In week 9, we took a virtual visit to the “blue.” Exhibit at Nassau Museum. This exhibit highlights pieces of art that have the color blue as a focal point. The color blue is transcendent in art history, appearing in pieces dating back to ancient Egypt, Hindu, Chinese, and Western times.
The sources in which the various hues of blue have been created come from precious earth materials such as cobalt, lapis lazuli, and azurite. The “blue.” exhibit is a collection of works– new , old, and everything in between from all corners of the world.
One of the pieces that stood out to me was from Henri Matisse. Nu Blue II is a cutout of a human figure reduced to its most essential shaped. This one is of a woman, put together with 5 cutout shapes glued to a 3’10” by 2’11 canvas. It uses negative space to guide the viewer’s eye into believing there are more shapes than what is present to create the silhouette of a woman sitting in a curved manner.
The next piece that caught my attention is “Bulgy Pear” by Paul Klee. This is Gouache on paper, and 8 1/2 by 8 1/2 inches in size. This painting made me laugh a little bit because it feels like a silly interpretation of a pear. The pear appears to have a predominantly blue base with just a tint of yellow laid over which created texture for the skin of the pear. the background of the painting also seems to have a blue base with what seems like red paint thinly applied to warm the surrounding area. Using blue as a base and then applying hints of other primary colors to create a cohesive painting is an interesting concept to me.
The last piece from the “blue.” Exhibit that caught my attention is this cyanotype. The artist Han Qin created a series of cyanotypes that focus on an immigration theme. She draws inspiration inwardly, via her own experience moving from Hangzhou to Long Island. The cyanotype is huge, 3307 by 94.5 inches and was created by having her friends assume dance inspired poses on large sheets of rice paper for “Chinese Flavor”. The paper is washed in a solution for enhanced cyan to blue-purple colors from the exposure to sunlight. The abstract combination of bodies makes this piece feel haunting in a way, like outlines of bodies at a crime scene but at the same time, the white bodies floating around on the blue tinted canvas also makes the piece feel ethereal and dreamy, like clouds floating across the sky on a beautiful clear day.
This virtual visit to the Nassau Museum was interesting. I found it very difficult to navigate the exhibit and cohesively view all the pieces. Virtual museum experiences fall short in the ability to view the texture of a painting. I enjoy being able to see the lines of where the artist laid down the acrylic paint and all the layer it took to build the painting. In a virtual showing of a painting, there is a lack of dimension and texture that one would easily be able to see in real life. I also love when museums have an outdoor garden. The Nassau Museum has a very cool sculpture garden that I would have loved to see in person. The photographs of the sculpture garden are usually nothing like the real thing. I am hoping we can go back to visiting museums in person sometime soon.
