Extra Credit: Rosicrucian Egyptian Museum

Thomas Tiernan

Extra Credit

Rosicrucian Egyptian Museum

            Egyptian art from the Ancient Mediterranean Worlds has always interested me from the start. The Rosicrucian Egyptian Museum is located on the outskirts of downtown San Jose. They have an auditorium, a museum, and a pretty garden. The buildings are architecturally designed to look Egyptian, which added a nice mood to the environment. The museum had hundreds of artifacts most of which was real, but some were copies. The most interesting part about the museum was how they had real mummified Egyptians and animals on display. One of the mummies on display was the Mummy of Nesimin. The man who was mummified was a semi-priest and scribe named Nesimin. The patterns painted on Neisimin’s wrappings replicated the bead nets that were wrapped around mummies in earlier years. The coffin the body was in was X rayed so one can see the actual skeleton inside the coffin. The facial mask was impressively made out of gold but no semiprecious stones.

            Special ornaments were used not only to benefit the living, but were used to protect the body during their journey to the after life. Egyptians believe strongly in the after life and they bury themselves with all of their treasures, in order to have those treasures in the after life. The ornaments and amulets had beautiful paintings of birds and gods. The large amulets were made of cartonnage which is linen mixed with plaster.

          

           A painting I also saw at the museum was an actual painting, which was discovered in the ruins of a sculptor’s workshop in Akhenaten, Egypt. I did not see many paintings but out of the all the paintings I saw, this one was preserved the best. The painting is called “The Love Idol” and it is a famous limestone bust of Nefertiti by a famous Egyptian artist, Thutmosis. Nefertiti was the queen of the Pharaoh Akhenaten and is very important in Egyptian history.

            Last, I took a picture of a Heart Scarab Amulet. It was very small, but was the best looking amulet of the group. The Scarab amulet was meant to ensure passage to the afterlife. The amulet looked very similar to an actual Scarab insect, because Egyptians were very astute observers of nature. The details in the wings of the amulet were amazing and the turquoise color of the amulet brought the piece to life.

            I really enjoyed learning more about Egyptian art, and I suggest many people to visit this museum. Included are pictures I took from the museum and a bonus picture of mummified baboon.

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Extra Credit: San Jose Museum of Art

Thomas Tiernan

Extra Credit

San Jose Museum of Art

            I was expecting the San Jose Museum of Art to be relatively big, considering there are a Tech and Children’s museums within a few blocks of the museum. After touring the whole building, I was not impressed. I thought I would see hundreds of different famous paintings by artists from all around the world, but, unfortunately, I did not. There was an exhibit at the museum where Jitish Kallat used flat breads cut out in the different phases of the moon starting from September 1936. There was a cut out flat bread for each day of the month. Kallat did this for every month until December 1998. It was stunning to see all the art lined up into one room, and at first I had no idea the image was of bread. Kallat believes his exhibit is a “product of nature and culture; it reflects family traditions and marks our memories” (Kallat). Kallat works in Mumbai and employs a bold and vivid visual language that references both Asian and Europeans artistic traditions. He also incorporates popular advertising imagery that fuels consumerism into his art.

            Another food related artwork I saw was done by Sita Kuratomi Bhaumik. The exhibit was called “Dear Indian Grocery Store Under the Freeway”. By using curry powder and adhesive, Bhaumik was able to create a mural on the wall. The most interesting part about this mural, was the second you walked into the room, you could smell it. By using curry powder and other spices, Bhaumik creates a scented mural from the pattern of fabric that wrapped around a gift box he once received. His interest in incorporating smell with his art came from the common negative connection the smell of curry is made with people of Indian descent. I appreciate his use of one of the 5 senses, because smell is often the hardest to incorporate in art.

            William T. Wiley did the next painting that I enjoyed. He used acrylic and pencil on canvas. The constant motion of bright different colors really brought the art to life. The artwork was titled Leviathan II and was made in 1990. William T. Wiley is a contemporary artist whose art is referred to as Funk art. The focus of the painting seems to be the dolphin like object in the center of the painting. Underneath the dolphin there seem to be a picture of the world. What made this painting stand out from the others was the use and choice of colors almost made the painting seem like it was underwater.

            

          The San Jose Museum of Art was different from what I was expecting to see, but was a new experience for me. Having an open mind is important because with art, you never know what you are going to get.

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"Rembranding" Himself in the 20th Century: Assignment 12

Assignment 12

Thomas Tiernan

Rembrandt

            Rembrandt Harmenszoon van Rijn was a Dutch painter and etcher born in July 1606. He is considered one of the greatest European art painters and easily the most important artist in Dutch history. Rembrandt always lived a humble life and his full potential was not brought to light until the mid 20^th century. Rembrandt was extremely talented in self portraits and illustration of scenes from the Bible. It was not until 1631 did Rembrandt receive his first important commission for his painting, “the Anatomy Lesson of Dr. Tulp”. This was a big step forward from Rembrandt’s usual religious and mythological paintings. I personally enjoy this picture because it shows the honest interest the students have of science. The way they are leaning over a deceased body in a dim lit room is well drawn. Most of Rembrandt’s paintings from the 1630’s maintain optimistic and self-assuring feelings in spite of their brutality. One of his most important paintings was “Night Watch” which was created in 1642. Rembrandt wanted to produce a feeling of movement and thus did not paint the subjects on a neat line. The painting seems very similar to the Italian Renaissance with large amounts of very detailed people gathered in public. To my surprise, this painting was a public failure and in the 1640’s the public noticed a decrease in Rembrandt paintings. After his wife’s death, Rembrandt began to focus on landscape. For example, “Winter Scene” was a surprising painting from Rembrandt.  He seemed to ignore contemporary art and relied heavily on the art from the past. I enjoyed this picture because the mood felt different than most of his previous works. The change from the dark color to brighter colors worked very well, and I wish Rembrandt produced more landscape paintings in his earlier works.

   

  

The Price is Right: Assignment 11

Assignment 11

Thomas Tiernan

Price is Right

            The business of auctioning off very rare artworks to the incredibly wealthy is a booming business. If I were an expert on art, I would love to get into this business. Recently, Francis Bacon’s “Three Studies of Lucian Freud” was sold for $142.4 million to Acguavella Galleries in Manhattan. The painting was created late in Bacon’s career (1969) and it depicts Freud sitting in three different poses. Christie’s originally estimated the work to $85 million, which was low considering it was sold for $86 million in 2008.  The same day, Jeff Koons, a conceptual contemporary artist, sold his orange balloon dog sculpture for $58.4 million making him the highest-grossing living artist. The sculpture stands 12 feet high and is crafted out of stainless steel in order to resemble the shine from a balloon. The sculpture displays Koon’s desire to re-create the experience of a child’s joy. 

           In 2012, “The Scream” by Edvard Munch’s was sold for $120 million making it the record highest sale. Many people did not believe the 1969 triptych would surpass the $120 million, but they were all in for a surprise. “The Scream” was sold to a mystery winner who apparently won over the phone. The painting was one of four, and the only one that was privately owned. The owner was Petter Olsen, a Norwegian businessman whose father was a direct friend and neighbor of the artist. 

        Another famous painting that was sold recently was Andy Warhol’s “Silver Car Crash (Double Disaster)”. It sold for $105 million even though it was expected to sell for $60-80 million. The 1963 painting captures the aftermath of a car accident and has only been seen once in public in the past 26 years.  

         In 2006, famous casino owner Steve Wynn agreed to sell his Picasso painting, “Le Reve” for $155 million. This was a private sale, not done through auctions, and apparently Steven Wynn accidentally ripped the painting by pushing his elbow through the painting. The painting was of Picasso’s mistress, Marie Therese Walter, and it reminds me of the classic Picasso we all think about.

Another Picasso painting, which was sold for exuberant amounts of money, was, “Nude, Green Leaves and Bust” which sold for $106.5 million in 2010. This painting had a lot of history because it was included in the great Zervos catalogue of Picasso’s work and even went underground during World War II, but was then bought in 1951 by and American couple.

In conclusion, the more well known the artist; the larger the price tag. Art can be worth more than thousands of diamonds but only when drawn by the remembered. The business of selling art can be extremely profitable, but the barriers to enter this market are too high.

How Did Egyptians Get So Good at Art? : Assignment 10

Assignment 10

Thomas Tiernan

Egypt

            Egyptian art is jaw dropping and at the same time very mysterious. The use of symbolism in their art is vast. The general message found in Egyptian art is continuity or a “seamless span of time reaching back into history and forward into future” (Getlein). One of the well-known products of Egyptian art is the Sphinx. The sphinx symbolizes stability, order, and endurance. It was created around 2530 B.C.E. and stands 66 feet tall. The sphinx has the body of a cat, but the head of a Egyptian pharaoh. The reason behind why some of these magnificent statues are made is to act as a form of continuity for the person who is deceased.

Egyptian architecture seemed almost too advanced for their time. The most famous architectural creation of Egypt is the pyramid. The pyramids were used as a temple to worship the deceased ruler who has rejoined the gods. The Great Pyramid of Giza is the oldest and largest pyramid of the three in Giza, Egypt. The Great Pyramid was created around 2560 B.C.E for the 4^th dynasty Pharaoh Khufu. For 3800 years the Great Pyramid remained the tallest man made structure in the world.

Lastly, the Egyptian burial masks are amazing examples of Egyptian art. Made out of gold, the burial mask for Tutankhamen is simply stunning. Gold in Egyptian signified more than wealth, it was associated with the rays of the sun. The mask is almost 3 feet tall and is inlaid with blue glass and semiprecious stones. Since gold could never go bad, the Egyptians used a solid gold coffin and burial mask as a means to confer immortality. Royalty were usually buried with their treasures in order to continue to live lavishly in their after life.

Egyptian art interested me as soon as we first learned about Egypt in elementary school. I have recently been to the Egyptian Art Museum in San Jose and will have another blog post about my experience there.