Kehinde Wiley's Princess Victoire of Saxe-Coburg (2012) is a representational 2D oil painting on linen. This particular painting stood out to me the most out of his entire collection. The tall black woman standing directly in the middle of the painting signifies strength and royalty. The woman has her back turned to the viewer signifying defiance or independence. Her hair stands tall as well almost like she wears it as her crown. The painting has value her skin looks like there is a light shining on her shoulders She is clothed in a long dark green gown with cut out shoulders and gives you the impression that it is flowing behind her which implies texture. The dress is held on to her waist by a bright gold belt. The background of the painting is completely covered in beautiful (secondary colors) green, orange, and purple flowers and also red, blue, and yellow (primary colors).

Chitra Ganesh's Eyes of Time (2014) is a site specific representational installation located in a space inside the Brooklyn Museum. This mural is a representation of the goddess of destruction and rebirth Kali. This piece of artwork stood out to me the most because it frightened me. It was so abstract and so different from the normal depictions of a female goddess. Kali is shown with 3 breasts, 5 long arms, and 3 legs. Her head is made out of a clock which represents the inevitability of time in this world. She has long black hair that spell out a variety of words. This artwork is loaded with texture her abdomen holds 7 arms her right hand is holding an eyeball and her hair is made of black yarn.

Both artists have different ways of symbolizing women empowerment and where they stand in the world today. Kehinde's painting was such a refreshing outlook on women compared to centuries ago.

Museum Essay # 1

"Eyes of Times" -Chitra Ganesh

"Napoleon leading the army over the alps"-Kehinde wiley

Writing about seeing actual artwork in a museum is gonna be fun because i actually got to see artwork and be amazed and moved. The museum in question is the Brooklyn museum and i visited two exhibits one by Chitra Ganesh and Kehinde Wiley. Kehinde Wiley's re-interpretation of French artist Jacques-Louis David's painting of Napoleon struck me as something to write about because i have seen this painting in other media.The paintings negative space is interesting cause its not one color overshadowing the painting its golden seals repeated off a red background. I wanna say that this is representational artwork but i'm unsure cause while you can see the the person its not actually Napoleon but an black man portraying or replacing Napoleon. Mixing urban culture artwork with  centuries old artwork is by far impressive because its the best way to something new with something old. It grabbed me because creativity is the spice of life ordinary plan old paint on a canvas would have done this painting a injustice you have to think outside the box , and let the muse take you to other places beyond normal. This painting can be described as idealized trying to bring back the thoughts or convey the presence or powerfully distinguished African American man in a militarized role .

We now move to Chitra Ganesh's mural "Eyes of Time". The mural works as one but has individual parts leading to the next threads which displays  a message or leads you to another part of the mural. I'm not going to lie this is a hard on to go into description without me spitting just facts and not my interpretation, what see is three females each done in an abstract way. The first is of a women with two eyes one painted in the negative void almost as to invite you into her mind and see what she thinks. Were guided with thread to the next piece but the thread is not without a message , all ican make out in the few words (quicksand, rainbows, and a brief sentence "the haunted had ") which could only symbolize some train of thought leading to the next piece. The next piece is of the only deity i recognize from eastern culture and that is Ganesh. Again this was abstractly done if you ever seen the actual depiction.  The time piece over the face or in replacement of the face is stumping me even if i had to guess would be that time has changed what is actually changed the thought of spiritualism .The next and last part shows a woman with gears in her hair which could symbolize the workings of the thoughts and images culminating and coming together to form one centralized thought. 

Essay #1

      Eyes of Time is a site-specific multimedia installation created by Chitra Ganesh in 2014. The three walls of the installation are covered by three horizontal stripes of B/Y/R paint, accordingly. These three colors mesh when they touch each other. Starting from the left, there’s a painting of a woman holding up her left hand against her right eye and making a telescope-like hand sign. The woman is painted in a blue color and is only visible from her chest up. The painting is only the outline and so her face is the color of the wall. Only one arm is visible. It appears she’s looking out of this circle she’s creating with her hand and in the center there's a dark area that appears to be a piece of black construction paper. This black area is circular, but with pointy edges all around. She is also wearing a bone fang necklace. The woman’s right side uses a tin foil material, spreading out like spider legs. On her left arm, there is a rectangle material used to connect to the second part of the installation. This rectangle pops out with pins/black strips and a copper coil, which create texture. The middle figure is a representation of Kali, the goddess of destruction and rebirth. She is connected to the first figure by the copper coil, but twirled hair braids are fused into the connection. These braids, are formed in such a way that they spell out various words and phrases. This version of Kali has a clock tower head, six arms, three breasts, and three legs. All spread out in the goddess's usual threatening stance. Her outline is black and is painted indigo-white within. Her clock head has textured hair which comes down her back into the braids. On the right set of arms, she is holding a sickle, the middle right arm is mechanical with foil elements, and the final arm is holding an eyeball. The left set of arms, top has a fuzzy wristband, middle is a corpse arm with a mouth where it connects to her body, and the bottom left arm is holding a strong red wire that connects to the final figure. Her breasts are decorated with jewel-like nipples. Kali is wearing a skirt made out of an array of blue toned human arms, which are all three dimensional props that can be touched. Her far left leg is resting on top of an outline painting of some sort of energy ball. The third figure is a purple outline painting of a woman’s profile.  Squiggle lines come out of her closed mouth creating a bridge that connects it to the wire held by Kali, which also squiggles around. This woman’s eye is some type of aluminum plate with a symbol on it. Her hair is an extravagant array of mechanical clockwork gears all gold toned. It looks as if she’s almost part machine. The top part of her hair has some pearlescent stone-like parts to it. The hair also creates lines going straight out, before being barraged by an array of mechanical parts, giving a sense of motion. On the bottom part of this subject, there are outlines of pink flowers painted.

     Houdon Paul-Louis (2011), Kehinde Wiley’s sculpture, is a representational three- dimensional bust of a young African-American wearing a zip up hoodie. The man has short hair with waves and his hood gives the impression of fuzzy material on the inside. The base is polished stone and the man is completely made out of monochrome bronze. Being a bust, the subject is only seen from the chest up. His head is tilted in an assuring manner. His eyes are both glancing towards another direction away from the viewer. The texture of this sculpture would be presumably coarse. The polished stone base is of compacted hourglass shape and is black. Its texture would be smooth in comparison to the bronze. The area around the sculpture can be considered negative space.     
     Initially while viewing Eyes of Time, I immediately recognized the psychedelic influences Ganesh had for this installation. I wasn’t all that impressed with the paintings themselves, but the work put into incorporating the different mediums into one piece was really impressive. You can see how Ganesh takes fragments of all her influences and connects them in her own imaginative way. During her lecture at LaGuardia, Ganesh mentioned that initially this installation was meant to have multiple figures and I think ideally that’s what would have made it perfect. The letters within the braids are fantastic and I hadn’t even noticed them until further analysis. Personally, there’s no real meaning here besides portraying the array of influence and style Ganesh has acquired over the years. There’s many things going on, but all the components do seem oddly random. A trippy representation of women and a goddess. I didn’t know much about Kehinde Wiley before this trip, but he truly impressed. The undertones contained within his artwork referencing the masters. Blending of contemporary and traditional artwork – removing constraints. I thought it was brilliant and ultimately the work he does is really what art is all about. Wiley applies this exact thought in his sculpture Houdon Paul-Louis.  I had never before even imagined a bust of an African American. It just goes to show how our mind is ingrained with many of these old artistic ideas. Tilt of the head showing prestige. I thought it was magnificent to represent something in a refreshing way. The sculpture was well done, loyal to the subject, down to the hoodie.

Museum Essay #1

This work is Chitra Ganesh's Eyes of time. It is a mixed media wall mural. It has three parts to it. (I only have a picture of the middle part) The part on the very left is the face and left arm of a women holding something black over her right eye. The figure is made up of blue lines and none of it is colored in. Her fore arm looks to have stitches. Where her right arm should be there are many thin and sharp shards of mirror placed together in the form of little insect legs. The middle figure has six arms, three legs, and three breasts.The head looks like the clock above the information booth at Grand Central Terminal. The figure is wearing a skirt made up of severed hands that have red glitter on the ends to give the effect of blood. In one of the figure's hands is a sickle. The hair is made up something like wool. On the left side the wool is shaped to spell out words like "the haunted" and "knowing" and connects to the figure in the left part of this piece. The figure on the right side is the face of a women drawn with purple lines. She has gears and other mechanical objects coming out from the back of her head. It is connected to the middle figure by the string extending from the middle figure's hand to her lip. The background is made of negative space. The background is made up of the primary colors, the top is blue, the middle is yellow, and the bottom is red. The piece has both historic and modern parts to it. The middle figure looks like a deity while the figure on the right looks almost like a machine. It seems to tie together technology with ancient figures.

This is Kehinde Wiley's oil on canvas painting, Dogon Couple. It is based on the Dogon Couple sculpture. In this painting there are two African men sitting in chairs next to each other. The man on the right has his arm around the man next to him. They are wearing similar colors clothes. The man on the left is wearing a dark blue top with purple shorts. The man on the left is wearing the a light blue top with light lavender shorts. Even though the man on the left is wearing darker clothes, his sandals are white while the man on the right is wearing black sandals. The background is made up pattern of birds and vines. The contrast of the warm colored background to the cool colored clothes makes the figures stand out in this painting. I like the concept of representing past art with modern figures in this painting.

Essay #1

Kehinde Wiley’s Saint John the Baptist in the Wilderness (2013) is a two-dimensional oil on canvas painting measuring 48 by 36 inches. What first caught my attention were the bright colors of this piece, and especially the dress the woman in the painting was wearing. The dress has different shaped rectangles, squares and stripes with the primary colors; yellow, blue, red (just like a Mondrian) as well as some additional colors; pink, white, black. Wearing the dress is a young African American woman with short black hair, but dark blonde bangs swept to the side. She is holding up a sharp wooden rod in her left hand, while her right hand is resting over her heart. Her face has a blank expression, as she is looking straight towards the viewer of the painting. The background of the painting has a very floral pattern. There are some long green plants which twist around each other as if they were vines. The plants grow out different flowers, irises and smaller yellow flowers. Scattered around in some areas are also canaries.

Chitra Ganesh’s Eyes of Time (2014) is a two-dimensional, mixed-media wall mural installation. It is separated into three sections, the one which I choose was the section in the center. It is an abstract representation of the Hindu goddess Kali, which is the goddess of empowerment and destruction. She appears to have light blue skin, six arms, three breasts, three legs, and a golden clock (close to the one in Grand Central) as the head of the goddess. Coming behind of the clock is long black hair with several strands of red. Toward the bottom left side, her hair writes out some words such as “quicksand, rain, knowing, the haunted have suffoc-” Around her waist is a “skirt” of brown, blue and gray arms that with supposedly cut off with one of the c-shaped hooks she is holding in the first arm on the left side. The blood is made with red jewels. Her second arm, under the first described arm is a robotic arm with a variety of gems and twisted lines as if they were wires. The third arm holds a brown eyeball, and opposite of the third arm is an arm holding a red rope. Above the “rope-holding arm” is an arm that is stitched on, with some shimmery blood and pebbles around the shoulder of that arm. It also has some bracelets around the wrists. The last arm (first one of right side) has on a band of fur from wrist to forearm. One of the last elements of this mural is the robotic blue sphere one of the feet seem to be standing on.

Both of these pieces have similar meaning, resembling the empowerment of women. Kehinde Wiley portrays the woman in Saint John the Baptist in the Wilderness as Saint John the Baptist, who is a man. With this painting and all others he has created he is trying to put forth the statement that women can be dominant as well, not just be categorized as “possessions”. Same goes for Chitra Ganesh’s Eyes of Time; in the piece I have chosen by her, is Kali the goddess in which is portrayed as a strong, powerful woman who is skilled of the destruction she has done.

Essay #1 Kehinde Wiley & Chitra Ganesh

          I want to start of by saying how much I enjoyed the Brooklyn Museum. I got to see the works of Kehinde Wiley and Chitra Ganesh. These both artworks seemed so realistic and fascinating that I wanted one for my house. I want to begin with Kehinde Wiley, his artwork looked so realistic and seemed that all his paintings would come poping out of there place it was beautiful. The medium on this artwork is stainles glass though I may get this wrong or right but I think it's a 3D Installation because this will only be here for awhile but then again it can be a 2D because you can't go around it. There are a lot of lines referring to the blue and the frame around them. There are parallel lines vertical lines horizontal lines, diagonal lines even curved lines. There are geometric shapes like triangles rectangles but there are also organic shapes like the clouds above they make organic circles. He uses primary colors the red blue and yellow there is a mix of cool colors and warm colors from the guys outfit. The implied texture of this artwork is smooth and fine. It is very very representational because it looks so realistic especially the clothing. And there is an immense detail added to there clothing they added the ticket of his shoes. Now my subjective thought on this artwork is a 2D artwork and there are vivid colors those primary colors the really bright blue and the color of his jeans. His jean jacket the black part looks so realistic as if you can actually touch it the clothing looks very realistic. Both men looking strong and fierce serious. There are geometric shapes the triangles rectangles but there are also organic ones there are curves in the background and the ground the grass has also organic shapes. Kehinde's stained glass work are portraits of medieval saints. This artist did artwork based on the Medieval times how things were before but made now a whole new look. 

ARMS OF HUGO VON HOHENLANDENBERG AS BISHOP OF CONSTANCE WITH ANGEL SUPPORTERS
2014
Medium- Stained Glass


                   Now this is a very interesting artwork this artwork really makes the people who look at it wonder and think. This artwork is a 2D artwork I can't go around it but this is an installation because like my professor told me, this artist made this by hand in the museum and worked hours but only temporarliy and when brought down she can keep the parts she can keep and reinstall them again another museum. This is part painting and part sculpture because it was also assembled like the arms below here wait and the hair coming down and making out the words, the eye on the right hand and the three jewels on her boobs. There are some geometric shapes there's a circle from the clock there are some lines from the clock as well and the lines from her hands her fingers.The colors used on this artwork are violet black gold and a hint of white, there is negative space around her in the back and the color fades from a pink to a red color. The bottom color looks like the colors of sunset the orange red colors. The artwork has analogous red yellow and orange, the texture of this artwork is implied since we couldn't touch it but with the hair and the arms theres feel to it. In my subjective thought I would say the hair may be coarse because of the words made out from it the arms look soft but the top of them is rough because the red parts are small rocks which would feel rough. The hair braclet of one of her arms seems to look like a soft feeling if you'd touch it. The message of this artwork is very interesting without reading the information of this artwork, what caught my attention was the face she doesn't have one. She has a clock midn you it looks like the clock from Grand Central...Time when you see a woman you look at her face and guess her age all on how she looks. This artwork is abstracted, its nonrepresentional it contains no formal reference to the natural world. This woman has 6 arms 3 legs and has 6 toes and other peculiar things. The representational style of form is idealized between the kali and the seated staluette of sekhmet, both goddesses and icons of femininity. You see chitra is a feminist and likes to show us women also contain power, this artwork portrays the ideal femininity. This artwork for me spoke a lot about women and I really liked this. 


        

Chitra Ganesh ( American, born 1975)
Eyes of Tim, 2014
Medium- Mixed- Media wall mural
Courtesy of the artist and Gallery Wendi Norris, San Francisco 

           These both artworks are very interesting Kehinde Wiley demonstrates the medieval times to the modern times and Chitra Ganesh demonstrates the femininty and the objectivity the women have the power and strength. They both talk about beliefs and the idea of what some believe and how things look through there artistic eyes. Feminism and Medieval times. 

essay #1

Judith and Holofernes (2012) is a two dimensional oil painting on linen .This painting was made by Kehinde Wiley. This is a representational painting, and I specifically chose this painting because of its vibrant colors. The background is full of flowers and stems. The flowers are primary (red, blue, yellow) and secondary colors (orange, green). As soon as you look at this painting it creates an aesthetic emotion because of its colors. In the center of the painting there is a Brown colored woman with black hair .Her hair is up in a huge bun. She’s wearing a Dark blue long dress covering her legs only allowing her toes to show. On her blue dress there is a brown belt with gold around her waist holding the dress in place. The bottom of the dress looks like its flowing and the gold on the belt looks like it can be touched implying texture. The flowers create a pattern throughout the entire painting and also there is a pattern on the woman’s belt. The woman is holding a sword with blood on her left hand and on her right hand she is holding a white colored woman’s head by her hair. The white colored woman doesn’t look as if she’s in pain, instead she is smiling. I think this painting is stylized. There is negative space in between the flowers and in between the woman’s hands, but there is more positive space than there is negative. Each of Wiley’s painting represent something and in this exhibit he depicted African American Woman’s to represent a rightful place for them in art history.

Eyes of Time  was created in 2014 and it’s a mixed media wall mural by Chitra Ganesh. This Specific Abstract installation is temporary meaning it’s not always going to be there .This installation is located in the Brooklyn Museum. Eyes Of Time has three different figures and each one of them represent something different. There is a lot of negative space in between the figures. The wall is painted in primary colors ( yellow, red,blue). Out of all the figures this figure that caught my attention the most because it was very odd and abstract. It looks like a Hindu goddess .She is outlined in a black color and is painted a light purple. She has 3 legs, 7 toes, 5 arms and her head is a clock. The figure has  3 breast  and underneath her stomach  there are 10 different colored arms hanging implying texture. You can actually touch the arms .The glue Ganesh used was red with glitter making the arms look unique. In between her arms there is black and red hair braided .On one side of the hair there are words made up from the hair, there is also texture here. Each of the words means something to Ganesh since she felt she had the need to include them. I think Ganesh used the head as a clock because a clock can indicate a lot of things such as time is ticking. And this can be an example for us not to take anything for granted and not to waste time. Also one of the arms looks as if it was the insides of machine; there is texture there also. What I think she’s implying by that is that we are like time machines. All the figures in this mural connect to one another.

I enjoyed looking at different artworks, both of the art works I chose symbolize women empowerment. In Kehinde Wiley’s painting the African American Women is holding another woman’s head, her posture and face expression represents empowerment. She looks as if she must have everything her way. In Chitra Ganesh’s mural the artwork she made symbolizes a Goddess. The goddess Kali also represents woman Empowerment.

Essay #1

Princess Victoire of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha (2012) is a two-dimensional oil painting on linen by Kehinde Wiley measuring ninety-six inches by seventy-two inches. This representational painting grabbed my attention among all the other paintings because of the vibrant background featuring a black body dressed in a rather designed attire in the middle. The black body is of a woman standing, showing her lovely back as if she’s looking forward facing the future, leaving us spectators behind. She’s wearing a glamorous dark green colored long sleeve gown with cutout shoulder offering an alluring glimpse of skin which is the most noticeable area striking value. The gown is implying texture as if it’s kind of flowing.  She’s also wearing a golden colored belt which has horizontal pattern. She has her black hair in a voluminous bun which also strikes value in this painting. So to speak, the figure is stylized. The whole space surrounding the figure is filled with mass of green leaves and there are flowers emerging from them. There is plenty of negative space visible between the layers of leaves and flowers. The flowers are painted with primary colors (Red, Blue, Yellow) and secondary colors (Orange, Violet). All the colors used in the painting have a warm tone.

Eyes of Time (2014) is a mixed-media wall mural by Chitra Ganesh. This is a temporary abstract installation on a wall inside the Brooklyn museum. The wall is the canvas and there are 3 main areas- the 3 figures taking up the positive space and the rest of it is more like the background or negative space. The background consists of shading of the primary colors- blue, yellow and red from top to bottom.  The first figure is of a blue haired woman wearing a locket of tooth covering her right eye with a black object with her left hand. I feel like she’s part human and part spider as she is stylized with broken pieces of mirror which look like spider legs. The figure is outlined with blue colored paint. The second and the middle, black outlined purple figure is a rather odd figure of a woman with three legs, three hands in both sides making total six hands and her head shaped like a table-clock without its hands. The clock is golden colored. The upper part of the figure is nude revealing three breasts and the lower part is covered with cut off real looking plastic hands which gives an appearance of a skirt. She’s holding a metal like blue colored object with one of her feet. She has long wild black hair. Some words are written with her flowing hair and wires which connect to the first figure. The hands of the skirt and her hair have real texture. She has an eyeball in one of her hands in the left side just above the words. The eyeball only makes sense when you connect this figure to the first one. She’s also carrying a sickle weapon which has an eye drawn on it and blood is dripping from it. Texture is implied here. The other hand is making some kind of gesture. In the right side, two of her hands have bangles one of which looks like it’s coming out of a mouth. It also has stitches on it. The other hand is connected to the third figure’s lips with wires. This figure is also of a woman, drawn side-faced with violet colored paint. The back of her head, her hair consists of the inner parts of a clock and teeth. This only makes sense when connected to the middle figure. The middle figure is bigger than the side figures as if she has the most control over them.

Both art work I chose symbolize empowering women.  In the artwork by Kehinde Wiley stated above, the woman’s posture, her fine clothing, her voluminous hairstyle and the flowers adorning her serve as markers of power, strength and independence. The art work I chose by Chitra Ganesh influenced by the South Asian goddess Kali also represents femininity, empowerment and multiplicity.

Essay #1 Cody

    

   Kehinde Wiley's painting "Equestrian Portrait Of King Philip II" (Michael Jackson) 2009 is an oil on canvas painting. The style of this painting is a subjective thought, because it I is a remake of King Philip II defined as pop star Michael Jackson after death. Wiley's main objective in this portrait is to embrace Michael's excellence and highness at his time before death. The primary colors used in this portrait are royal blue, navy blue, red, yellow and gold, the positive space in the painting, all colors on Michael's character to portray emotional effects. The content around Michael is all depicted as negative space, in large grey and white clouds under the miniscule sections of the sky blue sky, giving Michael a more lively image.

   Chitra Ganesh's, artist based in Brooklyn born 1975: Eyes Of Time(2014) represents iconography, mythology, literature and popular culture for feminists and queer narratives. This work of art is a media wall mural that can be located in the Brooklyn Museum. This Mural is of an Indian goddess Kali representing femininity constructed through culture and complexity. Kali made up of a golden clock head, indigo body, with three breasts, with long black and red hair with an actual texture, depicted in an abstract form has several arms majority are severed and oddly distorted as well as three legs and three heads. In the back ground there is negative space within three boarders of color, the top is the negative with a navy blue sky, larger middle portion is white, and the bottom boarder is red creating an emotional effect. Within the red mist of the bottom there is one of Kali's feet on an orb like object which is mechanical in relation to one of Kali's heads, and an arm where she is making a hand gesture.

    These two works of art from two very distinct style artist each male, and female both depict subjective thought. The two artist render iconography and emotional effects through their preferred visual elements portrayed in such a way. Kehinde more of a light element follower depicts the light of a work, while Chitra displays a darker form of work. Chitra displays a woman of power in general, a warrior or goddess as seen with power but a power unknown good or bad. Kehinde portrays a dominant male figure for a specific figure known as Michael Jackson, for a specific time period representing male dominance and royalty in a hierarchy ruled by society.

Museuem Essay #1

 

    Kehinde Wiley’s painting ‘The Two Sisters’ (2012) is oil on linen measuring 96 by 72 inches. This work is an idealized portrait. Two stately women seem to float in front of a bright flower motif that monopolizes the background of the painting. The flowers are vibrant shades of green, yellow, orange and red. The black background that shows through the flowers creates negative space. The women stand beside each other in long, one shouldered, white gowns. The most notable value in the painting is in the fold of the gowns. The glowing, copper shade of their skin tone and the bright white of their gowns give the sisters an angelic aura. The woman on the right has linked her hands around her sisters left arm. Their hair is swept back and one sister wears bright blue eye makeup. The overall tone of this painting conveys a feeling of warmth.

      Chitra Ganesh’s ‘Eyes of Time’ (2014) is a mixed-media wall mural located in The Brooklyn Museum. This mural is an abstract depiction of Kali, the Indian Goddess of destruction and rebirth. Kali’s head is a golden clock. She has long, wild hair that trails off into part of poem. Her skin is a muddled blue-grey. She has three breasts, three legs and six arms. One of her feet rests upon a glowing, mechanical looking, orb-like structure. Her arms are outstretched and each hand either holds an object or makes a gesture. One holds a sycle with a single drop of rhinestoned blood falling from the point. Another hand holds an eyeball. One scarred arm with glittery bangles on its wrist juts out of a grotesque mouth on her shoulder. She wears a skirt made out of severed arms. The background is made up of bands of colour, blue at the top, red at the very bottom and a large negative space in between.

      Though these works of art come from two very different artists with distinct styles, mediums and backgrounds I believe that both works symbolize the strength and resilience of women. In most of Kehinde Wiley’s paintings that depict more than one woman they are always making some sort of physical contact. I believe this simple act of touch represents the unbreakable bond of sisterhood and how unifying the feminine experience can be. Chitra Ganesh has chosen to represent woman kind as a warrior goddess capable of creation and destruction. Both artists seem to be challenging the way society views and represents women. Women that have been erased from a white male centric history are presented goddess-like or with an air of royalty. Women that live in a society where they are thought of as lesser beings become powerful creatures capable of destroying their enemies.

Museum Essay #1

From Kehinde Wiley's exhibition, I chose an 96" by 72" oil painting on linen titled Princess Victoire of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha (2012). It is a realistic, representational figure. It is 2D because it's flat and meant to be viewed from one side.  It has a black, ornate frame which creates a contrast with the abundant, green leaves. In the middle, there is an African-American woman with her back turned and she has her dark brown hair contained in a giant bun. She is wearing a dark blue gown with long, sheer sleeves and a narrow cape that touches the ground. It has a thick, gold band around the torso. There are a lot of assertive, vertical lines from the folds in her dress. She is placed on top of a wall of avocado-colored leaves that have shadows, making them appear to have depth. There are bright pink, red, blue and yellow flowers peeking out of the leaves. There appears to be a "light" near the woman's right side, illuminating her dress and making it appear green near the top. Most of the shapes present are organic, although there are some circles in the centers of the flowers. If you could touch this painting, it would be smooth. I chose Chitra Ganesh's mixed media wall mural titled Eyes of Time (2014). It is an installation that is taking up space for a specific period of time. In the background, starting from the top and going down, there are three equal bars consisting of blue, yellow and red that fade into each other. Directly in the center, there is a giant, purple figure outlined in a darker purple with three outstretched arms on each side of the body, three muscular legs and three breasts with matching red and yellow plastic pieces. Instead of having a head, the figure has the gold clock at Grand Central on her shoulders. It comes out of the wall about 1/4". There is long, black hair with strands of bright red braided down to the feet. By the left foot, there are cursive words created from the hair. Starting from the bottom limb on the left side of the body, the hand is open and holding a brown, 3D eyeball. The middle arm is broken into robotic shapes and has blue, red and clear gemstones. The hand is pointing with the index finger. The pinky is also out and it has a sharp claw. The top arm is grasping a shiny sickle and it has a single drop of blood falling from the tip. On the right side of the body, the bottom hand is closed and holding a piece of thin, red string which extends to another part of the mural. On this arm, there is a mouth with teeth located near the body. There is an arm coming out of the mouth that has stitches and is slightly bent at the elbow. On the wrist, there are six black, glittery bracelets. The hand has only the index and middle finger extended. The top arm is adorned with a dark grey cuff on the wrist. The hand is gesturing in an upwards motion. For a skirt, the figure has ten plastic amputated arms dangling down in shades of blue, green and tan. They vary in length and feature bright, red paint and shiny, red gemstones where they were cut. The figure has her far right foot resting on a circular, futuristic mechanism. It was painted with dark red and outlined in a light blue color. The texture on this mural would vary in different areas: fuzzy on the cuff, hard on gemstones, lumpy on the hair, smooth on background and plastic arms. The figurative work I chose from Kehinde Wiley's exhibition stood out to me because the woman almost has her back completely turned. By her feet, the plant life is wrapped around her, making it look like she is being pulled in toward the leaves. I enjoy this artwork because I think it looks like she is being enticed by a mysterious forest. On Chitra Ganesh's wall mural, the clock without hands means without time, there is no urgency or constraint. The figure looks very powerful, wise and might be skilled at many different things.

BP #4

I visited the MET museum this weekend and found this copper alloy statue of an Indian goddess. The style here is definitely representational, but it is an idealized representational figure. According to the MET museum’s description, the artist tried to portray the Indian goddess Parvati, who was “consort of Shiva and mother of the elephant-headed god Ganesh.” This figure depicts what India viewed as transcending female perfection at the time –small waist, large chest, soft and curvy body outline, small feet, petite face, and covered in jewels. Since the purpose of this artwork was probably to both put a face to the unknown and commemorate Hindu myths, it illustrates the everlasting presence and timelessness of Parvati’s beauty and being.

In Selections, Berger states, “Her own sense of being in herself is supplanted by the sense of being appreciated by herself by another.” How male Indian artists presented their society’s idea of how a woman should physically appear in their art probably influenced some of Indian women’s thoughts of their own body image. Some Indian women at the time might have interpreted this statue as a guideline on how to aesthetically be goddess-like. These women would have measured themselves to this specific standard and in turn, they would have been measuring themselves up to a standard that didn’t even exist – a standard that may have been just a product of a man’s (probably) lustful fantasy and therefore a standard that could never be fulfilled.

It’s interesting how this goddess and the idea of the perfect woman it’s supposed to portray so closely resembles some individuals’ idea of the perfect woman in this day and age.