer to look at them to
see what they were, I think the artist wanted you to look at these big beautiful
mountains and amazing canyon and show how big this amazing landscape really is
with the with a river running right through it and noticing a small group of Indians
on a ledge above the river. This art work speaks to me because I not only have a
love for mountains but also for the Indian culture. I love everything about being
outdoors, discovering nature and the beauty it has to offer us if we choose to soak it
up. That is why I have such a fascination with Indians because the not only love the
outdoors they praise the land for all it gives us both through food and through
serenity and peace. I feel the artist is trying to have the Indians and them exploring
nature be the focus yet in the picture it looks to be focusing on the scenery. I think
this was on purpose to show what a higher power nature is to the Indian culture.
7) How did the artworks you looked at relate to material we have discussed inclass?
(They do relate in many ways, you just need to look for those relationships).
{Minimum of 150 words}
Yes I feel there is a relation to humanities in almost any art you look at. Most all art
work is discussing a way of life or how someone views the world, just like me
looking at this art is only my view of that art and that view comes from my view of
the world. Humanities Is the study of life and how you view it, these artist express
their view on these different subjects through art and it is through art that they can
show others how they see the world or different aspects of it. That is what is so

fascinating about both life and art, not one person see life or art the same. However
their life has gone and where there history has taken hem changes how they see
these things as a whole.
8) What was your personal reaction to this experience? Would you enjoy
attending this type of event again? Why or why not? {Minimum 100 words}
My first reaction is that I am not a museum kind of guy, matter of fact I can
probably say this is my first museum I have ever been to. Museums have never
appealed to me because I always saw outdoors as my art work to enjoy and learn
from. Yet I was quite surprised at how much I enjoyed going to this, I loved the
feelings I had to think about. I think most men have a hard time really thinking
about the meaning of something and how it pertains to them, I know I need to work
on that. Yet I was able to really connect with the art when I allowed myself to really
look deep into what this piece was trying to say to me. I like the idea that everyone
looks at the same thing yet sees it differently that somehow how you see the art
says something about you as a person. The culture of the pieces was very
interesting and I think I definitely would go back to see more about culture in the
past versus now.