The Beautiful Menil.

 

The Menil was very plain yet simplistic. It was very modern like. The front entrance was very high up. the size made the building look grand. It's weird that they decided to paint the building white and grey; dull colors. My favorite part of the building is the very front entrance way. When you look up you see these very intricate shapes in the architecture. I think that Renzo Piano wanted the Menil to be very spatious. I think that he accomplished this idea, because that is exactly what it feels like to be inside the Menil. 

The piece that I am discussing is the Dan Flavin installation. We walked into this open space with green, yellow, pink, and blue florescent lights mounted to the walls. It seemed as though the space was overly large. I felt that this type of art was non representational. I find it very weird that the artist Dan Flavin did not alter the original structure of the room. It even looks as though he just installed the florescent lights, which he did. I honestly feel the meaning of the is just to be decorative.

The Menil Collection Project

The  Menil Collection was very peaceful. The architecture of the building was very unique. The color of the building highlight with white gives a heavenly feeling. The sunlight beaming in from the sunroof was also very relaxing. The floors in the museum were wooden. The floor air vents were also plated with wood match the flooring.This museum is different from other museums because the it uses space to compliment the art. I honestly believe the Renzo Piano wanted the visitors to feel relaxed before entering the museum. The building structure and landscaping is very heavenly in my opinion.


Work of Art

Artist:Max Ernst

Completion Date: 1942

Place of Creation:United States

Style:Surrealism

Period:American period

Genre:symbolic painting

Technique:oil

Material: canvas

Dimensions: 195 x 233 cm

I was very impressed with how the colors popped out in this painting.This portrait is abstract. I believe the role of this piece is to force us to use our imagination. It's obvious that the main focus is art and painting but it's hard to determine what is actually painting in the portrait.  It's very surreal. I don't think the portrait has a specific culture. I think it represents Art as a whole.

WêïrÐø

Quirky and provocative, Robert Crumb's drawings are not easily forgotten. Victor Mosocoso, a friend of Crumb, commented that when he first viewed the drawings "[He] couldn't tell if it was an old man drawing young, or a young man drawing old." His "comic strip" style appeals more to those how do not find great pleasure in "serious art", however, his drawings do not lack depth in meaning. His work reminds me of political cartoons; they amuse the audience to get their attention, yet adequately deliver the private agendas of the cartoonist. Crumb utilizes this most of the time to convey his views about women. He creates characters, like Devil Girl, that are overly sensual, but nonetheless, are very strong. Meanwhile, his own persona is feeble and lanky man that is clearly attracted to the strength of the women. Through his drawing style, Crumb is able to attract a variety of viewers, from those who understand the meaning to those who merely get a nice little chuckle at the antics of his characters. 

An interesting trip to Menil Collection Museum

The first impression I had was the building harmonizes really well with its surroundings. The building does not stand itself but matches up with the colors, the architect, and so on with other smaller business offices. That first feeling may be due to the path I chose to go to the museum. I did not go straight to the main door of the building, but the smaller path leading to the side of the building instead.


The building is hid properly behind a huge and really old oak tree, which made me think of the tree, the green background, and the nature rather than the Menil Collection Meseum. I was so excited because of the trees that the building looks small compared with the place to me. Renzo Piano chose white and gray color for the building. The colors of the Menil Collection Museum forms the unity of its neighborhood with itself when every office is based on those colors too.

Another element creating this location unity is by the glasses siding around the building. Those high and the same size glasses reflect the place so well that when visitors walk on the side walks, they will experience another green-zone on the glasses. The space seems to be doubled by those glasses. Moreover, the main and back door are covered by big glasses, which makes the comers approaching into the inside see pretty well the trees and offices reflected on the glass-wall and feel like they are going into a house and expecting a lot of trees inside.
Another kind of unity that the museum visitors may realize is the exterior design of the museum.

 The white wave-ceiling runs along side with the building, letting the sunlight get through the building naturally. The wave-shaped ceiling also contributes another element of nature into the existing neighborhood.

By doing some research before I went to themuseum, I expected to see how Renzo Piano could make the small area look really big inside, “small on the outside, but be as big as possible inside”. A dark-stained pine floor seems to be opposite with the pure-white walls, but suitable and impressed with the first collection on the front wall that everybody will see when he or she comes in by the main door. The first collection insists of four different shapes made of wood and having the same color with the floor, creating the unity for the inside. The simple interior lets the collections to be emphasized perfectly. Dominique de Menil wanted visitors to enjoy the works as she see them in her house, and Renzo Piano achieved that goal. He applied waves-shaped ceiling, so the pieces of art can be seen with natural light from the sun. I spent a lot of time investigating the pictures or statues simply because I felt like I was at home. At night, they will be lighted up by lights placed along side with the waves on the ceiling. The glasses make the inside space be greater because the visitors can see the trees outside. Renzo Piano successfully widened the building. For example, by simply placing a small white certain letting a little of sunlight get through it, the architect made me want to go straight to an illusionary room to see other works. The truth about the small room was only revealed when I stood right in front of the curtain and identified it.
I was so excited while I was going around and experiencing the widened space by a collection consisting of significant black rectangular or square block painted by painstick. Placing those huge pieces of art makes the visitors experience different feelings of space. For example, in this room, the artist placed two black blocks parallel with each other, in the next room, two other black blocks perpendicular with each other, and so on. The section that best triggered my excitement was this.

 I believed I was going down a slope when I was going into the end of this room. The change of color into a darker one which is perfectly matches up with the black color on the walls on the floor also broadens the space so well. The sloped down black blocks on the walls “cheats” me again and again. Even I had realized that the floor never slopes down, I still believed that I was going on a slope. Art is so wonderful!

　

The work named Nocturne best awoke my feelings. Rene Magritte used oil to paint the Nocturne on canvas, and he finished it in 1925. It size is about 1.6 ft*1.5 ft. The picture is abstract. The artist reveals his loneliness, his efforts to get away from it, and his crying for help. Viewers may be confused which one is the real picture because he drew one picture inside his real work. The picture in picture brings a story with specific script on a show, telling its audience about Rene Magritte’s loneliness and escaping struggle. Its audience may think anything placed on a stage is unreal. Nevertheless, the artist uses the link between truth and untruth and reality and unreality to help the viewers see the short distance as a second between them. You can hardly tell what is wrong or right and decide what you should do. Main character of the picture, which may depict the artist himself, is a red bird flying out from the inside picture to escape from a burning house standing alone on water
. Rene Magritte chose dark-red color for the bird to show the pain that the bird or himself is suffering from. Also, by painting the bird with the same color as the curtain’ s, he creates the unity of the picture. The white statue with five stripes seems to be the focal point, due to the implied lies, which are the direction of the frame, especially the width of the frame, and the bird. That statue may be humans that the bird or himself is expecting to get help, or a musical instrument that can help him to relax and get away from the busy world that he is living at.

Menil Collection

                                              



                                                                                  

                Renzo Piano (1982)
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I believe the purpose for this Menil was to show the talent of local Houston artist. When I went to the Menil building the first thing I notice was the outside beauty. It was white and clean looking , I love how the light shine through to give the inside of the building and amazing glow. The feel of the building on the outside was a really quite and relaxing feeling. Just made me want to hurry up and get on the inside. I like all the color paintings and photos.




            
                  Danny Lyon Lianito, New Mexico 1970
                    The Menil Collection , Houston Tx
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This photo is representational because the image is very clear. This photo caught my attention because I love how it is back and white the color defines the history the artist was trying to betray. I could tell the political statement Lyon was addressing in this photo as he did in a lot of his work. I love how he could describe Art and history in one photo. The photo is very unique because I like how he shows the building, truck, and nature. Im not sure all he was trying to say in the photo, it looks like even if your life looks black and white like the person in the photo you still have to come outside and smell the fresh breeze of nature.