Author: albinak

Although this event took place at the end of the day and I was tired, I reminded myself that the entire Brooklyn Museum was closed off just for us, Macaulay students and I could unwind with my friends around some beautiful art. Once I reminded myself of this, I was excited and curious about what the night would bring.

Before the actual viewing of the art began, sitting in the auditorium was an interesting experience all on its own. First off, after every sentence that the speaker, Joseph Ugoretz spoke was followed by a round of applause from people in the back. Now, I get that people want to be supportive and I am all for supporting one another, but I am pretty confident that every sentence didn’t require a round of applause. Moreover, the information that was provided in the presentation was useful and I am glad he showed pictures and explained a bit about each seminar. He kept it informative and interesting. Anywho, that was the first part of the night.

The second part of the night was the actual art. Viewing the art. Listening to the art. Discussing the art. Contemplating the message behind the art. Not touching the art though, they made it clear “don’t touch the art!” A group of us CSI kids stayed together throughout the night and I thought that was really important that we did that because art is based on perspective and having several people around you results in different messages, feedback, and attitudes. That is the beauty of it all-seeing different ideas come together and coming to a consensus on what the message behind this sculpture or painting could be. We decided to start bottom to top and not top to bottom like most other people decided to do, so we touched base with other groups on occasion.

The first painting we saw beautifully captured the art that is NYC itself. Looking at the painting at first glance without paying attention to detail just yet, you get a look at the Brooklyn Bridge, the ferry, the buildings, the sun’s reflection glistening on the East River, and the lights. All the lights in this painting whether it be from inside the buildings, the cars on the bridge or the actual bridge really reaffirmed the saying that “this is the city that never sleeps.” Then you start paying attention to the detail and my goodness I was just blown away. The detail is what takes this painting to the next level and what makes it so special. You were able to see the furniture through the tiny windows on the buildings. Each car had its headlights shining. The waves of the East River are painted in such detail that you can visualize the water moving in front of you. Now, of course, this is a painting and nothing is actually moving, but the beauty of this painting is that, in my mind, all I saw was movement in this painting. The cars driving on the bridge and the highway, the ferry’s moving along on the river, or the river’s subtle waves moving side to side. It was such a well-captured part of NYC and portrayed in a beautiful manner. I am so glad that this was the first piece of art that I laid eyes on tonight. It really set the tone and got me excited about what the rest of the museum had to offer.

The next piece of art that we came across really did not disappoint. It was very different than the painting of NYC in that the painting was put on a wall, so your attention was put on just that section of the wall. This next piece took up almost an entire room. This piece of art had so many different components simultaneously being shown at the same time. The piece itself had cream-colored ropes hung from the ceiling down to the ground, so the ropes were very long and thick. But then these ropes had symbols projected on them. We thought these were symbols of eitherNative American tribes or flags of their tribes. Then there was an auditory component to the piece too. There was some mystical music played in the background and that gave off a calming vibe. So the piece had these enormous ropes hung, but then it had miniature versions of the ropes under glass. These were the originals I assume and we were looking at a bigger image of what was under the glass. This piece of art had multiple different components which I liked because it required me to have to break it apart and analyze each component alone before pulling them all together into one masterpiece.

The night at the Brooklyn Museum made up for today’s horrible weather. You literally could not see 2A from 1A this morning.

Pictures of some of the art viewed tonight…

A picture of some of us because humans are works of art too. We are masterpieces.

Albina K.

The New Museum had seven floors and each floor had its own flair and message. Although some floors were conveying more than one message, most of them gave off one overall message and feeling.

As soon as you walk in, the first gallery you will come across is called the House at Kawinal by Naufus Ramírez-Figueroa. Right off the bat, walking into the room and seeing the different sculptures confused me because there was one man covered with a dirty sheet in a way that was hiding him. I thought the artist might have been trying to keep him hidden or the man didn’t want to be seen. This was strange but very interesting to see so my eyes kept roaming onto the next sculpture in the room. Across from this covered man was a woman with five legs and next to her was a pregnant woman laying down. Now, the woman with five legs had legs popping out of other legs and at this point, this gallery was becoming more strange than interesting.  Books, vases, stray shoes, and a child’s tricycle all made out of white stone were thrown around the room. The furniture was slanting and falling apart; nothing was glossy and upright. This room seemed like “a house went wrong.” This was not a room that would belong to a wealthy family. Reading the description on the wall and doing some research into the background of the artist and his piece, I found out that the artist was trying to show the effects of the Guatemalan government forcibly displacing thousands of Achi Mayan people to build a dam. The man possibly trying to run away, women in desperate need of help during an emergency and household items thrown around in a very franticmanner. Therefore, this exhibit did an outstanding job at displaying a problem faced in Guatemalan history through art, so I definitely learned not to judge so quickly without understanding the context first.

Going up…

Each floor expressed its own style of modern art through a different medium. But it was the Black School X Kameelah Janan Rasheed that stuck with me due to its simplistic approach to showcasing a movement that is very important in today’s society. As soon as you got off the elevator, there was a red wall that had a black cage stretching from one end to another. On this black cage, there were pieces of paper held up by binder clips. Each paper had an important message written on it and an illustration to accompany the message. Some messages expressed were “black unity,” “freedom,” “we need women of control,” “activism,” and “end censorship of youth.” These messages, to me, were meant to inform the public on the black social movements and the growth of feminism in the U.S, and therefore encourage a strong desire to bring about change in either of these movements.

Albina Kukic