As I was walking through the Palmer Museum of Art and observing the different styles of paintings, sculptures, etc. many pieces caught my attention. The Peacock Blue and Yellow Seaform Set with Yellow Lip Wraps by American artist Dale Chihuly, which is a seaform made of blown glass, the Thompson and Bleecker Streets by American painter George Luks, which is a nice oil on canvas painting of an open-air market in a working class neighborhood in lower Manhattan in the year 1905, and finally Sarah Bernhardt from Rebus by Brazilian American artist Vik Muniz, which is a colorful picture of French actress Sarah Bernhardt. Out of these three pieces, Sarah Bernhardt from Rebus is my favorite. This is one of the first pieces you will see when you enter the second level of the Palmer Museum of Art. Even after looking around the at the rest of the art on the second level, I was drawn back to it. I just couldn’t stop looking at this amazing piece!
Sarah Bernhardt was a French actress who lived from October 22, 1844 to March 26 1923. She was born in Paris, France as Rosine Bernhardt (Sarah Bernhardt is her stage name). She is known as “the most famous actress the world has ever known”. Sarah was also given the nickname “The Divine Sarah” because she was a serious dramatic actress. She has been in many famous plays and films and even after getting her entire right leg amputated in 1911, it didn’t stop her from ending her career. Bernhardt also has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame which is located at 1751 Vine Street.
Sarah Bernhardt is from the Rebus Series which was made in 2010 by Brazilian American artist Vik Muniz. The Rebus Series is a collection of pictures that are made of toys. From far away, Sarah Bernhardt looks like a colorful painting of the beautiful actress who has a nice gown on and is leaning on a chair. When you walk up closer to the piece, you will see that in fact paint is not being used to portray her but instead it is toys! You can’t help but be amazed at how this picture tricked your mind into thinking it is made of paint when it is really made of toys. I felt like I was looking at a page in an I Spy book as I was looking at the picture and finding objects that I recognized. While looking at the picture, I came up with a list of some of the different toys that I saw on this piece of art. Here is what I saw: Letters in the alphabet, dominos, Shrek & Fiona, toy animals, dice, chess pieces, toy airplanes, Lego’s, Spongebob, Eve from the movie Wall-e, toy animals, toy soldiers, toy cars, Pez dispensers, jacks, palm trees, and beads.
Vik Muniz was born on December 20th in 1961 in Sao Paulo, Brazil. He moved to New York in the late 1980s after being shot in the leg and using the compensation money from his injury to fund the trip. He currently lives and works in New York City. He originally was a sculptor but grew more of an interest in photography. Muniz has worked with many different materials such as dirt, diamonds, sugar, string, garbage, and even chocolate syrup to create images. His works have been exhibited worldwide and his solo show at MAM in Rio de Janeiro was second in the attendance record (Picasso is first).
I thought it was very cool and creative how Vik Muniz was able to use these different toys to create a beautiful and colorful picture of Sarah Bernhardt. It shows viewers that you can really take anything and make it into a beautiful form of art. By using toys to portray images I think Vik is trying to tell viewers to be young and enjoy your life because “you are only young once”. When you look at his Rebus Series, you kind of feel like a kid again because you are looking at pictures made of toys and it brings you back to the days when you used to look at I Spy books and have competitions with your friends to see who can find the objects the quickest.
I really enjoyed my first trip to the Palmer Museum of Art. My mother and I have been going to the Philadelphia Museum of Art regularly since I was little because its only 45 minutes from my house so I’ve pretty much always been a museum-goer. Out of all the exhibits I have seen at Philadelphia Museum of Art, my favorite exhibit by far is the Vincent Van Gogh exhibit. I was like a kid in a candy store when I went to see it. I really enjoyed looking at all of his paintings and I didn’t want to leave. Anyway, I’ll definitely be taking my mother to see the Palmer Museum of Art. I know she will enjoy it as much as I did.
Here are some pictures I took at the museum of Sarah Bernhardt from Rebus Series:
Works Cited
The painting you chose is very unique and interesting, it caught my eye at the museum as well. Your in depth background information and analysis do a great job of explaining the creativity of it. I also like how you included a lot of close-ups and photos from different angles, as I was reading it was helpful to glance down at the pictures and see exactly what you were referring to.
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ReplyDeleteWow this piece of art looks amazing! :D I don't know where I was if I passed by this one at somepoint I'm sad I missed it! Well you did a great summary of the background information! Now I know who the lady in the center of the image is! Hmmm.. maybe though since this design of the picture is so intricate the meaning of the picture is more intricate as well. Why would the artist choose to depict this young lady out of toys? She being an actress and a star for that matter probably did not have much of a social "fun" life out of the eyes of the public I assume. Also the look on her face in this toy portrait interest me aswell. Her face isn't smiling, or glowing liek a young lady's should now is it? By that I feel that the artist is trying to show that having the fame and the fortune and the "glitz" of the high life maybe isn't what everyone needs. That people like her sometimes wish they could just simply play with toys, and be around family and live a normal life.There are so many things to pull out of this artwork.It's and interesting choice of art to look at and you overall did an awesome job on your post!! I'm going to have to go back and look at this one!
I'm really glad that you provided an ample amount of pictures for this piece of art, especially the close-up shots because it is so interesting to observe the little pieces that make up the larger image. It's funny that you say it reminded you of an I Spy book because I thought the exact same thing! The background that you wrote about in your analysis was helpful because as I looked at it, I wasn't really sure why it was created. The meaning that you found in it brought the whole piece together. Thanks for sharing!
ReplyDeleteThis piece struck me when I saw it as well. This abstract portrait wasn't just visually appealing to me, but extremely fun to pick out which toys I was familiar with. :) The background information you gave both about the artist and painting made me even more interested. Great job!
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