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.