Essay Examples on Museum Paper

1st Essay Sample on Museum Paper

The piece I have chosen is an oil painting by Chuck Close entitled Robert, made in 1997. I observed it at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (SFMOMA). The painting, which measures an enormous 102 by 84 inches, is a straightforward portrait of one of Close’s friends and fellow (pop) artists Robert Rauschenberg, although its dazzling style and ingenious execution are anything but straightforward. The subject matter is typical of Chuck Close: a large, frontal view of a person’s head.

The technique of the piece reflects Close’s later style, where the painting is divided into a diagonal grid in which each square contains an assortment of painted geometric shapes, ranging widely in colors, many of which, curiously enough, are not even normally found on the human face (green, violet, blue, etc.).

However, when observed from a distance, the many separate squares and the varying shapes and colors within them seem to merge together to form a complete, convincing human face.

The individual conflicting colors disappear and, oddly enough, the familiar pigments and features of the human face are readily visible. Like most of his portraits, Chuck Close shows his subject from a close, disorienting vantagepoint. Robert Rauschenberg’s grinning face fills up nearly the entire space of the canvas, leaving only the corners open to a black background. The face in Robert was not painted in the typical way most artist would paint a face – that is, namely, by painting specific details like the shape of the head, the eyes, the nose, mouth, etc.

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Instead, the canvas was divided into thousands of squares, each mere inches across. Close paints a background color for each square from top to bottom, ranging from deep reds and blues to light yellows and greens. He then starts again at the top, painting in each square an array of loose shapes like squares, circles, diamonds, lozenges, etc., in the same range of vivid colors.

2nd Essay Sample on Museum Paper

This object is a portion of a palace wall relief.The function of this relief wall in the palace is to serve as decoration and as a depiction of the king performing some of his duties.According to the museum, the palace relief was made out of limestone rock.The piece was part of a large wall, therefore the wall must have been constructed before the artist came in and carved the relief using chisels of bronze and copper and a hammer.The artist must have used chisels of different sizes and shapes to create the magnificent detail represented in this relief.The wall was left bare, not painted as there was no indication of paint or color.The head of the human figure was about double of a normal persons head, therefore the figure must have been very large.According to the museum, when the figure was part of the original wall it stood approximately 8 ? ft tall. This piece belongs to the Assyrian culture in the Late Period of the Ancient Near East (1000 to 330 b.c.).When Ifirst saw this piece I automatically thought of the lamassu that we looked at in class.The shape of the beard, wings on the persons back, horns on the headdress, and the hyperrealism depicted in each part gave me the indication of where and when this piece was created.Nothing in this piece seems unusual for this culture.The horns on the headdress of this man (Assunasirpal II, King of the Assyrian’s) resembles that of the Babylon culture.The Stela of Hammurabi of the previous Babylon Empire shows this same horned crown and shows how this past culture influenced the Assyrian art.This was an artistic convention used by artists in this area to depict a man or god of great importance.The museum information indicated this piece was from the Neo-Assyrian Era.According to our book, this period is referred to differently, so I would have to disagree with the museums description on time period.