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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