“Art and Identity: The Museum of Modern Art”

The Museum of Modern Art better known as MoMA, is an spectacular museum where we can see, explore, and admire the creations of different artists. Our art class was taken to the museum to observe the exhibitions of "Cindy Sherman" and "The Contemporary Galleries: 1980-now." It was very fun to walk around between these exhibitions because as open mind viewers we can quickly notice what kind of art an artist uses to express their feelings, or thoughts. The main goal of the class was to describe how the artist are personally, culturally, and historically related to their pieces of art.

First, an artist is personally connected to an artwork when they incorporate something personal in the elaboration of that specific piece of art. The artist Mariko Mori has created the "star Doll" to probably demonstrate how much she likes dolls or perhaps this dolls are somehow connected to her childhood. It is obvious that there is an insightful connections between Mori and the dolls because if you think outside the box and go a bit further than the observations at the museum and do some researches about her, you will find out that she has make many different type of dolls.

Second,  as we know all cultural art, believes, and tradition are related to an individual background and heritage.  Tadanori Yokoo,created a beautiful piece of art by painting something about Japanese culture. In this painting she illustrate the "Japanese Culture of the Post War Year 1945-1995," so when she or another Japonese see this painting will remember what was happening in Japan during that time. Moreover, Yokoo also incorporated the tittle of the painting in it to guide the rest of the viewers that did not know about it since the drawing is too colorful.

Finally, historical events are easy to recognize because it just happened at that time, and it stays in the past.  For instance, if someone wants to represent the Native Americans he just need to take some fabric and feathers and dress like an Indian, and as long as it is not offensive that person is historically representing the Native Americans. So, in this case,  Stephen Armellino created the "Bullet-Resistant Mask". These masks were used by police officers to protect their faces during the 1980's due to the violence wave in that time. Indeed, these masks are a historical symbol because today police officers do not need to wear them no more.

In conclusion, artist use their artwork to represent something related with them, the community or time which could be past, present or future. What I really liked about the Contemporary Galleries was that all those artists are very realistic with their paintings and viewers like me can feel it. In the other hand, people should keep their cultural traditions up like Tadanori Yokoo because it is simply beautiful to teach children about their heritage. After our field trip to MoMA, I have a different a opinion about museums. 

Artworks:

Mariko mori.

"Star Doll."

Multiple of dolls

1998.

 

Tadanori Yokoo.

"Japanese Culture of the Post War Year 1945-1995."

Silkcream.

1996.

 

Stephen Armellino.

"Bullet-Resistant Mask. "

Keviar and polyester resin.

1983.