Event #3 San Diego Museum of Art

    This week I had the opportunity to explore the San Diego Museum of Art, and found many connections to what we have learned in this Desma 9 course. The art that really appealed to me and made me think of ideals we have learned in this class was the section of the museum with abstract art. I particular enjoyed this painting by the American Frank Stella. The piece of artwork is called Flin Flon VIII, and is an acrylic on canvas. I was able to learn more about this man, and found it interesting that he first began with just black and white canvases in his exhibits, but then later on his artwork changed and he began to integrate color in his compositions. I found this painting below to be interesting because it explores color, form, as well as pattern. All of these together remind me of an optical illusion. This artwork by Frank Stella reminds me of the week we learned about the intersection of mathematics and art. This painting uses many geometrical shapes, and the artist obviously used much mathematics in order to get these figures and shapes just right. He many times used geometry in his work, and has also done a “geometric variations” exhibition. Without math, his artwork would not be accomplished.

    Another abstract artist that I enjoyed seeing at the Museum of Art was Salvador Dali. His piece the Specter of the Evening, was one of the most intriguing and different paintings that I was able to see at the museum. When reading about the artist, I found it interesting that Dali was fascinated with Freud’s psychoanalytical theories, and put them into his art work. He constantly compared the unreal or unexpected objects in his masterpieces. In the picture below, Dali is bringing up Freudian ideas of dreams and hallucinations. In this piece, he shows death and decay- which correlates with psychoanalytical theories of Freud. This artwork correlates with course material because we learned about Freud when we did the Neuroscience and art lecture. In the course, we learned how Freud divided the mind into the conscious and subconscious, and he believed that the subconscious was very important because it revealed details about the self. Dali creates these images of what he sees in his subconscious, shows how he was directly influenced by Freud.

   The last abstract artwork that I found to be very fascinating as well as correlated to the course was Oskar Fischinger’s “Light Area, Motion in Space.” (pictured below) Oskar Fishchinger, upon learning more about him, was an abstract painter who was notable for inventing abstract musical animations way before computer graphics and music videos came out. I felt that this painting really correlated with what we learned during the week of mathematics and art. These geometric structures that are displayed in the painting give meaning and purpose. Each of the designs are set in a specific place, that the artist believes is geometrically the best. Not only did Fischinger contribute to the abstract art community, but he also did much work in the abstract film industry as well. These ideas of manipulating different shapes, as well as light, is also seen in his films. These mathematical concepts play a very important and influential role in Fishchinger’s abstract art. I believe that mathematics and neuroscience topics have played a very important role in this course, and I have seen the connection in many pieces of art.

Proof that I attended the San Diego Museum of Art:

Citations

"Frank Stella on Abstract Art Framed." Frank Stella on Abstract Art Framed. N.p., n.d. Web. 30 July 2014.

"Mathematics-pt1-ZeroPerspectiveGoldenMean.mov." YouTube. YouTube, n.d. Web. 30 July 2014.

"Modern and Contemporary Art." San Diego Museum of Art. N.p., n.d. Web. 30 July 2014.

"Oskar Fischinger: Artist of the Century Iota." Oskar Fischinger: Artist of the Century Iota. N.p., n.d. Web. 30 July 2014.

"Salvador Dali." Surreal Years. Art, Paintings, and Works. N.p., n.d. Web. 29 July 2014.