Narcisse-Virgile
Deaz De Ea Pena
Clearing
in the Forest
(
French, 1807-187)
Adolphe
Charles Edouard Steinheil
Study of Poppies
(French,
1850-1908)
Jack
Whitten
9.11.01
(American,
2006)
I always enjoy
going to Baltimore Museum of Art. I tend to be more drawn to realistic
paintings. Hence why I picked the paintings Clearing
in the Forest and the Study of
Poppies. These are two of my favorites in the BMA. But this visit, I saw a
piece I never saw. It is 9.11.01. It
is a mural size piece. This piece was tinted yellow on edges and the center
there was black paint under black tiles. The clear black on black paint was a
very intriguing visual, pulling people in and the clear parts were able to show
emphasis and outline the materials placed in them. The glitter blue sky emerges
with the grey tiles. I thought this was to show the smoke rising into the sky
after the attack of 9/11. The black triangle is a pyramid which memorializes
the dead and is also on the back of the U.S. dollar. This piece is very symbolic,
as each piece references to another aspect, but they are all merge together to
emphasis the feeling Whitten felt viewing the attack from his studio. The
destruction of what he had seen is shown at the bottom of the pyramid, the
remains of man. Bones, blood, ash, foot prints. The silver tower pieces stick
out from the pyramid. Whitten casted objects such as the footprint, pieces and
ash from the world trade center. He also added real bones and blood to signified
the horror of the attack. The extreme texture and cluttering helps express the chaos
and confusion during that day. What draws me in is that even with the destruction
there was glitter on top. To me it was a little message that hope is there. The
darkness mixing with the glitter gave me an exotic feeling. This piece was like
seeing what whiten felt, not what he saw.
