I actually wanted to make a comment on how menial or improbable the plot of this play seems once all of the arias, costumes and stage set up is stripped off. Rigoletto gets cursed for being politically incorrect and then his daughter dies for a man she has known for an extremely short period of time. I guess the point of the opera is more the way the story is told than what the actual story is.
If the castrato voice was so prized, even more so than the female soprano, was it worth their sacrifice if they had to play women in all of their operas? Actually, was it even considered a step down for a man to play a woman? (142)
This is our project from the Brooklyn Museum.
http://eportfolios.macaulay.cuny.edu/mediaarts/2013/09/28/a-young-woman-overtaken-by-a-storm/
On page 21, the author states, “The tradition of the human figure…had at last run out.” When artists began the shift from drawing people and nature to simply drawing objects and man made structures, a few artists decided to go to other cultures for inspiration. There was so much change happening in the European countries, so why did artists feel uninspired? Did they have to exercise their newfound perspective? How did this desire lead them to explore different countries and cultures?
This sticker caught my attention after we had gone through all of the galleries. It struck me as interesting that something this simple could make such a big statement. I found myself comparing it to the gallery we visited it last, Lived, Lives, Will Live!, which made a statement about wealth using 24 carat gold chains. This illustration was so simple, but I liked the fact that it showed that money and happiness are intertwined. I really appreciate simplicity because it takes a lot of talent to make a point in a focused and a straightforward way.
I liked this hypocritical piece of graffiti, although I did not completely understand it. Under a tiny sign stating, “Street art kills,” there were three bottles of insulin with needles, which is used as a remedy for diabetes. The artist seemed to imply that is akin to diabetes–a disease–but the cure was painted on the streets of New York. The cure to street art is street art? the more I thought about it, he was urging good street artists to undo the damage that “bad” graffiti had created. The thing about graffiti is that it is meant to be looked at with a passing glance- characteristically busy New Yorkers don’t have time for much more- so the fact that I was reading so much into it felt different; I was so used to discussing the art in the galleries that I didn’t realize this art was meant for a completely different audience.
Why does Orsino constantly send Viola to woo Olivia instead of going himself? If he is so in love, why does he not make the effort to go talk to Olivia?
This poem is succinct but poignant and it seems as if he is pondering through the subject of girlhood even as he is writing the poem, as he switches perspectives in the middle. But why is it that he is writing about girlhood instead of boyhood? Nothing about the poem is distinctly about girls, so why did Galassi title it “Girlhood”?
“Audience tolerance for the unfit at costly professional dances is unlikely.” This seems to be referring to the body type and body tone of the dancer. However, if the author continually says that dance is a combination of body as well as mind and spirit, why does it matter if they are unfit? Isn’t it enough that they perform the piece with the feeling that it was meant to be performed with?
It seems that Saltz is commercializing art, which makes it seem very unimportant. The point of the Chelsea galleries is for the public to have a chance to see the mass of art that is there. However, at one point Saltz says that it’s ok for your gallery to “be visible to just enough people with money” even if it is not visible to the general public. How is this fair to artists? Doesn’t this contradict the very notion of art?
Grant Wood asserts that “All the really good ideas [he] ever had came to [him] while [he] was milking a cow” (103). He is implying that his most important pieces came to him without even thinking about the form or perspective of a painting, but Leonardo da Vinci said to “first study science…and reason” of art (62). Which is more important- the initial thought, or the technique?
