Sculpture of Chester A. Arthur

As I was wondering off to look for a nice place to eat, I happened to find myself at Madison Square Park, a beautiful park near our very own campus at Baruch College. Trailing in the park to find a nice vacant bench I ended up sitting across from a familiar face. As I stood up to take a closer look, I noticed words engraved upon the pedestal where he stood, which read “Chester Alan Arthur Twenty First President of The United States of America.” Out of all the times I have passed by this park I have never even imagined that in the midst of this famous, nature filled park I would have stumbled across the installation of a bronze statue of our 21st president of the United states of America, Chester A. Arthur by artist George Edwin Bissell and architect James Brown Lord. In this work of art, Chester A. Arthur is depicted as a well dressed man, very presidential, standing up tall and proud with one hand down at his side and the other holding a novel. Although there appears to be a chair at his side he is sculpted standing up for a noteworthy reason.  As an unpopular and forgotten president of the United States of America, Chester A. Arthur is infamously known for ordering the destruction of his personal letters and corruption. However, he is also regarded highly for his attempts of redemption taking big principled stands during parts of his presidency. For this reason, I believe the artist made the decision to have Arthur standing up; to symbolize his stand against the very own wrongs of society he committed. The park in which this statue of our Twenty First President stands is Madison Square Park. This park is filled with trees, flowers, bushes, children an adult. It is a public park open to anyone and invites joy and peacefulness. There are benches and grass for people to sit and enjoy meals and other installation for people to view. The environment in which this work of art was implemented makes Chester A. Arthur seem to be a public hero fighting for ordinary people as he is placed in an ordinary public park for everyone to see.

At Pace/Columbus (Vertical)

As I was walking through the Beloosesky Gallery my eyes may have looked past dozens of works of art before I stumbled upon this fine piece of art and could not take my eyes off it. This beautiful painting is named “At Pace / Columbus (Vertical) and was created by Joan Miro. This work of art caught my attention through its unusual depiction. Making my brain work extra hard to learn some kind of meaning to what this art is supposed to depict is what most likely caught my attention. At first glance, I just saw weird shapes, maybe pieces of a puzzle wrongly put together. But at a closer look I could recognize more familiar shapes. At the top of the painting there appears to be an eye attached to some black object. In the middle I could see a spiral like body, fingers, and a sort of hand like shapes, which obviously resemble this creatures or objects hands. And at the bottom, I can kind of visualize legs with stick like figured feet. Although strange, my mind can piece out this puzzle to resemble a living thing with human like aspects, making me conclude that this could be a a depiction of a human-like monster or some imaginary creature. Through the gallery’s white walls and other works of art this painting almost came to life as it had a great mystery to it. Although the spaces where we view art may seem like ordinary coincidences, I believe the environment gives a first impression of the artwork that can distort our perception of different works of art.