The Harn and the good life!

The Harn museum is a place where I examined myself and how humanity makes art to convey a message. It was a great experience to be able to attend, and I will explain how different pieces of art created an impact in me.

A great artwork that I found interesting was a face mask of the people of Congo, called Kuba. The mask is from the 20th century. Seeing it in person enhances the experience where I was able to appreciate it more because I could look at it from different perspectives. I could see more the details and the imperfections, I could tell what material is made of. I helpmeet better understand how detailed it was and have an idea of how it was made. Kuba was made of wood, pigments, fabric, shells, beads and feathers. The technique that it was so striking is that they used shells and feathers in their masks. The shells made it look quite nice and it told me that they may have been a culture from the coast of Congo. The art communicated power, believes, rituals. When I first saw it I was really interested in seeing what it was made of, and it looked like a mayan civilization mask or some type of old tribe. It felt that those masks were made for people with a high hierarchy.

The exhibit that was appealing to me was the Latin American one. Not because of the art work, or how it was arranged, or the lightning, but because It felt like home. I come from latin America, and seeing art from different latin countries reminded me of my country. There was no art from my country, but there were many that looked like art from there. There was a particular painting from a Cuban, called Cuarteto Habanero, which resembled the same type of paintings as Guayasamin from my country, Ecuador. Overall, the museum was really modern and pretty, most places looked the same, there was no particular space that called my attention just because of lighting or the design of the rooms.

An artwork that described many emotions was Manhattan by George Grosz. When I saw it, I felt sorrow and at the same time it empowered me. The oil painting was laking colors, it was mostly grey just as we are turning our world, into a polluted place full of concrete. It had clouds and smog, which made me think how much we are damaging our world and ourselves. This made me feel sad and angry, but it gave me an opportunity to reexamine myself to be able to change the way I Iive and to seek a better world. As an environmental engineer I will be able to make those changes, but the painting made me feel that we need more people that are environmentally conscious, for the sake of our species and for what is socially just.

The photograph that gave me an understanding of what the good life is, was the Sheep Wranglers from Justine Kurland. This is an idyllic pastoral setting where people are enjoying life next to a tree in the grass with sheep. This indicates a balance in life between humans and nature, which is what we need in todays world. Animals seem happy and the people too. Although in the picture there are only women, I still saw it as a conjunction of humans and the natural environment. I felt peace and made me think about an utopic world where no animal has to be mistreated and no tree has to be cut, a place where everyone is happy and focuses on the things they like and not the ones they need.

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