Medium of the Art
The Figuras Constructivas painting was the most striking to me due to its complexity, if you will. At a quick glance, one can assume that the artist just put together geometric figures and colors randomly. However, when you step back, stare at the painting and focus, you can see two "abstracted human figures", as the description of the painting states. If one takes the time to appreciate the art, as Jeanette Winterson in "Art Objects" suggests, you start seeing something form within the painting. What made me like this painting is that the artist put an everyday image in terms of simple geometric shapes, which is analogous to the representation of everyday human life.
Design of the Museum
The museum does a good job at representing a lot of cultures with different wings dedicated to different continents including Africa, Asia, and North/South America. My favorite wing of the museum was the Latin American one. There was no specifically obvious arrangement of the art, but I liked how they separated some of the art by country and by specific artists. The selection of art portrays how the people of Latin America view life, which gives insight to the difference in quality of life. The art also speaks to how Latin people fight or celebrate their "good life," which can often differ from what we see. As a person who is part of the Latin community, I can attest to the difference in cultures through personal experience; however, for those who are not, this wing gives people some type of understanding of these differences and cultures.
Art and Core Values
This piece by Cárdenas speaks to my core value of the importance of family. The pictured art portrays a family containing two parents and a child, with no specific gender. The parents are holding the child between them closely, depicting a close relationship among them. I can relate to this piece because of how close I am with my own family, specifically my parents, due to being the only girl and the youngest. When I came across this piece, I got a sense of nostalgia because I had not seen my parents in a while. My moving to Gainesville was a hard transition, for lack of better words, due to the fact that I had not been apart from my parents for such a long period of time.
Art and the Good Life
I chose this piece for this section because it represents the artist's way of fighting for his good life and by doing so, sharing his good life. This piece depicts the artist himself alongside Frida Kahlo and his boyfriend, Gerardo. At the time of the painting, 1983, homosexuality was still heavily frowned upon. Despite that, Zenil always made his homosexuality obvious especially through his art. By portraying his partner in his paintings, he choses to ignore society's norms against homosexuality. With this, Zenil is fighting for his good life, by choosing his happiness above anything. By sharing his art and life through his art, he is sharing his good life with those who view his art, as a result.