Tag: Daily Art Moment

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Daily Art Moment: Lee Chunghie

Lee Chunghie, Bojagi, 30x28 5/8 inches, silk and screen print. A square textile composed of varied rectangular shapes in blues, pinks, mauve, burgundy, greens, and gold. Stitching creates dark, thin lines between the transparent fabric scraps giving the work the look of a patchwork quilt. Some blocks of fabric are set side by side, some parallel to each other. A few of the blocks, like the blue and burgundy, have partial patterns visible, such as stripes and circular designs. Almost all of the fabric has a rippled effect to the weave. Some transparent fabric blocks continue beyond the square along with thin ribbons that trail off the edges of the work. Threads and ribbon ends are visible throughout.

“Fiber artist Lee Chunghie transforms the traditional Korean textile form known as bojagi into wearable art and wall installations. Bojagi became popular in the Joseon dynasty (1392–1910) as a frugal way to repurpose fabric scraps, quilting them together to create new and often beautiful cloths that could be used for wrapping objects. Lee’s practice recognizes…  Read more

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Daily Art Moment: Claes Oldenburg

A vertical rectangular image of an ice cream bar composed of puffy alphabet letters on a wooden stick. The letters bulge and recede in colors of buff, cocoa, and light browns. The background is off-white. The upper-left corner of the bar shows the letter A in white and blue, suggesting the inside of the coated bar dripping downward. A single teardrop shaped drip is seen just below the lower left of the bar. The bar and stick are rendered to suggest a color pencil sketch with visible shading and hatch marks throughout.

“We all deserve a treat during the dog days of August, and who better to serve it up than artworld prankster, Claes Oldenburg? Oldenburg humorously transforms familiar things through shifts in scale and media. In this work, the fleshy letters that form a melting ice cream bar recall his soft canvas sculptures from the previous…  Read more

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Daily Art Moment: Marie Watt

A long rectangular work composed of numerous other horizontally oriented rectangles. Each rectangle contains a word embroidered in red thread on various shades of cream to pale tan cloth in assorted stitches and styles. Some of the largest words are Ancestor, Myth, Love, Voice, Fighter, Custodian, Gratitude. Smaller words include Seeker, Care, Watcher, Legacy, Healer, Advocate, Interpreter, Wild, and Catalyst. Interspersed among the words are rectangles made of striped blankets in red, green, yellow, and black.

In her practice, Marie Watt maintains these inquiries that guide her work: “There are two questions that are an ongoing part of my work. One is asking people to reflect on a special blanket or piece of cloth and consider sharing the story with another. I am also interested in the question, ‘What would the…  Read more

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Daily Art Moment: Tōdaiji Scriptorium

A photograph of a rectangular scroll composed of horizontal bands. Brown bands, top and bottom, appear to be of woven cloth, the top band composing about a third of the overall work. The bottom band is half the top’s width. At center is the indigo band with 56 rows of silver inked calligraphy sandwiched between the mottled metallic foil bands. At the very top are two loops for hanging and at bottom a dowel can be seen at the scroll’s edge.

“The Avatamsaka (or Flower Garland) sutra is one of the best-known texts of Mahayana Buddhism in East Asia, describing a radiant, mystical universe of infinite realms. This fragment was created in the 740s as part of a set of sixty scrolls of the Avatamsaka sutra for Tōdaiji, the Great Eastern Temple of Nara. Elegantly calligraphed…  Read more

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Daily Art Moment: Rick Bartow

A photo of a rough, oval-shaped mask of a human face with closed eyes, open mouth, and flared nostrils. Closed eyelids are defined by simple scored lines with the eye on the right positioned at the far edge of the mask. The mouth is open creating a gash with the right side drooping lower than the left. Smudged reddish pigment is visible around the mouth especially on the upper lip. The texture of the mask is rough with ragged edges, scattered scoring and markings and varies in color from beige to brown to dark gray. The Roman numerals II and V are seen beside the mouth and on the right cheek. Overall, the mask seems to have a flattened appearance.

“In these recent weeks, I have been thinking about the idea of shedding: such as, the peeling away and casting off of what is no longer useful or functional, but also shedding as in shedding light to illuminate and make clear. Rick Bartow’s After the Fall III is a wonderfully unguarded study in the artist’s…  Read more

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Daily Art Moment: Navajo artist

A photo of a silver bird shaped pin with wings open to each side. Its head and beak are shown in profile, facing left. The body of the bird is adorned with round turquoise stones set in an inverted triangle pattern. In the center is a small stamp of a thunderbird with its wings pointed down, head and beak facing right. Two small, stylized crosses are positioned on either side of the turquoise triangle. Just below this triangle is a small, stamped, inverted triangle with detailed decoration. There are single turquoise stones at the tip of each wing. The tail is depicted by three feathers with rounded tips and accented with three more turquoise stones in a row. Two vertical incised lines delineate the bird's tail feathers. Small, stamped, inverted triangles edge the wings and tail. Two rows of four larger inverted triangles appear on the wings parallel to edging stamps. The stamped detail is a darker shade of silver color than the rest of the metal. The turquoise stones vary in color from pale blue to blue-green and have different veining and patterns including deep blue, white, brown, and green.

“Silver and turquoise jewelry plays a special role in Navajo families. They are passed on from one generation to the next and worn for all types of special occasions. Apart from personal connections to our family members who wore the jewelry before us, they connect us to our heritage as masters of silverwork and are…  Read more

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Daily Art Moment: Bruce Davidson

A horizontal rectangular black-and-white photograph of a young Black woman being detained by two male police officers. The woman is at center, flanked by the officers. Each holds the woman by her outstretched arms. The woman faces front but her head is turned to the right. She has dark skin, short wavy hair and wears a bright white, round earring. Her expression is neutral. Over her dark dress, she wears a light-colored cardigan sweater which is torn at the shoulder and front. The officers wear their police uniform of light shirts, dark pants, helmets, dark bow ties, duty belts with straps crossing the chest from shoulder to belt, holsters, and guns. The officer at left uses two hands to hold the woman’s arms, one hand on her upper arm and one hand on her wrist. The officer at right holds the woman’s wrist. Behind the three figures we see cars of the time, and a large movie marquee. The marquee reads “SUSPENSE! EXCITEMENT! SUSAN HAYWARD IN ‘BACK STREET ‘ AND ‘DAMN THE DEFIANT.' " People are crowded beneath the marquee.

“Last week, when federal troops entered Portland and began injuring and detaining protestors, I was already thinking about the deeply important but dangerous and ethically complex work of photographing at protests. It is critical to bear witness to the struggle for Black lives and record protests for the world to see, but law enforcement organizations…  Read more

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Daily Art Moment: Auguste Rodin

A photograph of a bronze sculpture showing two figures: the feminine presenting Spirit of Liberty and a masculine presenting combatant. The Liberty figure is positioned over the combatant. She is bare breasted with muscular arms raised in a V and fists tightly clenched. Her mouth is open wide as if shouting. She has a large pair of wings that rise behind her echoing the V of the arms. One wing is visibly broken and bent back on itself. The combatant is posed just beneath Liberty, and he looks up to her as if responding to her call. His nude body is set at a diagonal to Liberty’s with his head thrown back to the right, and his torso, hips and legs crossing diagonally to the left of Liberty. The leg at right is bent at the knee creating another angle. The arm at left lies across his body with his hand resting at right. His other arm is extended downward and he holds a sword that is inserted in the rocky base. He uses the sword to support his weak body as he tries to rise up toward Liberty. The sculpture is highly varied in its textured, displaying muscles, feathers, smooth skin and rock. The bronze is dark, almost black in some places with brownish highlights.

“In honor of #BastilleDay, I offer you one of the greatest French objects in the Museum’s collection. Rodin conceived and modelled it in 1879 for a public monument to commemorate the defense of Paris in the Franco-Prussian War (1870–1871). It depicts the battered Spirit of Liberty shrieking a call to arms above the body of…  Read more

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Daily Art Moment: Santee Sioux Artist

A pair of colorfully beaded, low-heeled ankle-high boot style shoes, pointing towards the right, seen in a three-quarter view against a gray background. Beige leather with beaded floral decoration on the toe box and both inner and outer sides of the shoes depicting leaves, flowers and abstract shapes in shades of blues, dark and light greens, burgundy, lilac and yellow almost cover the shoes. Beige laces thread through metal eyelets at front, the bright yellow lining is visible the length of the throat of the shoes. A seam is across the instep, they have brown soles and wooden, stacked heel. The toes of the shoes lift slightly from the smooth surface on which they are resting.

“I loved these joyful, beaded shoes the moment I saw them on exhibit in our Native American art galleries. I was immediately drawn to the colorful beadwork that integrated the bright yellow of the shoe’s lining and contrasted so brightly against the soft beige of the shoe’s leather. The elegant floral contour beadwork can be…  Read more

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Daily Art Moment: Kim Yikyung

A photograph of soft-white, spherical-shaped jar that is subtly elongated vertically. It has a raised, upright lip that flares ever so slightly on a wide mouth. The base or foot is narrower than the mouth but mirrors its simple shape. Subtle striations run horizontally around the body of the jar giving the appearance of very faint texture. The jar is pictured against a gray background.

“Artist Kim Yikyung draws inspiration from Korea’s ceramic past in her work, particularly the pristine white porcelains of the Joseon period (1392–1910). This moon jar, a signature shape of late-Joseon pottery, was created by throwing two large bowls that are then luted together and completed with a strong foot. Typical of Kim Yikyung’s practice, it…  Read more